Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose' Older, 297 pages

Sierra is an artist.  She's been working on a mural at the request of some of her grandfather's friends.  Although she's just started it, they've been nearly begging her to finish quickly.  One night, at a party, a dead body shows up and attacks her.  Sierra knows that her artwork has something to do with it, but all of the people that seem to know something refuse to explain.  Bit by bit, Sierra begins to puzzle out the strange situation she's found herself in, what the shadowshapers are and how they are involved, and what her own role is.  Along the way, she finds some help and starts to get some answers from friends and family members but the situation grows more dangerous with people dying and more dead bodies appearing.  If Sierra can't figure everything out soon, her whole world may come crumbling down.  This book started out a little too slow for me and some of the dialect used in the dialogue made some of the stuff harder to understand for me.  I liked it better by the time I finished the book but this hasn't been one of my favorites.  I really wanted to like it because it's normally the type of book I do like and I've really liked almost all of the books chosen for Read It Forward, but I'm going to have a harder time selling this one personally.  That being said, I think it has teen appeal and the story isn't bad, just not as much emotion or action in it as I would have wanted.