The Shadow Arts is a worthy sequel to Damien Love’s debut novel, Monstrous Devices. Even though the first book was a stand-alone novel with its own plot, this new narrative picks up shortly after the end of the first book, and the action resumes immediately, as if the story had never ended. For those who read and enjoyed Monstrous Devices, this will be a welcome development.
Damien Love shows a particular skill with creating characters and adding just a dash of magic and mystery to our mundane world to make it a unique and exciting backdrop for those characters. The book follows the protagonists through several different European countries, and in each the author work in tidbits of history, lore, culture and, importantly, food. This description makes the setting seem very realistic, but Love doesn’t dwell on it so long that it would detract from the driving pace of the story.
Love’s character are well-developed individuals, whether they are heroes or villains, and even characters who occupy only a few pages of the story are given some interesting life. He is particularly good at writing dialogue that is witty, whether is it being used to explain, regale, or banter with other characters. Love’s inventiveness has delivered another story of imagination, wonder, and excitement with a depth of plot that will appeal not only to children but to adults as well.
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Viking
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 9 religious exclamations; 3 mild obscenities. Note: a few uses of “bloody” in the British context (not tallied).
Violence/Gore: Characters threaten each other with guns and knives a few times; a few reports of fights; report of characters attacked using magic; report of characters drowning; a few reports of murders; a character has scars from a pseudo-scientific experiment; report of someone falling into a coma; report of a fatal car wreck; acharacter injures himself accidentally, drawing blood; several fights with melee, guns, and magic with no major injury; a character hits herself repeatedly without causing significant injury;a character is attacked by robots, resulting in bloody wounds and broken bones; a car crash with injuries; a vehicle is destroyed in a wreck; a few instances of minor property damage; a car is vandalized;a fight using magic in which people are killed (the deaths are not graphic).
Sex/Nudity: None
Mature Subject Matter:
Bullying, kidnapping, theft.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
Adults drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
