Book Review: Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Title: Shadowed Summer

Author: Saundra Mitchell
Publication Date: February 2009
Genre: YA
Pages: 183
Series: no
Book Acquisition: 1 ARC Tours

Iris is ready for another hot, routine summer in her small Louisiana town, hanging around the Red Stripe grocery with her best friend, Collette, and traipsing through the cemetery telling each other spooky stories and pretending to cast spells. Except this summer, Iris doesn’t have to make up a story. This summer, one falls right in her lap.

Years ago, before Iris was born, a local boy named Elijah Landry disappeared. All that remained of him were whispers and hushed gossip in the church pews. Until this summer. A ghost begins to haunt Iris, and she’s certain it’s the ghost of Elijah. What really happened to him? And why, of all people, has he chosen Iris to come back to?

Ghost stories really appeal to me and Shadowed Summer is a good one. It's a pretty simple story about Iris and the mystery she uncovers one summer. Iris is a 14 year old growing up in a small town. It's summer and her and her best friend Collette don't have a whole lot to do. That is until Elijah decides to start haunting. I really liked Iris but I couldn't really warm up to Collette. I guess some could argue that she was a typical 14 year old full of sass but I just thought she was mean.   

While reading the book, some of the things that Elijah did made no sense to me - until I got to the end and then all the pieces fell together. I really like books like that. You can tell it was planned out well and all the parts built upon themselves, giving us an all around good story.

I did have a small problem with the plot. I don't want to say too much but it involves Elijah. Like I said, by the end of the book I understood the 'why' behind his actions but I never really got a good handle on why he started haunting Iris in the first place.

Ok - I can't help it :)

::::SPOLIER ALERT::::

Elijah asked his friends to cover up his actions. Now maybe what they did wasn't something he had in mind but still - they spared his mother the agony of knowing her son had taken his own life which is what he wanted SO! Why did Elijah want Iris to find is body so badly all those years later? If he was aware of what his disappearance did to his mother he would also have been aware of the fact that learning the truth wouldn't have helped. Maybe he couldn't be at rest until everyone knew what had happened to him? But you would think, if he took his own life, he didn't have any unfinished business and his spirit wouldn't have been hanging around at all.

:::END SPOILER ALERT:::

So :) Expect for my spoiler rant above, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the way it ended, I liked (most of) the characters and I liked the story itself.
I would recommend this book to any YA fans of ghost stories.

4/5 stars

Tidbits:
*Shadowed Summer as been nomiated for a 2010 Edgar Award in the Young Adult category -- Congratulations Saundra!!

Linkage Love:
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Author's Website
Author's Blog

Other Reviews:
Page Turners 
Rhiannon Hart