Review of Shadowland by Peter Straub

Shadowland was definitely a huge shift from the Mistborn trilogy, but not at all in a bad way. I went from ash-strewn cities full of poor slaves and Allomances to affluent suburbia, private school, and magic tinged with a hint of the sinister, and I was more than happy to go along for the ride.

Straub's work captivated me. It was an excellent story of the supernatural and included two of my favourite things: creepy goings-on at a private school (can't resist a good "teachers/administrators darker and more sinister than they seem to be" angle) as well as an equally-creepy-if-not-creepier house in the woods. I also loved the setup: an author, who is a friend of the main character, taking down the story years and years after it happened.

Shadowland feels as though it's divided into two related but mostly separate stories: the story before Tom Flanagan (the main character) and his friend Del Nightingale become apprentice magicians to Del's uncle, and the story after the reach said uncle's house. The "before" section lures you into Tom's life while also baiting you with hints of the dark magical undercurrent that runs through this entire first section. Once you're feeling pretty close to Tom, wondering what the heck is happening around him to make so many strange and terrifying things happen, and wanting to see where his story goes, you get on the train with him and Del, and the most dramatic part of the story begins. Once I stepped into the second section, I couldn't put the book down until I'd finished it.

Straub's description of places and events in Shadowland is detailed and vivid. I could easily imagine the creepy mansion and the incredible things that happened there. I felt like I was right beside Tom the whole time, rather than just watching from afar. I was enthralled with the atmosphere of the house in the woods and couldn't wait to see what was behind all of the strange magic there. Del's uncle was fascinating and terrifying at the same time, and I sat as mesmerized as Tom and Del every time he revealed a little bit more of his story.

The climax of this story is exciting, dramatic, and action-packed, with lots of twists and turns. Every time you think you know what's going to happen, something catches you by surprise and you're jerked down a totally new route. You want nothing more than to follow it wherever it takes you, so that you can see what happens to all of the characters, good and bad.

I liked that Straub made some pleasantly intelligent references, such as a reference to the Erl King and multiple references to classic fairy-tale themes and characters. It's always nice when an author treats his readers as intelligent, well-read people who will understand this kind of thing, instead of just trying to dazzle and shock them with as much blood and fear as possible (not that I'm opposed to blood and fear, being a horror lover, but variety is the spice of life and all that).

On that note, one warning about Shadowland is that its content can border on the cruel and gory. As a King fan and therefore a veteran of some pretty gory, violent stories, this didn't both me, but if you're mostly used to supernatural stories about ghosts and hauntings and the like, which are scarier than they are gory, you might be in for a bit of a shock. It's not slice-and-dice-chain-massacre gory at all, but there's blood and guts and descriptions of war, and some pretty inhumane things happen (which I won't give away). These parts don't make up the majority of the story in any way, but it might turn a sensitive reader off.

Overall, I thought Shadowland was a great piece of work that sank its claws into me from the beginning, reeled me in more and more as it went along, and then dragged me onto the rollercoaster ride that is the climactic, dramatic ending. Loved it. Four stars for sure.