Novel Review: Shadowland (The Mediator, #1) by Meg Cabot

Genre: YA Paranormal (Light Romance)

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: HarperCollins/Teen

Spoilers?: Minor-ish

Buy it here: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Suze is a mediator -- a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living. But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and surfing instead of spectral visitations.

But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it's not that easy. There's a ghost with revenge on her mind ... and Suze happens to be in the way.

Review:

I first started this book a couple of years ago, and got a little over a hundred pages into it, but didn’t like it very much. I decided to finish it recently, though, and felt better about it. In a way, it reminds me a bit of MaryJanice Davidson’s writing, in how fast it goes by, not so much in the jokes. Maybe that’s why it was an easier read for me this time, since I’ve grown to really enjoy Davidson’s books.

Shadowland is about Suze, a girl who is forced to move from New York to California because her mother remarried, and so now she has three step-brothers, and a new ghost roommate. Yea, Suze can see ghosts. She’s not a big fan of them, but she knows how to deal with them; including how to get rid of them. Only, her roommate, Jesse, isn’t going away. And neither is that pesky dead girl at her new school.

At first, Suze annoyed me with how cocky in herself she was, but I think that lessened later on in the book, because it didn’t bother me so much in my second attempt. I like Jesse, who’s a dead cowboy, and seems rather sweet. Right now they have a love-hate relationship going on, which I’m sure will lessen in later books, because they’re growing on each other. There also doesn’t really seem to be a point in it, so I hope it goes away or becomes more natural.

There’s also a scene where she does an exorcism, and she skips out on the details. Since it’s in Suze’s point-of-view, she makes the excuse that she doesn’t want the readers to try it, but to me it sounded like the author just hadn’t done enough research or something. I mean, that could have worked, but it just didn’t for me. The random, exaggerated dynamic in this book just doesn’t seem to work very well, to read very naturally, and I’m not sure why. I’m hoping that it works itself out, gets into a better flow, later in the series.

I really like Doc, also known as David, who is Suze’s youngest step-brother. I think he’s in middle school, and he’s rather and adorable and very sweet. Her other step-brothers seem alright, and I’m hoping to get to know them better in later books.

She meets a second mediator in this book, Father Dom (which is probably short for Dominic or something, but I keep thinking Dominant, as in BSDM type things, which is horrible and should not be related to this book in anyway. Do you think that was purposeful by the author, though, or a total coincidence? Cause I keep wondering…), who works at her school, which is very religious. He seems nice, and will probably be helping her out, teaching her some things about being a mediator, in later books.

At first, I hadn’t planned on reading any more books in this series, or by Cabot, but now I think I might. I do want to see what happens between Suze and Jesse, more of Doc, and get to know her other family members better. I don’t know if I’ll be reading the next book soon, but I do plan to read it at some point.