Book Review: Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genre: Dark Fantasy, Romance

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication Date: February 6, 2018

This is book two in the Wintersong series.

Click here for my review of Wintersong.

So much more than the romance in the first book, Shadowsong weaves together lore, history, mystery, and powerful themes in a book that’s as dark as it is lyrical.

Once there was a little girl, who played her music for a little boy in the wood. She was an innkeeper’s daughter and he was the Lord of Mischief, but neither were wholly what they seemed, for nothing is as simple as a fairy tale.

It’s six months after Wintersong ended, and nobody is living happily ever after. Upon their father’s death, Liesl and Kathe inherit a crippling amount of debt, struggling to make it by. Even worse, Josef seems to be missing in action, and no one’s heard any news of him. Until they receive a cryptic letter:

Master Antonius is dead. I am in Vienna. Come quickly.

But Liesl is facing more than just concerns about her estranged brother. There’s a sinister force that’s been released into the world. People are dying at an alarming rate, found with frost on their lips and a silver line across their throat. Elfstruck, they’re called. Victims of the Wild Hunt.

At the center of all of this is the former Goblin Queen, who forsook her marriage vows for her changeling brother. But the closer they get physically, the more the distance between Liesl and Josef grows, and she’s no longer convinced that love will be enough to save him. It hasn’t been enough to save her king, der Erlkonig, who has become corrupted by the old laws.

More and more, Liesl is convinced that the key behind all her problems lies in the secret of the first Goblin Queen, who left the Underground alive and returned to save her beloved.

• Every bit as lyrical as the first book. The prose has the same musical quality to it, the same beautiful descriptions and imagery, and a tone that’s evocative of a proper dark fairy tale. There are moments that blur the edges of reality and potential insanity or hallucination, and I felt these were done particularly well. Clear enough to follow, yet written in a way that gets across how surreal the scene is meant to be.

 

• Action, intrigue, and secrets, oh my! Where Wintersong felt every bit more a romance, Shadowsong feels more like a dark lore mystery, which was a refreshing approach to the sequel. Honestly, I fangirled so hard at the romance in the first one that I was concerned I couldn’t handle more, and I didn’t have to worry about that. Yes, there’s still overviews of romance, but it takes a back seat to the rest of the plot. As it should when, you know, the world might very well be ending.

 

• Oh, what beautiful themes you have, my dear. Of course, the music is still the underpinning motif of the story. It wouldn’t quite feel like a sequel if it wasn’t. The themes, however, stood out so much to me in this. They were strong and brilliant and relatable. Selfishness, sacrifice, love, self-discovery. There was so much depth to this novel, so much soul-searching, and everything was incredibly relatable. I found myself thinking about my world and my relationships, and OMG, DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THAT IS?

 

• CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE GOBLIN KING, THOUGH? Woven throughout the story (in a rather superb way that conjures all the wonder of a dark fairy tale) are scenes about the Goblin King. He has a backstory, to some extent, an origin story. There is still plenty of mystery (after all, you can’t expect all the answers, now can you), but he’s more fleshed out in this book, more alive, more real. I absolutely loved delving into his backstory. It was marvelously done. There were so many more reasons to love and empathize with his character.

 

• THAT ENDING. Oh gosh, that ending. It was nowhere near where I saw things going. There were a lot of revelations in the last 10% or so that made perfect sense in the scheme of things, that were hinted at but I hadn’t completely put it together. As it’s said many times, nothing is as it seems, and life is not as simple as a fairy tale. The ending does feel complete, though, and it’s a happy ending, which I didn’t necessarily expect from a dark fantasy, so I enjoyed that. I won’t say too much more because spoilers, but suffice it to say, even though this the conclusion of the duology, there is still plenty of things left for imaginative fans (or fangirls/fanboys, more specifically, maybe) to dream and wonder about, which is the sort of ending I like.

• The Prochazka story feels incomplete and open-ended. Considering they played such a big part of the book and were hinted at possibly having a very important role in the book, they just kind of … disappeared. There’s no closure about them or what they really wanted with Liesl and Josef (I can guess at a few things, but I’d rather not guess, considering what a big plot point this was). There was a lot of backstory dropped about them and their ancestors, and I feel like it had the makings of a very good story, but it wasn’t seen through, nor was their relationship with each other explored.

 

• I’m sorry, but where do the Faithful fit in again? Like the Prochazkas, this is a pretty big deal and an important plot point, or so it feels. Also like the Prochazkas, it completely disappears when Liesl no longer needs it. I want to know more about them, their history, their little troupe. I want to know about Bramble and how his life as a changeling is so different than Josef’s (because it clearly is, in very significant personal ways).

 

• The old laws just don’t work for me as a character. Which is what they basically are in Shadowsong. I had a qualm with the old laws in Wintersong being used as an end all, be all, even though I have no idea what they are, except an annoyance. For something that’s all important and apparently has the power to destroy the world (and no reservation doing so), nobody actually seems to know what the hell the old laws are. Shouldn’t that be important? I mean, I’m not expecting a manual to be passed around or something, but shouldn’t there be a crash course? Like hey, now that you’re Goblin Queen, don’t leave the Underground or the world will be plunged into endless winter? I have a really hard time understanding why, if these things so crucial and powerful, they’re not more well-known among der Erlkonig’s own and imparted to others rather than being kept all secretive and not shared.

 

• Great that Liesl and Josef’s story ended, but what happened to everybody else? The other characters just sort of fall to the wayside (re: The Prochazkas). What’s become of Kathe? Francois? The troupe? They’re all mentioned in passing in Liesl’s final letter to Kathe, as are the Prochazkas, dismissively, in a way that ties up nothing. Such a big deal was made between the two books about Kathe and Francois and how they’re tied up in everything between Liesl and Josef that it sort of irks me that they get a fade-to-black sort of ending where they appear to be mostly forgotten. Maybe it’s not important and I’m harping on something that doesn’t matter, but for me, I really wanted their impressions about everything. Liesl spends so long thinking about them in this book and wanting to reunite with them that it feels like they’re just left hanging.

I actually really enjoyed this. More so, even, than the first one. While the first was focused more on dark romance, this was focused more on the dark fantasy aspect and the lore. It delved deeper into the characters and their stories and upped the stakes substantially for everybody involved. There was a blurring of lines between “good” and “bad” and exactly what someone might be willing to do for both love and selfishness. It felt like a fitting conclusion for the duology, and left me plenty to think about (and maybe fangirl over? I’m not ashamed of it) after it was done.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, the most interesting question that arose for me out of this duology is, what would you do if you found out your sibling was a changeling from infancy? Would you love them anyway, or would you set them free?