In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
In this original, historical ghost story set in 1918, the year of the deadly Spanish influenza, 16-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to sances and spirit photographers for comfort. Mary's never believed in ghosts, until her first loveNa boy who died in battleNreturns.
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I was pretty stoked to read this because I love reading about ghosts and I'm interested in the Spanish Flu epidemic (because I'm very well-adjusted, that's why.)
Unfortch, this kind of felt like the author was just like “I did so much research on Spiritualism and spirit photography and WWI and the flu and I MUST USE EVERY PIECE OF DETAIL I LEARNED OR IT WILL BE WASTED.” It also felt a bit heavy handed with its themes of equality for women and opposition to war propaganda. Like... we get it. But perhaps as a teen reader I would not mind as much. As an adult reader it was like, OK, Mary Shelley, we get it, girl power, girls can do photography too.
I liked the romance & mystery aspect more, although I was kind of disappointed that the solution to the mystery turned out to be that ghosts are real?? seemed like kind of a cop-out after all the build up about debunking fake spiritualists. Whatevs
