Urban fantasy for the YA set is a mixed bag, with a lot of it going toward the paranormal romance. This is described as sort of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-type tale, but it really reminds me more of a teenage female Harry Dresden in that the city is, in many cases, a character along with our heroine and her abilities regarding shadows and those she's up against. The plot itself almost feels secondary to whatever is trying to happen here, which is never a good sign, and ends up being something where the notes the author is trying to hit seem to take precedence over good plotting and action.
The concept is cool but the execution ends up lacking in a few ways, with the actual meat of the story taking seemingly forever to get rolling and the thing truly picking up only toward the last quarter of the book. It tries to be true to the cultural heritage but ends up feeling forced in more than a few ways, which is unfortunate. There's just a lot of potential in play here with a lot of negatives going along with it.
This is a decent read, but ultimately left me with something to be desired. Certain readers will enjoy this, but it didn't work for me.
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