Author: Daniel José Older
Title: Shadowshaper
Narrator: Anika Noni Rose
Publication Info: Scholastic Audio (2015)
Summary/Review:
This young adult fantasy novel is set in Brooklyn and features a teenager named Sierra who discovers that her family is able to communicate with the spirit world through art. And it is up to her to save her family and community from an anthropologist who has learned their secrets and is now turning the spirits against them. The book is full of humor, truly sinister monsters, and believable world building.
It’s good in weaving traditional YA fantasy tropes in with Caribbean folklore and a young woman of color as the protagonist. It also works as a metaphor for contemporary issues such as gentrification and cultural appropriation.
Favorite Passages:
“hipsters are basically yuppies with tighter pants and bigger glasses.”
Recommended books: How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon, Mama Day
by Gloria Naylor, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, and Krik? Krak!
by Edwidge Danticat
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 