YA Urban Fantasy Book Review: Shadow’s Wake
Shadow’s Wake is the debut novel in the Ruadhan Sidhe series by Aiki Flinthart. The author sent me a pre-release copy and shared an interesting tidbit: she learned how to throw knives so she could sketch out the action scenes better! That alone was pretty cool, but once I dug into the book, I knew I’d found something special.
The story opens with a young Rowan Gilmore backed into a corner at ChristChurch by two armed men who want to kidnap her for reasons she doesn’t understand. Her friend, Sarah, reveals the men threatened her mother and forced her to give up Rowan’s location. Angry and hurt, a dark power awakens within Rowan, and she ends up killing her attackers in cold blood.
Flash forward to the modern day, and we find Rowan and her mother Anna in Australia two years later. They haven’t had any signs of being pursued, and Anna is getting romantically involved with a mysterious Mitch in her company. Rowan, while training in the employee gym, makes the aquaintance of Mitch’s son Paul, who she accidentally knocks out in self defense. She’s able to convince him he fell and escapes having to explain her unusual strength, but ends up being forced to meander her way out of a date.
Paul, who isn’t used to being told “no” for anything, gives up after a mini-fit of disappointment and leaves. On her way home, Rowan gets mugged by two men and defends herself. Here she meets Fynn, a mysterious young man who seems to know something about why the men from her childhood were after her. Problem is, he has an agenda of his own.
What follows is a fast paced urban fantasy with strong sci-fi elements, combining Celtic myth, science, and young adult themes into a powerful action narrative. I really enjoyed the first person writing style and strong authorial voice that Flinthart employs throughout the novel. It kept me turning pages long into the night, as did the complex motivations of her supporting cast.
I also loved how Flinthart deftly avoids the “love triangle” trope so often foisted on female-led Urban Fantasy these days, and how she didn’t shy away from the sexually charged nature of some of the encounters between Fynn and Rowan.
The one complaint I have is that Paul felt a little underdeveloped, and the ending was less enticement and more cliffhanger. One of the major subplots in the book, the meaning of the mysterious word ocair, is left unsolved by the end, which was a bit of a disappointment. I would’ve kept reading to the next book either way, and it felt more like a tease than good storytelling.
5/5, thoroughly enjoyable read. Looking forward to the next one!
