Review: Shadowhouse Fall

Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel José Older
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shadowshaper was a great book demanding a great sequel, and on that front, Shadowhouse Fall absolutely delivers. Longer and more intense than its predecessor, this book gives us a more involving storyline for our 'shapers and company: Sierra, Robbie, Juan, Tee, Izzy, Bennie, Anthony (better known to us civilians as Pulpo), etc. Taking full advantage of its setting circa Brooklyn 2017, Older also raises his social commentary game, weaving in racism and police brutality (with an enemy supernatural force backing it up, which makes an eerie amount of sense) in a manner reminiscent of Jason Reynolds' Miles Morales. Older even throws in the unfortunate trend of excessive police force used in the case of psychological emergencies - and, of course, there is no such psychological emergency, not that the misguided (white) teacher who calls the cops realizes that.

Though this book is sometimes a little too complex for its own good, especially regarding the magic system and the powers of heroes and villains alike (I found myself scratching my head a bit too often while reading this), it's really the social commentary moments, and the moments of fun and games and teens just being teens reminiscent of some of those funny little-things scenes Angie Thomas gifted us with in The Hate U Give, that make Shadowhouse Fall a worthy continuation of the Shadowshaper Cypher.

Oh, and one more thing - sorry to say that Rosa shows up again and is clearly no better than before, but she gets epically taken down once again, this time in perhaps the best and most actually-appropriately-timed use of the Interrupting Kanye meme.

View all my reviews