The Shadow Thieves (review)

Zachary, known as Zee, has accidentally drawn the attention of Philonecron, a disgruntled denizen of the Underworld, who has noticed that children are only loosely connected to their shadows. Using Zee's blood as a lure, a tracking mechanism, and a means of communication and control, Philonecron sends out minions to collect the shadows, which he plans to replicate, animate, and enchant into a vast army that will overthrow a bureaucratic and lovesick Hades. With the help of their English teacher, a descendant of Prometheus, a reluctant Zee and his cousin Charlotte head down to the land of the dead to see what they can do to reclaim the shadows that have been stolen from their peers. The various elements of this well-paced, humorous, and slightly creepy adventure (the first in the Cronus Chronicles) offer, perhaps deliberately, wide reader appeal—a mixed-race, popular, sporty but emotionally sensitive British boy shares the spotlight with his bookish but not overly commonsensical white American girl cousin who tends toward sulky and whose main claim to talent is her ability to craft quick, sincere, and inventive lies. Add in a loving and mildly psychic grandmother, a preternaturally wise kitten, and a deliciously evil villain, and you have a slew of familiar elements that make a contemporary take on the mythic hero quest work. Ursu is especially adept at charting the insecurities and misrecognitions of her young teen characters as they tease out the way they feel inside and the way they want to be from the way they appear to those around them. Occasional intrusions of the narrator keep readers attentive to the comic incongruity that results when the mundane and the fantastic get muddled, but the narration is at its best when Charlotte is the focalizer—her wry wit shines as she musters the bravado necessary to face down underworld nasties while trying to remain true to her deliberately unformed self. Readers will anxiously await the promised sequels.