Title: Seeking Shadows
Author: E. A. Cartwright
Series: Chrionicles of the Balance #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 416
Published: 2021, EC Editorial
My Grade: 4 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Death can be a curse, but also a blessing. For aeons, the reapers have been the keepers of the Balance, maintaining the universal order of life and death in the human realm. And as a High Reaper, it will one day fall on Branwen to guide the flock… should she be crowned, that is. For she is not the only one eligible to take the throne, and with a tarnished reputation, Branwen has long since accepted she will remain a pawn of her lifelong rival, Taren. For why would the Balance crown her, the reaper disfigured with a power to embarrass all of her kind?

But Branwen is forced to confront her insecurities when Taren does the unthinkable. Jealous and impatient, he allies himself with a pompous businessman hungry for invincibility, transforming the world of Kana into a deathtrap as humans unite under a common goal: no more reapers, no more death.

While starving reapers grow weaker and humans feel the consequences of a life with no end, it falls on Branwen to navigate a world of technology to bring Taren to justice and restore the natural order. But an unlikely friend leads her to a discovery that there is more to the humans’ unified behaviour than meets the eye, and saving the worlds may no longer be so straightforward.

The problem is locked inside an old clocktower, and the solution could tear the worlds apart.

MY REVIEW

The idea of reapers and angels taking and giving life is intriguing and Seeking Shadows is the first book I’m reading on the topic. And I loved it!

Cartwright is writing in first person perspective from all the three main characters and she does it really well. I like that you feel the characters more this way if you write it correctly and she really did. I’m thinking a lot about the writing style while I myself am writing in first perspective and I wish that I will reach the varied and interesting yet still easy way of writing that she does. The story flows so easily.

One thing I thought about in the beginning of the book was how I got the feeling that when she is writing, she really lets the characters decide where conversations are going. I recognize it since I myself end up there pretty much every single time I’m writing dialogue. I have an initial thought but then the characters keep on talking and discuss other things than what I had had in mind.

One thing I didn’t quite understand though was the consumption of the reapers. The Shadows have different professions, some are reapers, some are readers for example. I assume that the reapers are the only ones who go to the world of Kana to reap the souls who area ready and that’s how they gain their energy, by consuming souls. But how do the readers consume? I didn’t quite understand it when Ina, a reader, consumed a soul and felt sick at first when it was trapped. Other than that, her world-building totally made sense.

It is definitely a fast-paced first book. Things are always happening and you as a reader don’t know at all where the story is going. At the end it was easier to guess, but that’s how it’s supposed to be if you wrote the story the right way, I guess?

I loved the ending! It was an end, but at the same time definitely not and I really hope that she will write her butt off so I can continue the story.

I received this as an e-ARC copy in exchange for my honest review in time for the release on February 6th this year. Life came in between and I am now posting this a couple of weeks too late. I don’t like stressing out a book and this way I can enjoy it more. Which I did. It gets a 4 out of 5 and I cross my fingers she will release the follow-up soon!