SHADE by Jeri Smith-Ready

Posted by Jen on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 @ 2:32 pm

Oh, Shade. How I love thee. Let me count the ways!

From the moment I first heard about SHADE by Jeri Smith-Ready, I wanted to read it. The premise is awesome. Everyone in the world born after a certain point can see and talk to ghosts, most of the time to their annoyance, but when Aura’s (the main character) boyfriend dies in a tragic accident, he becomes a ghost, and she’s suddenly very, very glad that she is one of the many with this ability.

The thing that struck a chord with me about this story is how well the author was able to get inside the mind of a girl in this situation and how simultaneously happy and depressed she would be. Even though Logan (Aura’s boyfriend) was gone, it was like he was actually still there since she could see, hear and speak to him. Laugh with him. Listen to music with him. And even though Aura desperately needs to move on with her own life, if someone really could see and hear the ghost of a boyfriend, it would be so tempting to pretend that things were the same. That the person they loved was still here, even if not fully. It’s hard enough to let go when we lose someone we love. Imagine if they were kind of still around, haunting us and speaking to us. Smiling at us like they used to. It would be easy to get lost to that. And this is why I think SHADE is such a powerful novel because the author digs deep and explores what that experience would be like for someone. Just that alone creates an emotional roller-coaster of a ride which has really stuck with me (and, I admit, made me a little teary when reading).

Another thing that hooked me about this story is how fully realized the world is. How would the world be different if everyone sixteen and under could see ghosts? How would that affect the government? How would that affect life in general? How would something like this even happen? The author developed some really cool answers to these questions while leaving enough unsolved to make me hungry for more. As soon as I read the last page, I went online to see how many more books we would be getting because I can’t wait to learn more about this world and the characters in it.

In essence, an amazing YA debut from Jeri Smith-Ready. SHADE is a haunting, emotional and thrilling story with a plot that kept me turning pages well into the night.