Son of the Shadows - Juliet Marillier

Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Son of the Shadows continues the story of the Sevenwaters family, focusing on the next generation - Sorcha’s children. (It is not an overt fairy tale retelling like the first book was.) I waited a long time to read this after reading Daughter of the Forest because although the writing was beautiful and it was very well done, the overwhelming feelings that stuck with me were sadness and pain. So I wasn’t exactly eager to dive into this sequel even though reviews said it was very different. Mostly convinced, I bought the book and then let it languish on my TBR list. Now I wish I’d gotten to it sooner.

This book does have its sadness and is haunting in parts, but it’s not the whole story. There’s more that happens in this book than in the first, where Sorcha spent a lot of time sitting around, busy and silent with her grueling task. I really liked that the main character, Liadan, didn’t just take what the gods told her she had to do but determined that for herself. Sorcha suffered so much because the goddess told her to. Liadan is much more in charge of herself. She’s one of those ‘strong females’ that really is strong. She follows her instincts and stands firm when she believes she has to stand alone. She isn’t just tough and stubborn, though. She’s compassionate and loves with abandon. Her love story is both wonderful and full of heartache.

I'm really interested to see how the prophecy plays out with Liaden's choices - has she derailed everything, or was this what was supposed to happen all along?

This is one of those books that I couldn’t stop reading. That actually happens rarely, and I was so surprised that this ended up being one of those books! I lost sleep over it, couldn’t wait to get back to it when I had to stop for work, and I really didn’t want it to end even while I was racing through it. Now that I've finished, I’m upset that the next book will move to another generation so I won’t get to be with these characters in the same way again. But I don’t think I’ll be waiting as long to pick up the next book.

I do have to say that the ending itself was a bit anticlimactic. I was expecting something a bit more momentous and final, and less - psychological, I suppose. But still the overall reading experience completely grabbed me. I don’t know if it will do the same for others, but I loved this book. It had a depth and range of emotion that I found gripping. It’s always hard for me to explain this gut reaction that I have to a book when I love it. It’s so completely subjective and emotional. How do you begin to explain it rationally? I feel bereft now that I've finished, and can’t quite bring myself to start something new yet.

The complete inability to stop reading until the end, that need for a pause between books, when I feel that silence needs to be kept just for a day before moving on, and the way that I still miss the characters after they've moved beyond the pages - that's what makes this a 5 star book for me.