Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Title: Shadowed Summer
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Reading Level: Young Adult, 12+
Publication Date: February 10, 2009
Pages: 183
Amazon Page

Rating: B
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 16/20
Writing - 18/20
Originality - 17/20
Entertainment - 7/10
Recommendation - 8/10
Total: 83/100

*Thanks to Saundra for sending me her book!

Summary:
Iris is ready for another hot, routine summer in her small Louisiana town, hanging around the Red Stripe grocery with her best friend, Collette, and traipsing through the cemetery telling each other spooky stories and pretending to cast spells. Except this summer, Iris doesn’t have to make up a story. This summer, one falls right in her lap. Years ago, before Iris was born, a local boy named Elijah Landry disappeared. All that remained of him were whispers and hushed gossip in the church pews. Until this summer. A ghost begins to haunt Iris, and she’s certain it’s the ghost of Elijah. What really happened to him? And why, of all people, has he chosen Iris to come back to?

Review:
I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel. I wasn't necessarily excited to read it and I didn't have really big expectations. My only expectations were that it was scary. I was expecting it to be, but it wasn't.

I liked the whole concept of the novel. Unsolved crime that turned ghost in a small isolated town in the south. It sounded interesting enough.

But . . . I had a few problems with Shadowed Summer. First of all, I felt the characters were young and immature. I've read a lot of books where the characters are fourteen years old or around that age, and I've just never felt that they are captured correctly. I'm fourteen. I don't consider myself immature, and I've never felt so . . . young. So it's not only Saundra, it's just the whole 13-15 age range.

Second thing is that it wasn't scary. I had expectations that it would be, but I wasn't scared at all. I don't read horror stories (like Carol) and I'm not really a scaredy cat, in terms. I get scared, I guess. But not as easily. I dunno about me, but I'm just not like that. So when I read this I thought it was a bit strange. Not necessarily exciting, but tricky. I have to admit I didn't have an idea what would happened in the end and I was a bit shocked of what happened, so kudos to Saundra for that. But I guess I felt the rest of it was just a tad bit . . . childish.

One thing I really, realllllly, loved about this novel, though, was the writing. It had the southern dialect. It was refreshing turn and it felt natural. I completely enjoyed that bit. I haven't read a book with different dialect like that, so it was really neat like that. Saundra Mitchell's writing, showed emotion, I felt it was realistic. I just really enjoyed her writing style and I expect to like it in the future!

K.

P.S. I just realized that this post is actually my 300th post on this blog! Who can believe it? Certainly not me! These last seven days have brought so many achievements on this blog for me, and hadn't even realized I was this close! I'm so thrilled that my blog has made it this far, and it wouldn't be anything with you. Thank you to anybody and everybody who is reading this right now! You haven't given me such pleasure in continuing to post regularly and comment and keep me wanting to do this! Thank YOU! <3