'I should probably start with the blood.'

When a book has an opening line as wonderful as that, the only rational reaction would be to be intrigued. I most certainly was. What blood? Whose blood? First line in and Robin Wasserman already had me asking questions. And then we are followed by this:

'If it bleeds it leads and all that, right? It’s all anyone ever wants to know about, anyway. What did it look like? What did it feel like? Why was it all over my hands?'

I got comfortable then. This was going to be a good book, I could tell. What I wasn’t expecting, however, is for it to be so…strange.

The Book of Blood and Shadow was an almost completely different story to what I had assumed it might be from reading the synopsis. That’s not to say the change wasn’t welcomed. I was glad this book turned my expectations on its head because it was so much more breath-taking than I could have possibly imagined. Robin Wasserman promptly grabbed my attention at the very first instant and didn’t let go of it for a long time. To say she is a skilled writer is one heck of an understatement. Her writing was beautiful and admirable, and really did make me quite jealous. That in itself is saying something about how wonderful she is with words – I’m not even a writer.

Her talent shone through Nora’s personality in the best possible way. Nora, a girl so determined and reasonable, was quite unlike other YA protagonists. For a start, she isn’t in the slightest what I would assume a comical character to be, yet she had an uncanny ability to make my lips jerk into a near-laugh several times throughout her narration. At the same time, her quite obvious intelligence (she can translate Latin! At least I think it was Latin…) had me almost getting dreamy-eyed over her myself. By the end of the book, I wasn’t sure whether I want to be her or just give her a big hug. She goes through all sorts of crazy situations in this book but remains remarkably sane at the end of it. I’m not sure I would fare so well.

The other characters, namely the three boys - Max, Chris and Eli – and best-friend Adrianne, all drew a varied range of feelings from me. I made the awful mistake of getting too attached to Chris even when I knew he wasn’t going to be present in the story much longer. When the moment finally came, I was devastated. Chris had the most heart-warming personality and enviable relationship with Nora. Who wouldn’t want a best friend like him? I really did feel for Nora, especially when it turned out her newly found boyfriend Max had fled with a possible ‘guilty’ sign hanging over his head. Max…isn’t so easily appreciated as Chris. At least, not for me. Very occasionally, Max would come across as the sweetest boy imaginable, but, for the most part, he creeped me out a little. And I guess I was right to think that.

The plot in this book is just plain crazy. I really wasn’t sure what I was reading sometimes, but I am sure that I loved the mystery and the thrilling ride. I could hardly predict anything and each twist and turn had me completely gobsmacked, especially where they concerned the characters. Forget about Nora - I wasn’t sure who to trust half the time! I admired the unpredictability of the plot and loved how utterly eager I was to get my answers. Again, I have to appreciate Robin Wasserman’s skills here. She delivers a thoroughly intriguing story line and follows it through right to the end with immaculate care.

When I did reach the end of the story, I was looking back on the whole thing with awe. This book is in a category of its own. It managed to successfully enthral me in a bizarre plot I would normally under no circumstances enjoy. I haven’t actually mentioned what the plot was but that is merely because I am certain I will get it wrong. Sometimes this book was too complicated for my simple thought processes, but I enjoyed it immensely. The Book of Blood and Shadow is most definitely worth a try.

(This review also appears on my blog)