Following his highly acclaimed Shadowshaper, in which Brooklyn teens use their artistic talents as powerful spirit-controlling tools, Daniel José Older brings his eager readers a thrilling sequel, Shadowhouse Fall.
Sixteen-year-old Sierra Santiago has had a few months to get used to her new powers "at the head of a whole strange fellowship of urban sorcerers." She's learning to expand her senses so that she can connect with the spirits of dead people, "a cadre of shadows she'd come to think of as her own Secret Service detail," as they are able to battle enemy spirits by her side. Sierra is well aware that the Sisterhood of Sorrows, the Shadowhouse's golden-glowing rivals, have vowed revenge on the shadowshapers. When a mousy girl from school shows up to tell her that the Deck of Worlds--an ancient pack of cards that serves as "a system of divination and the allotment of power" among warring branches of Sierra's ancestors--is "back in play," Sierra knows it's time to muster the troops to defend their hard-won position as most powerful magical house in the city.
Nonstop action and funny, authentic banter carries Sierra and her shadowshaping crew through the projects and brownstones of their Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, which plays a strong role in the storyline. As people of mostly African, Caribbean and Puerto Rican descent, the shadowshapers face police oppression and harassment as well as rival sorcerous factions. Readers will cheer as the teens stand strong against armed police and cranky ancestral spirits alike. A stunning sequel that will leave fans clamoring for book three. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor