TeenHelp - The Shadow of What Was Lost: A review

The Shadow Of What Was Lost: A review
By Jenna (.:Bibliophile:.)

A Shadow Of What Was Lost by James Islington is the first book in a fantasy trilogy that centers around a character by the name of Davian. The world in this book features individuals who are having to deal with abuse due to being gifted with magical abilities. Twenty years before the novel took place, a war was fought and the gifted individuals were slain and tormented. The only way the gifted survived was submitting to the will of their suppressors and agreeing to four tenets that forced them into absolute obedience. They cannot defend themselves against their suppressors even if their life is in danger. Davian is the main character who is grappling with figuring out his powers which seem to be latent. The story is told from a few different perspectives but Davian's story was the central focus. During the course of the novel, Davian meets up with a character named Caeden and the story takes off from there.

This novel was really well written. It's a 610 page book and I didn't ever find myself being bored. I find that with a lot of fantasy novels there are lulls in the story telling that lead to me struggling with boredom. I never felt that way with this novel; instead I kept wanting to read more to see what happened next. The characters in this novel were quite well written as well. From the first chapter I was hooked and wanted to learn more about each one. As the story progressed new characters were introduced and I wanted to learn everything that I could from them. I think that Davian's perspective was my absolute favorite and there were times when the story would change to someone else's perspective and I found myself wanting to go back to Davian. I think that this novel was quite fast paced even during the times when it was building the fantasy world or letting you get to know more about the different characters. In my opinion, it takes a strong writer to keep you engaged the entire time that a book is progressing. I have been wanting to read this novel since last year and I am glad that I gave it a shot. I was slightly nervous about getting through it as I've been in a reading slump; this novel helped me to get out of that slump for a bit and I can say that it is probably going to be my favorite read of 2018.

I think this novel would also work well for people who are new to reading fantasy. It's a larger fantasy book but the world and magic system weren't too complex which is not something that can be said for all fantasy novels. I recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy or is interested in trying a fantasy novel. Although this is an adult novel, there didn't seem to be anything overly graphic and it was told from the perspective of older teens and younger adults. I would say that this novel is a must read.