Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Seer of Shadows

Title:  The Seer of Shadows
By:  Avi
Genre:  Fantasy
Pages:  202

Description:
         This book surprised me by being quite good.  Ever since I was in fifth grade, I have avoided books by Avi because of a bad experience with one I read in Elementary School.  I thought it was the most boring, yet confusing book I'd ever read, and ever since then, I have not read a single Avi book.  However, I needed to find a book to read for this blogpost, and I saw The Seer of the Shadows, and I tried it.  It was awesome!  This book takes place in the late 1860s to 1870s, and is about a young boy who is apprenticed to a photographer.  He gets wrapped up in this mystery where he needs to find out what happened to this girl that keeps on turning up in pictures that he takes.  She happens to be the ghost of his master's client's "daughter", Eleonora.  Eleonora wasn't actually the client's daughter.  She was the client's niece, and they only adopted her when her parents died because she was very rich.  However, they mistreated her African-American adopted sister, and she refused to sign any documents that would turn over all the money to them.  They starved her and would not call a doctor until she signed the papers.  In the end, she died.  This young photographer's pictures start to bring her ghost back to the world of the living.  This ghost is bent on revenge.  She tries to set fire to her aunt and uncle's house, and when she doesn't succeed in doing that, she destroys one of her uncle's major trading buildings.  She continues causing trouble and the main character (Horace) has to find a way to make her disappear forever.
         I could not put this book down!  I read the whole thing while my sister was having her birthday party because it was so good!  I will never again judge Avi badly! :) 

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a very interesting book, great description.

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  2. This does sound like a really great book! What was the title of the book you read in Elementary School? Maybe I will check it out :)

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