Review: The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski - Juhina

Title: The Shadow Society
Author: Marie Rutkoski

Publication date: October 16

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Genre(s): Young Adult (Sci-Fi/Dystopian)

Source: NetGalley
Format: eARC

Pages: 416

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Darcy Jones doesn’t remember anything before the day she was abandoned as a child outside a Chicago firehouse. She has never really belonged anywhere—but she couldn’t have guessed that she comes from an alternate world where the Great Chicago Fire didn’t happen and deadly creatures called Shades terrorize the human population.

Memories begin to haunt Darcy when a new boy arrives at her high school, and he makes her feel both desire and desired in a way she hadn’t thought possible. But Conn’s interest in her is confusing. It doesn’t line up with the way he first looked at her. As if she were his enemy.

When Conn betrays Darcy, she realizes that she can’t rely on anything—not herself, not the laws of nature, and certainly not him. Darcy decides to infiltrate the Shadow Society and uncover the Shades’ latest terrorist plot. What she finds out will change her world forever . . .

The Shadow Society starts off with a normal girl going to school, hanging out with friends, and pursuing her hobby in drawing. However then you find out she’s adopted, has moved from one foster family to another, and also that some crazy, weird things have been happening to her. Then she meets the guy. Yes, the guy that appears in every book and sometimes you love him and sometimes you don’t and unfortunately I didn’t like him all that much. The plot then kicks off and a ton of things happen in these 400 or so pages. I’ll just discuss the characters then the plot in the next paragraph. 

The main protagonist, Darcy Jones, has a mystery revolving around her past. She doesn’t remember her first 5 years and doesn’t know what has become of her parents. Conn, the guy she meets and can’t seem to get out of her mind is somehow implicated in all this. Darcy finds out there is a parallel earth and is thrown head first into it. She then has to become a spy against her own kind and this is when everything gets complicated. I honestly felt that too much too soon happened in the story. Her and Conn, then his betrayal (its in the synopsis, not a spoiler), then her being a spy, then ALL the missing pieces that somehow connect everything but you just can’t find. It was great the first 300 pages, but then it got draggy. Recently I’ve been reading many 400+ novels that could have been reduced less and enjoyed more. Also the ending was just too convenient, too easy, and too comfortable. I know many reviewers had the same problem. I hoped the author somehow shocked us but I felt the easy way out was taken. 

Plot wise, many things happen as I mentioned earlier. Many of them were unique, such as the parallel worlds, but other things were left unexplained and that frustrated me to the extreme. Other parts of the plot were very predictable, others were too comfortable, and others heart tugging. However, I did enjoy the plot, with all of its craziness, I did like the direction it went, and I especially loved the relationship between Darcy and her foster mother. Even though this relationship barely occupied any pages but it really showed me Darcy’s vulnerability and that is what made me like her. There was also a very brief love triangle that I choose to ignore. All in all I did like the overall novel. Was it memorable? Not really, but I did enjoy it in the end. If you are a sci-fi fan then you should check it out.