Shadowcry Review

Title: Shadowcry (Wintercraft #1)


Author: Jenna Burtenshaw


Publication Date: 6/21/2011


My Rating: ★★★★★


Synopsis:


The Night of Souls—when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest—is only days away.

Albion is at war . . . and losing.

The wardens have descended, kidnapping innocent citizens for their army, but looking for one in particular.

And fifteen-year-old Kate Winters has just raised a blackbird from the dead.

As her home is torn apart by the wardens, Kate's discovery that she is one of the Skilled—the rare people who can cross the veil between life and death—makes her the most hunted person in all of Albion. Only she can unlock the secrets of Wintercraft, the ancient book of dangerous knowledge. Captured and taken to the graveyard city of Fume—with its secret tunnels and underground villages, and where her own parents met their deaths ten years ago—Kate must harness her extraordinary powers to save herself, her country, and the two men she cares for most. And she'll make a pact with a murderer to do it.

Those who wish to see the dark, be ready to pay your price.



I have already read this book, but since Blackwatch, the second in this series, has just come out I decided to read it again to really get the jist of everything again. Reading this book a second time I was just as thoroughly impressed and entranced by it as the first time I read it. That is why this book is on the list of my favorite series'.

For years Kate's hometown has been safe from a harvest, a time where wardens come and take people away to fight in the war that Albion is having with the Continent. Kate never thought that she'd have to face another harvest in her lifetime, especially after the last harvest took her parents away from her. Living in a bookshop with her uncle, Kate woke up a few days before the Night of Souls, a time when everyone celebrates and remembers the dead that have passed before them. She never thought that that that day would change her life forever. Wardens came into her town and her and another assistant named Edgar hid in the cellar of the bookshop. When a dead bird got revived in her very hands Kate didn't know what to think. But at that point everyone knew she was a part of the Skilled. A group of people that can see within the veil between life and death and can manipulate it. Her and Edgar had to flee from wardens that had gotten her uncle and while running she meets Silas Dane. A man who is not alive, yet not dead. He is the most feared person in Albion and Kate had the unfortunate pleasure of running into him.

After being taken by Silas into the city of Fume, Kate's journey picks up and there are all kinds of mishaps, deceitful people, and new things that Kate ends up going through. The journey to find Wintercraft, a book written by her ancestors and others of the Skilled, is the main point of her journey in this book. Once found, a whole nother world is revealed to Kate that she never dreamed was possible, and especially for her.

The way Jenna writes all of the scenes as well as all of the feelings that Kate has is just remarkable. I have only read a few books that keep me so engrossed in the story like this one has. The synopsis of this book is an amazing summary but even it doesn't give the book the justice it deserves. As the reader you will feel sympathy, anger, sadness, and excitement as you have never before with a book. And with the ending that it has? It will leave you wanting more! I am so glad that I re read this book and that I also already have the second book to start on!