My Thoughts: Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski

4 very good oatmeal sandwich cookies.

Cover Love:  Yes I do like this cover.  The title and picture make it seem very mysterious.  I would've picked this one up when I was young.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
I started seeing some great reviews for this one and wanted to see if it was right for my library.  Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

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 . . .

Romance?: Yes.  Darcy and Conn's romance was written very well.  I really wanted them to end up together.

What I Liked:
You know, dystopian used to be my very favorite genre--until the market became so saturated with dystopians that I feel I can't trust them anymore.  Then along comes The Shadow Society, an alternate universe novel.  Oh my, I could get used to this!  I thoroughly enjoyed the alternate world.  I loved that the people in the world Darcy and Conn came from knew about "our" world.  That was a very interesting twist.

And Shades, very interesting villain (or species).  I still can't figure out why the humans were so afraid of the Shades.  It seems that they didn't become terrorists until after the Great Chicago Fire, so why were they afraid of them before the fire?  I don't feel that was very clear.  If there is another book I would love to learn more about the origin of Shades, why they are different and why humans are so afraid of them.  I also want to know how the rest of the country reacts to Shades or if they only exist in Chicago.

I felt like the beginning was a little slow, until Conn got Darcy to the other universe, then it moved along quite quickly.  The change between the worlds were cool to see--a whole new Jane Austen book.  I really like the idea that portals exist between the worlds where the buildings remain the same. 

I liked both Darcy and Conn.  I didn't mind Darcy's friends, but didn't love them.  I don't understand Taylor's involvement in the story as the book went on but that's okay.  I guess that what made the book good for me were Darcy and Conn's romance and chemistry, an alternate universe and a whole other species of people running around.  This was a good set up to what I hope is a series that explores more in this world than just Darcy and Conn.

To Sum Up:  I will be buying this for my library and book talking it like crazy.  I think readers who enjoy dystopian will love this one!

Book checked out from public library.