Shadow Hills

Shadow Hills
by Anastasia Hopcus

Persephone "Phe" Archer feels as though she doesn't belong in LA any more since her sister's death. She leaves the city to go to Devenish Prep, a boarding school in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts. Her sister, Athena, had written of this place in her last diary entry, and Phe is determined to figure out why.

As Phe snoops around the school and the town, she continues to have dreams about the town and people within the town, both dead and alive. But the townspeople are odd. Every single one of them. And they might be after her.

Grade: C

I had many problems with this book. The synopsis made it sound amazing, and suspenseful, and romantic, and all that good stuff. I was wrong. I will start with the good. My favorite part of the book was the last couple of chapters. It picked up the pace, and I was intrigued. I can't say that for the rest of the book though.

Though the plot seemed interesting enough, it lacked...something. The characters definitely could have developed more. I realized shortly after I started reading that I was very annoyed by Phe's personality. She seemed fake-y to me, and really nosy. She liked to snoop, even if it was risking her safety, which I didn't find realistic. The conversations didn't seem incredibly realistic to me either. The wording seemed a little more proper than what I am used to in YA novels, so that might be why.

The relationship between Phe and Zach didn't hit a soft spot for me. Though when he came into the scene while reading, the parts did seem to go by faster, which was good, considering the slow pace of the book. Also, the whole "love at first sight" in books don't really phase me. I don't care for them at all. And the relationship just went from them meeting to them being so close so incredibly fast, which could be realistic, but not really relate-able to a lot of people.

Overall, I definitely think this book had potential, though it wasn't totally reached.

*reviewed for TeensReadToo