The Shadow Cabinet (Shades of London, #3)

by Maureen Johnson

[girlinthepages]

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

After the wicked cliffhanger that The Madness Underneath left off on, I had to pick up The Shadow Cabinet right away. While definitely an exciting installment in the series, it felt so very far from the events and tone of The Name of the Star and the Ripper story line. I missed the levity and humor of Maureen’s writing, and Rory’s personality seemed so dampened down (which could also be due to the premise of the story- rather than a fun yet creepy boarding school story, this book is basically Rory on the run, fully immersed in the world of the underground paranormal police force, for better or for worse).

While I missed the boarding school aspect, I liked getting to know more of the non-student supporting cast, such as Book, Callum, and Thorpe (especially seeing more of the human side of all of them, now that Rory’s fully integrated into their world). There are also some truly excellent villains in this book, Sid and Sadie, who were fascinating and creepy and ruthless and written so realistically and seamlessly. They honestly make the rest of the antagonists who have appeared in this series pale in comparison and the chapters from their perspectives are like some crazy 70s era fever dreams. The ending of the novel left their story pretty open ended, so I really hope there’s more resolution to their story in the next installment.

Along with the book feeling like it veered so very far from the events of the first installment in the series, it also delved heavily into more cult and political focused storylines, which I’ll admit confused me. Rather than having a clear historical thread to parallel (as the first novel did with the Jack the Ripper plotline), there’s a LOT of information about Sid and Sadie’s cult from decades ago, the political “Shadow Cabinet,” certain rules about stones and rivers guarding gateways to keep ghosts from running rampant around London. The book also was either going 1000 miles and hour or sort of dragging…I felt like the conclusion was REALLY fast and a LOT of things happened, but there was also a lot of waiting around for the first half of the novel.

Overall: The Shadow Cabinet is a interesting read that I enjoyed, however it has take The Shades of London series in a very, very different direction than when it started. If you’re down for paranormal happenings, cults, shady politics and ancient rituals, the series is heading down the right path for you. While I miss Wexford and Alistair and Rory’s sass from earlier in the series, I know I’ll keep reading until this series has concluded because I enjoy the characters and story overall, even if it does feel like a very different series from where it started.