Shade by Marilyn Peake (Good)

*Note: This book was given to me by the author for the purpose of reviewing.*
The cover:

I must say that I don't like the cover.  All in all, it gives the wrong type of mood for the book.  Also, it doesn't tell me anything about the actual book.   Is this a story about leaves?  If so, I read the wrong thing.  Either way, I have an issue with book covers like this.

Short Summary:

(Note: I'm taking the summary from the back cover of Shade instead of writing it like I normally do.  The jacket did a nice job, so I thought I'd use it.  The summary also matches the tone of the book perfectly.)

Thanks to her offbeat mother, Shade's full name is Galactic Shade Griffin.  Having a name like that while being the new girl in school is pretty much catnip for bullies.  The summer before Shade's junior year of high school, her mother breaks up with yet another boyfriend and moves them once again to a new town.  This time, they movie into a dilapidated old house where Shade has an entire attic bedroom to herself- at least until she discovers it's haunted by the ghost of a teenaged boy named Brandon Yates.  When Shade's best friend goes missing, she turns to Brandon for help.  Working as a  detective in the case of her missing friend, Shade wanders into a situation much more dangerous than she had ever expected.  It turns out that Brandon's not always on call when she needs him.  Shade must then confront the reality of whether or not she has what it takes to be a hero.

My review:

While Shade at first seems like a ghost story, it is set up more as a mystery book with the characters racing against the clock to find the missing girls.  The characters were all pretty developed and nicely rounded.  The plot was very exciting, adventurous, and interesting.  The ghost element of the story definitely gave a nice twist to the ordinary mystery book.

One of my only issues with the book was that some of the plot points seemed predictable.  I understood what one of the clues meant a long while before the characters did.  Also, I thought that Shade's friends took some of her hard-to-swallow facts very lightly.  As a reader, we know she's telling the truth, but I would imagine her friends would be more skeptical.

All in all, Shade was very different than the usual mystery book.  It had a nice plot and characters.  The only real issue was the large trust of Shade's friends.  It was a nice book that is worth reading if you have extra time.  It is not the first book on my suggestion list, but it was good.

Phrase: Even the goth girl has a normal name!

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