journalingirl
Written on Aug 20, 2012
Like everyone born after The Shift, sixteen year-old Aura can see and talk to ghosts. She's always found this mysterious ability pretty annoying, wishing only that she could reverse it and have some peace. But when her boyfriend, Logan, dies unexpectedly, Aura is forced to reconsider her connections to the dead...Devastated by Logan's sudden death, Aura realises that her ability to see ghosts might actually be a blessing. Surely a violet-hued spirit Logan is better than no Logan at all? But just when Aura is coming to terms with having a ghost as a boyfriend, she starts developing feelings for her new friend Zachary, who is understanding, supportive and, most of all, alive. Each boy holds a piece of her heart - as well as vital cues to the secret of the Shift - and it's time for Aura to choose between loving the living, or embracing the dead...
- ISBN10 1416994076
- ISBN13 9781416994077
- Publish Date 5 April 2011 (first published 4 May 2010)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Simon & Schuster
- Edition Reprint ed.
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 336
- Language English
Reviews
Kelsenator
Written on Jul 1, 2012
In this world, people can see real ghosts. And not just one person, but everyone under a certain age. I liked that part a lot, no one character was singled out for being “special” or having to hide their gift of ghost seeing. Well, there was still the special First person, but that’s a bit different.
Aura was the first girl born after the Shift, and the oldest who can see the ghosts. They appear in a purple haze looking like normal people and are unable to move on from the world until their needs are met. The ghosts themselves can’t interact with other ghosts, can’t go anywhere they’ve never been in real life, and can’t enter rooms that are covered with Obsidian. They also dislike the colour red, so most young people wear that colour of clothes to keep them away.
Aura is celebrating her boyfriend Logan’s first gig in front of record labels as well as his birthday, and has finally decided she is ready to take the next step with him. He gets really drunk, and while mixing some things he dies. Through her grieving and seeing his ghost, she tries to move on past the rumours flying around while keeping in contact with him, but it’s hard when they can’t touch.
Zachary, the Scottish exchange student is then introduced along with his awesome accent. He befriends her, and becomes part of her school project, which involves studying the megaliths, like Stonehenge and what secrets it has. They become closer, and Aura is starting to wonder if she can resist moving on from Logan or not.
All this is wrapped around the mystery of what caused the Shift, what secrets her deceased mother was hiding, who her father was and what connects it all.
There is a lot more to the story of course, but there’s also a bunch of secrets revealed through it. I really liked this book, and though I’m not too fond of ghost stories I really liked this one. The Shades (the bad ghosts) weren’t creepy and I was actually ok with it all. I liked Aura, but I loved Zachary’s character. I wasn’t the fondest of Logan, but I did feel sorry for the guy, being dead and all.
A great start to a series, and I can’t wait to see what happens next! Recommended for YA readers who are fans of Paranormal & Romance.
Amanda
Written on Sep 5, 2011
The world that Jeri Smith-Ready has built in this series is what most drew me into Shade. We learn some information about the Shift, and the Aura is attempting to learn more. We are introduced to ghosts and how they can shade if they do not pass on. But I don’t know that I was satisfied enough with how much I learned — though I was dissatisfied more in a *finishes book one, then picks up the next book to read* kind of way. There is a lot of promise in this series.
Yes, there was a love triangle. And I still am sick and tired of love triangles. But I can tolerate this love triangle better than some other series. It makes sense, and clearly one choice is far more viable than the other, even if it’s not the choice Aura’s heart wants to make (or does her heart want to make it?). I was not a fan of Logan’s character, though. He seemed to be one of those people who are extremely charming but have no concept of other people. Zachary seems to be the polar opposite, and I very much like him.
There are far more references to sex, alcohol, and drugs in Shade than I have seen in other YA novels. You could attribute this to the fact that the main characters are seventeen and therefore older, but I suspect that it’s more of an accurate representation of what actually goes on with high school students. I actually appreciated that these things were addressed because it made the characters far more real.
Shade was a good start (with an ending that could be classified as a cliffhanger), and I am definitely looking forward to Shift.
Linda
Written on Aug 13, 2011
Aura is a wonderful, strong, young woman, who goes through something horrible that no teenager should have to go through. Her life has never been easy, but things seem to just get more complicated as time passes. Her being the first born after the shift, and maybe having some kind of special powers because of it makes the plot even more exciting than the rest of it. Although the rest is pretty amazing in itself.
I started reading this book after the YA sisterhood blog had their crush-tourney, and I had no idea who Zach was ;) I just had to find out.
One of the YA books that definitely is exciting both for actual young adults, and for the not so young adults (like myself) as well :D I am off to read the next installment, can't wait to find out what will happen with Logan, Aura, Meghan, Zach, and the rest of this extraodrinary cast of characters.
Stephanie
Written on Aug 6, 2011
I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading Shade because it is an amazing book! I guess I hadn't read the summary since the book came out last year because I was surprised when Logan died. I like when I do that though, I need to stop reading summaries so often.
It was heart wrenching to read about Logan and Aura. I couldn't (and don't want to) imagine what it would be like to have a boyfriend die. You would think it would be easier for Aura since she can still see him, but after finishing the book it seemed much harder. She can't let go and move on because he's still there. She can't fully commit to her feelings for Zachary because she feels guilty when she does and there's still those pesky feelings for Logan.
I was really intrigued with the astronomy in the story. I love anything that deals with the stars, so I was excited to read that part of it. Especially since Aura thinks it has something to do with the Shift.
I also made the mistake of reading the first few pages of the next book in the series, Shift, because now I'm even more at a cliffhanger than when Shade ended.
Overall I really loved Shade and can't wait to go out and get Shift.
Amber
Written on Apr 2, 2011
In Aura’s world, there was an event called the Shift. Everyone who was born after this was able to see and communicate with ghosts. Aura is one of these people, and she spends much of the novel talking to various ghosts, the most important one being that of her boyfriend, Logan, who tragically died.
The world in which this is set is not too far from ours, and yet this book somehow had a very prominent dystopian feel to it. Did anyone else think that, or was it just me? I loved reading about how the society had changed to accommodate for the new inhabitants, and I loved reading all the different ‘rules’ that came with communicating with the dead.
I especially loved the fact that not everything was as it seemed – which you will find out once you’ve read this book – and that the people who worked for the government were rather scary! It’s always good to have scary villains, isn’t it?
Aura wasn’t the most intriguing character due to her bland personality, however with her background; she was very fun to read about. There is so much mystery there, and a lot for Jeri Smith-Ready to expand upon in the upcoming sequel(s).
Logan, Aura’s newly dead boyfriend, was a bit of an ass. I didn’t like him at all, and honestly didn’t understand the attraction that Aura maintained for him throughout most of the book. I guess she had known him for a lot longer than I had, but still. He wasn’t very nice, let’s put it that way.
Zachary, the new, hot Scottish guy at school, was interesting. As with Aura, there was so much mystery surrounding dear old Zach, I kept waiting for him to be in the scenes so that I could find out who the hell he was! I loved him.
Overall, I absolutely loved Shift. I think Jeri Smith-Ready did a fantastic job with it, however I do have one criticism – the Briticisms used in this novel. As a native English lady (haha, lady!), I did find a couple of misuses of certain phrases. Nothing too important, but the word “bloody” was often out of place in a sentence. I would have to swap the words in the sentence around for it to ‘make sense’. Alas, that is just me being VERY picky!
Oh and also, although I am from England, I have never ever seen anyone eat a pizza using a knife and fork unless they were in a posh restaurant. We Brits aren’t as posh as you guys across the pond seem to think!
And with that I leave you to go and buy the book, because it is a truly fantastic read!
Jo
Written on Dec 14, 2010
Devastated by Logan's sudden death, Aura realises that her ability to see ghosts might actually be a blessing. Surely a violet-hued spirit Logan is better than no Logan at all? But just when Aura is coming to terms with having a ghost as a boyfriend, she starts developing feelings for her new friend Zachary, who is understanding, supportive and, most of all, alive. Each boy holds a piece of her heart - as well as vital cues to the secret of the Shift - and it's time for Aura to choose between loving the living, or embracing the dead... From Amazon UK
I really liked this book! I was really looking forward to reading it, being a huge urban fantasy fan and having wanted to try out Jeri Smith-Ready's adult series previously, and it was so good!
To be honest, I've not read paranormal ghost stories before. I've read books which have ghosts in, but they haven't been the main focus. However, Shade is nothing I would have expected of ghostly paranormal, and, I feel, quite unique. The world she has set up is fascinating and intriguing, and not all questions are answered for the world as a whole, let alone us as readers. Smith-Ready was very clever in how she set out this story. There is a self-contained plot for Shade, about the death of Aura's boyfriend, Logan, and their relationship while he's a ghost. But there is also the bigger picture of the Shift, and the importance of Aura, who was born one minute after the Shift happened, and Zachary, who was born one minute before. Aura wants to find out what caused the Shift, and believes her mother, who died of Cancer when Aura was three, had discovered something, through reading her diaries. The story with Logan is sweet and sad and quite worrying, but it's the bigger picture that kept me reading.
The characters are nice enough, but I didn't adore them. I found Logan to be a little annoying at times, though I felt huge amounts of sympathy for him. Aura is caught between a rock and a hard place in several different ways in this story, and you just want her to make a decision either way, most of the time. Zachary was probably my favourite character, he was just charming and lovely!
There isn't much in the way of action in this book, but that's simply because it's not that type of book. Though there are some close shave when government agents are trying to track Aura down, and there are a few close shaves.
Shade isn't the best book I've read this year, but it was still really enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to reading Shift, the sequel which is released 1st June 2011. I highly recommend this book, it's a quick, enjoyable read!
From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog