SHADOW GRAVE: A New Novel by Author Marina Cohen

 Since our April themes are fearlessness, adventurousness, impatience, and it is poetry month, I recently read a book that encompasses these categories in a different way. SHADOW GRAVE by Marina Cohen blends fearless with fearful, patience with impatience, adventurousness with wariness as to what unknown thing lurks in the shadows of our minds or in the night. And even though it is a novel written in prose, the descriptive language has a gothic and poetic quality. Cohen has a knack for setting a scene and making us feel like we are in the midst of something chilling and other-worldly.

 

Here's the blurb for this spine-tingly novel:

Tuck Everlasting meets The Village in this delightfully eerie middle grade novel about a boy trapped in a strange town where secrets turn deadly and the unnatural lurks in the night.

Twelve-year-old Arlo is afraid of fire, creepy TV shows, and even his own shadow―but most of all, he’s afraid of losing his mother to the disease that nearly claimed her life a year ago.

During a Thanksgiving road trip, a sudden collision with a strange beast in the middle of the road totals the family’s car, and Arlo, his mom, and his sister end up stranded in a small town.

There’s something off about Livermore. No one has a phone or a car, and the townspeople aren’t exactly friendly. Without phone service to make a call for help, the family stays at the Samuels’ mansion, but inexplicable sightings at night set Arlo on edge. When he stumbles upon a dark secret that the town’s inhabitants will kill to keep, getting out of Livermore becomes a matter of life or death.

 

And here is my review:

“The moon hung like a silver pendant against the velvety black dress of night” is just one of the stunning images that pepper this spooky new middle grade novel from author Marina Cohen. It’s filled with vivid imagery and sensory details that pull you into the story. Cohen paints pictures with carefully chosen words that immerse the reader in the setting – the fictional New Hampshire town of Livermore. By turns ominous and thrilling, readers are compelled to keep reading even as you fear what lies around the corner. For anyone who loves a creepy well-told story.

 

 Darlene Beck-Jacobson loves books with creepy vibes. She is often impatient, sometimes fearless, and always up for a new adventure. Her MG novel-in-verse WISHES, DARES, AND HOW TO STAND UP TO A BULLY (Creston) features characters who are all three.