Review - The Shadow Order by Rebecca F John

Review - The Shadow Order by Rebecca F John

One year on from the day the shadows shifted and began to show, not people’s shapes but their truest selves, teenage friends Teddy, Betsy and Effie plan to risk all and watch the winter sun rise over Copperwell, in defiance of the Shadow Order.

But from their hidden vantage point the three shocked friends witness a mysterious woman shouting a dire warning, before being arrested, beaten and dragged away in handcuffs.

The event leads them on an extraordinary series of dangerous adventures as they discover more about the disturbance in the natural world surrounding Copperwell, battle to save their city and start to recognise their truest selves.

The Shadow Order is a really interesting and thought provoking fantasy novel filled with atmosphere. 

I found it quite scary how much of it seemed to reflect the country we're currently living in. The rich people are living comfortable lives in their fancy buildings, making more and more money while destroying the world without care, while the poor become ever poorer, hungrier, colder. A cowardly and corrupt Prime Minister hides away at the centre of it all, refusing to face his people, while the government passes ever more draconian laws, restricting freedoms in the name of protection, enforced by an increasingly brutal police force.

But despite that bleakness, The Shadow Order is a story about hope and the possibility of change. it's about listening to what is within us, and listening to the wide, wild world around us, and making ourselves heard. It is about the power of friendship and self-sacrifice, about taking risks, breaking the rules and doing what you can to make things right.

I really enjoyed it, and I'm hoping we'll get a chance to find out more about this curious world and the strange devices within it.

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The Shadow Order by Rebecca F. John is published on 15 September 2022 by Firefly Press.

I was given a review copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.