A Shadow Bright an Burning

Hey guys!

It´s Monday and that means that is time for our weekly appointment. Today I am bringing a review that I was very much looking forward to it. This was a book that I deeply loved when I read it back in September. I know it´s been a while since I read it but one only has so many time, but eventually all the reviews will come.

Today I will be talking about A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess. I bought this book on the Madrid Book Fair and even when I wanted to read it I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did it. I was expecting A Shadow Bright and Burning to be just another YA novel full of clichés and truth to be told it was quite the opposite. A Shadow Bright and Burning is an amazing book and I will tell why you need to read it.

The story takes place in the Victorian London, but history is not anymore as we have been taught because in this version of the world there are witches, wizards and sorceress. Henrietta is a young lady that has spent her whole life trying to prevent others from finding that she has powers. In this world, if women have power they are killed because “they are not able to live with the burden of power”. The thing is that she reveals her power in order to save her friend and it turns out that she might be the key to save the world from the demon invasion they are suffering.

As usual this will be a spoiler free review. If I need to make a spoiler I will tell you in advance and it will be written in white so if you read it is because you wanted it to be so.

And now without further ado let´s jump into the actual review.

The plot of this book is magnificent. There are some things that happen that are mentioned in the synopsis but the truth is that it´s barely nothing. I jumped into this book knowing nothing and it was a great experience so I recommend you not to look for more info that the one that I will be providing in this review. The first 50 pages might have a slower pace but from there on you will not be able to stop reading.

The characters are wonderful, we find ourselves in a historical period in which women were not valued and our main character, Henrietta is not willing to let that happen. We also have some male characters that stand up for women but there are also some that think the other way around. I think the author did a great job with this because, some characters expres some ideas that are not cool but she portrayed those charters really well.

The writing style is not particular beautiful but is just perfect to give Henrietta a voice. This is a novel told in the first person. The point of view of the main character is very important, thanks to the style that the author is using you can almost feel like if you were her.

What I have love the most about this book, however, was how the author took a period in history that is well known by mostly everyone and make it her own. I mean, she took the events that really happened and then she created some more to create this new reality that makes the story she is telling so rich. I loved how she took such a well-known character as Queen Victoria, and put her into the story. Also, those who have already read this book, wasn’t it amazing how Jessica Cluess manage to create a place in society for fae?

This is the kind of book that I love to read. The kind of book that got me in to reading and most importantly that make me happy to read. I recommend it, despite the mixed reviews that you might have found all over the internet. It has a magic school, and it has that sort of vibe that shadowhunters fans (especially those who love The Infernal Devices) will love. And that´s not even the best: the romance is not the central piece of the plot! This book is more focus on the friendship and in the fact that a girl does not need a man for every single thing they do.

I gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I am very much looking forward to read the next book in the series, which will have a review as soon as I have the book, have read it and there is a blank space on the blog calendar.

See you all next Monday.