Review: Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones

I loved the previous book, Wintersong, and while I was hoping for a sequel, I also thought the story could end there. But when SHADOWSONG was announced, I was hopping mad to get a copy, eager to revisit the Underground, and hoping for a happy ending for the Goblin King and Liesl.

As a whole, Wintersong came across as a tightly plotted story, while SHADOWSONG seems a bit scattered. There was none of the intensity of the previous book. Maybe it was because of the mystery initially presented–what’s with the dying people being found with silver frost on their lips? Who’s the green-eyed woman? What’s happening with Josef, and what seems to be up with Liesl, who seems to be distant in this book? And as I read on, the story starts to captivate me, maybe not as much as Wintersong, but enough to ensure that I would forge onward to the very last page.

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Review: Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

I am lost.

WINTERSONG is magical, with a fairy tale atmosphere that is heightened by the lovely, lyrical writing. Though there are echoes of Labyrinth (my favorite childhood movie!), the author took it beyond that to create a story and characters that are unforgettable and that will live in you long after you have finished reading the book. I can say definitely that WINTERSONG is a book that will go on my keeper shelf and that I will reread over and over until I have wrung the last bit of magic from it.

Told from the first person of view, Liesl or Elisabeth makes an engaging, self-aware narrator, and from her narration, we see how she grows from girl to woman, not just in terms of physical, but also in her emotional and mental maturity, in the self-actualization that she attains at the end. Her realization that she is “Elisabeth, entire”. The author takes us on this strange, wondrous, compelling journey, and while more astute readers may guess there’s only one outcome to this story, yet the journey to that end is filled with growth and realizations that both characters (Elisabeth and the Goblin King) would not have attained without these experiences.