The Shadow Society (review)

After spending much of her teens bouncing from one foster home to the next, sixteen-year-old Darcy Jones feels like she is finally putting down some roots in her new foster mom’s Chicago suburb home. Her second year at the same high school (a record for Darcy) starts off swimmingly as she rejoins her cadre of artsy friends, but when bad boy Conn McCrea shows up, she knows she is in trouble. Not only is Conn hot and mysterious, he seems to know something about her past, a trait that makes him all the more alluring since Darcy can’t remember anything before she was abandoned at a firehouse at age five. A few kisses, a pair of handcuffs, and a trip to an alternate Chicago later, and Darcy discovers that she is actually a Shade—a ghostlike, supernatural creature—and her species have been at war with humans in an alternate universe, a realm in which Conn is a Shade-hunting ace. Rutkoski draws an intriguing world, and the alternative version of Chicago is particularly appealing, with touches of steampunk and dystopia thrown in for good measure. The relationship between Conn and Darcy is well developed, following an organic arc, and Darcy herself is a three-dimensional heroine whose ultimate goal is to not just catch a guy but figure out who she is. Artistic and literary allusions abound in both Chicagos, and creative types will especially relate to Darcy’s unique way of looking at the world. Fans of supernatural romances will be pleased to find one that is both appropriately steamy and well written.