| Title | : | Shadowland |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0425188221 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780425188224 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 468 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 1980 |
| Awards | : | Locus Award Best Fantasy Novel (1981), World Fantasy Award Best Novel (1981), Balrog Award Best Novel (1981) |
if you have ever been afraid.
Come back. To a dark house deep in the Vermont woods, where two friends are spending a season of horror, apprenticed to a Master Magician.
Learning secrets best left unlearned. Entering a world of incalculable evil more ancient than death itself. More terrifying. And more real.
Only one of them will make it through.
Shadowland Reviews
-
This book I read when I was a teenager. It is a fantastic book by a literary great.
Finished reading it again recently while I was away. I enjoyed it again. Five stars.👍🐯 -
Peter Straub came to prominence in 1979 with Ghost Story, an old fashioned spooky ghost tale which I wasn't really a fan of (though I appreciate it). A year later, in 1980, he published Shadowland, a coming of age novel which can be classified as dark fantasy with horror elements. This time, I say, he penned a winner.
Shadowland is concerned with the friendship of two boys - Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale - which began at the private all-male school they both attended. As both try to fight the horrors all young boys have to suffer at one stage of their lives or another, Del introduces Tom to his world of magic tricks. When they both decide to spend the summer at Del's Uncle's house in New England, Tom discovers that things can be much more sinister than they seem. At Shadowland, their lives will be changed forever and after that summer nothing will be the same.
Shadowland is a beautiful novel unlike most fantasy or horror works. Straub is a master prose stylist who crafts to perfection (he wrote the novel longhand in multiple journals, and then retyped it on a typewriter - who can imagine a writer doing that nowadays?) and the result is an intricately detailed work, structurally complex and above all, stylish. Opening with a prologue which reads like a feverish dream which makes us see the strangest things, the novel expertly morphs into a coming of age school story, and only after that unleashes its full power. Straub introduces characters, plots and subplots within those, but nothing is without purpose in this story; he draws heavily on various folk tales (and even includes some of his own making) thereby seducing the reader who is surprised with each revelation - and the horror is only starting. From the afterword:
That same year, I had been moved by John Fowles’ novel, The Magus, which suggested a way to unite the powerful strangeness resulting from the oral tradition with more conventional narrative satisfactions. No one familiar with The Magus who reads Shadowland can fail to notice Fowles’ influence on me, which was profound and pervasive: but this influence was above all liberating, not enslaving. Fowles demonstrated how the seductive uncertainty implicit in theatrical illusion and, even more importantly, the emotional effects of this uncertainty, could find expression in a narrative that itself moved through successive layers of surprise, doubt, suspicion, and uncertainty.
Reading Shadowland is much like witnessing a spectacle of illusion and the uncertainity it evokes. The aura that "something is terribly wrong" never leaves, and if an enchantment was cast, it is a dark and haunting one. One of the things that are immediately noticeable is Straub's shift in approach to horror; Ghost Story was largely constrained by the Victorian history of the genre, where the horror needed to be subtle and only hinted at; Though Shadowland is a subtle and suggestive work, it escapes this convenction and Straub plays with the subtle and blalant terror wth marvelous results.
Shadowland is a masterful, unacknowledged work by a writer who has remained in the shadows far, far too long. Peter Straub possesses an imagination without boundaries along with the gift of marvelous storytelling and the ability of bringing things to life with the most amazing imagery and constructing atmosphere that is gothic, unsettling, elusive and hallucinatory all at once. Intriguing and complex, Shadowland will please every reader who enjoys well-crafed fiction that demands full attention and forces to think about what it presents. A truly magical tale. -
Strange to think that a perfectly good novel can be ruined by a few missteps, but that's the case for me here. Shadowland is, for the most part, impeccably written. Straub is a smart author, an intellectual even, and the rather clinical arm's length he keeps from his subject and characters is interesting and distinctive. Although that means empathy with his protagonists is nearly impossibly to achieve, I don't necessarily need that if there are things happening that keep my mind active and my imagination engaged. So it's not the distance that made me give this 1 star, it's how Straub loses control of the effects that he is trying to create. The first third or so, set at an academy, was mainly fascinating. But later, when the fireworks and the dreamworks start happening, so did the bloat. It all became a case of trying too hard for too long. Those dream sequences were grueling. The climactic series of magical battles were at first annoying, and then overwritten, and eventually... boring. I did not expect this book to become a slog, but that's what it became for me. It didn't help that the framing of the story (a journalist writing an article) was pointless and unnecessarily distancing, in a book that already has a clear lack of feeling.
Bonus critique: the fate of one of the central characters was a pathetic joke. And I mean that literally: it was a ridiculous and mean-spirited joke, one based on the character's last name, and it was awful to see a sympathetic character treated in such an offhand way. Not just by the villain of course, but by the author. The gloss of it being an "inspirational death" - ugh - only barely concealed the disdain and disinterest underneath.
So yeah, this was a good book, until it became the shadow of a good book. Get it? How's that for a cheap joke, Straub.
PLACEHOLDER REVIEW:
Something better I hope because this one involved a lot of Huh? Oh, that's what's happening. Sigh. And repeat.
RTC, maybe, if the interest can be magically summoned. -
" If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
4.25⭐'s
Initial Thoughts
Not sure how to start with this one. In the wake of the sudden and unexpected death of one of horror literature's finest ever writers, in Peter Francis Straub, I'm not sure how to go about reviewing his first foray into the world of dark fantasy in Shadowland. So I'll adopt my standard approach of aimlessly rambling and hopefully finish with something that does the great man justice.
After reading Ghost Story, Koko and Floating Dragon, Straub became one of my favourite authors. I loved his intelligent prose and psychological brand of horror and suspense. I couldn't get enough of it, so decided to go back and read his books in a chronological fashion. Eleven books in and I was shocked when I read a message from his daughter Emma stating:
"Peter Francis Straub, the smartest and most fun person in every room he was ever in, 3/2/43 - 9/4/22,"
Its a weird feeling when you've been inside a guys head so much, particularly one like Straub who is so adept at articulating the depths of his imagination. I can only imagine the sense of loss felt by his family.
Straub was born March 2, 1943, in Milwaukee and had a passion for creative writing right from the start. Much like his good friend Stephen King, he had an immediate love affair with writing and used it as a form of escapism. He called the process of putting pen to paper his "sacred space" where he could let his imagination run wild.
A near death experience after being hit by a car lead to an early fascination with death and the supernatural. A lot of months spent in hospital and out of school was put to good use as he read like a demon. It wasn't long before he was crafting his own tales of the macabre. I read in an interview that a teacher in high school was shocked to read an English assignment where young Peter produced a story of a spy trying to kill himself by jumping from a building. If only she knew exactly where this passion would take him.
He wrote his first novel, Marriages (1973), during the summer holidays and this was snapped up by the first publisher he showed it to. I haven't read that one yet as it was only mildly successful and not in the least bit supernatural. It wasn't until his publisher recommended a venture into the horror genre that his career really got moving with the 1975 novel, Julia. That one I have read and it's a cracker.
What can I say. After multiple awards including multiple Bram Stoker and International Fantasy Awards and the International Horror Guild Award he's built a reputation as one of the most recognised and respected names in the horror and suspense genre. We've certainly lost one of the most talented writers and in my opinion the best prose out of any of it's authors.
Shadowland, published in 1980, was something different from Peter as he ventured into the realms of dark fantasy. Although this isn't my go-to genre, I couldn't wait to see what he could do with this one. Like most I first read this author with his collaboration with Stephen King in The Talisman, which is definitely a fantasy. I'm interested to find out exactly how much flex Strauby had in the land of the fantastical.
Pete Straub and Steve King
The Story
This is the story of Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale as we join them in Carson Prep School, tormented by strict teachers and the the most evil of senior student, 'Skeleton' Ridpath. Draco Malfoy has nothing on this guy and he's not adverse to dishing out a physical beating if the mood takes him. The two freshmen are right at the bottom of the food chain and making it through the year unscathed looks an impossible task.
Tom and Del soon form an unlikely friendship based around the shared love of magic tricks. Del dreams of following in the footsteps of his Uncle Cole as a famous magician and his enthusiasm is infectious. As the end of the year approaches the pair focus on preparing for a magic show. There's definite Harry Potter vibes here, although this book was written some time before it. I really enjoyed this section and was fully invested in the characters .
The next section of the book begins when Del invites Tom to spend the summer break at his Uncle's estate in Vermont called...you guessed it... Shadowland. We quickly discover that there's a lot more to the eccentric Uncle Cole than meets the eye and not just him being a raging alcoholic. There's some fantastic back story thrown in to how he became the world's greatest magician and we begin to see a more sinister plot develop.
" He says you're part music and part blood, part thinker and part killer. And if you can find all that in you and control it, then you deserve to be set apart.' 'So it's about control. About power.' 'Sure it is. It's about being God."
The Writing
No matter what sort of story Straub is writing the prose are always top notch.
He is a craftsman who painstakingly chooses each word with real care. Indeed when he compared himself to Stephen King he described his friend as a "workhorse" who could churn out page after page where he would deliberate carefully over the construction of each sentence. It definitely shows and I believe his work is truly underappreciated.
Shadowland is written in first person and is presented as a biography from the perspective of an unnamed Carson student. Talk about an unreliable narrator, I didn't even get to know who the bloody hell this person was. But it definitely adds an air of mystery to the proceedings and made me question the truth of the matter. Straub does like to confuse his reader, with dreamlike sequences and a certain degree of ambiguity. This one is no different and I had to challenge myself in certain scenes to get my head around it.
There's plenty of twists and turns, particularly towards the conclusion, and although it's not my exact cup of tea my interest was held throughout. Honestly, I could go on about Straub's writing all day and he fully deserves it. But in the interest of not making this review an epic to rival War and Peace I'll conclude by saying it is awesome and try and wrap things up.
" Shadowland, an ugly name for a house, was anywhere secretive and mean, anywhere that deserved shadows because the people there hated light. Shadowland implied dispossession. "
The Characters
But not before I talk about the characters. The focus is on the characters of Del Nightingale and Tom Flanagan, and Straub places a lot of emphasis on exploring their relationship. A central theme in Straub's work that I've picked up on is how an individual copes with loss. In Shadowland we see how both boys react to the loss of friendship when ambition gets in the way. Starting at the beginning with these two helped me to get invested and care about what happened to them.
Uncle Coleman is a fascinating villain and the chapters detailing his backstory were potentially the best parts of the book. You constantly question his motives and struggle to decide what side he's on.
I was also intrigued by Rose Armstrong, one of Cole's underlings who soon befriends Tom. She's a haunted character surrounded by mystery and the scenes from involving her are quite often surreal, which Straub certainly knows how to do. Plus we get a cameo from Miles Teargarden who starred in If You Could See Me Now, one of Straub's earlier novels.
Final Thoughts
What can I say. I've extremely mixed feelings at the end of this novel. Sadness in that we've lost a great influence in the horror genre and one of my favourite authors. Happiness in the fact he's left behind many outstanding novels that each contain a piece of himself. I certainly haven't been impacted by the death of an author before so it's a new experience.
But this isn't about me, it's about the book at hand. Although it's not my type of story, it's taught me that I enjoy Straub's writing on its own merit. It really is that good. In this one he's incorporated a number of fairy tales to create his own unique spin and it was a fantastic experience having it unfold in my mind. Yes I prefer his horror and mystery stories, that's why I haven't given it top marks, but it really demonstrates the guy's imagination.
Thanks for letting me be a part of it Peter. This one's for you...cheers!
Goodbye Peter Straub -
This book is.... severely weird. I have a lot of thoughts. Review coming soon.
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Revisited Review
I really enjoy this kind of horror. Shadowland has an elaborate build up, and the reader invests quite a bit in the story before things start going awry. This means that you actually do care about what happens next…
There’s also a very “real world” feel to the events, however bizarre things eventually turn out. You almost, almost feel that this could actually happen. That being said, I wasn’t using the term bizarre loosely just now. This is one sinister story, and if the body count isn’t exactly apocalyptic, the psychological toll this novel takes is quite extraordinary. Straub has a way of infusing even the mundane with a sense of sinister purpose. Every single sentence drips menace.
Something of note is the structure of the novel, which is split into two very distinct sequences. The first half of the novel depicts events that play out at a certain school, where we are introduced to key members of the cast. The second half of the book deals with two of the pupils and their time at Shadowland, which is, at first glance, the estate of an uncle of one of the boys. I can hardly say too much more, since that would be giving away some of the plot. Of course, the events depicted in the first half of the novel have a bearing on the events that are depicted in the second half of the novel, so there is some excellent foreshadowing.
This is not a quick read, and at times I found the book a bit complicated, not to mention mind-numbingly weird. It's good stuff, though, even when it's taking its time.
Being a Straub novel, when things start going wrong they go very wrong. This is not a gorefest, however. What it is, is creepy as heck, and very suspenseful with some genuine shocks thrown in for good measure. Excellent characterisation, some philosophical meanderings and lots of allegory and metaphor relating to religion and the occult add spice to what is already a good story.
Despite the somewhat deceptive pacing it is an engaging and chilling read. If you like Straub’s novels or atmospheric old school horror in general, you might want to check this out. Just stay away from any mind altering substances while reading it - the experience might ruin you. -
I didn’t love this as much as I did the first time around, but it was still pretty damn good.
-
Not sure what happened here, although I suspect it was the case of success bloat. Straub's first ventures into supernatural (If You Could See Me Now and Julia) were lean, mean thriller (thrilling)machines. Shadowland must be where he veered off into the prolixity of later years. I had such high expectations for this book based not only on how much I liked the Straub's aforementioned works, but also on the love I have for the subject. Magic, how can you go wrong with magic. It's innately fun. And yet...Shadowland has the genre stereotypical coming of age trip back in time structure, although it is framed in a present day (for the day) narrative, which might have been unnecessary and at the very least proves quite distracting on several occasions throughout the book. It's sort of an epic story in sheer ambition and size, it has a lot going on, too much going on really, and Straub seems willing and eager to explore every tangential plot line that comes up, as if paid by word. As a result, it often feels like reading a somewhat disjointed and overwhelming sum of lovely individual parts. Not to imply it doesn't have a cohesive coherent plot, it does. It has to do with two teenage boys who spend a very...interesting summer at a palatial, literally magical estate of an uncle, who just happens to be looking for an apprentice. There are plenty of fantasy elements, there are plenty of horror elements. It is undeniably well written. It should have wowed. And yet...Shadowland is mostly good, occasionally very good, but more often than not if felt like a chore to read, not quite plodding, but something of a slog. It overwhelmed with its grandiosity. And yet, admittedly, this is very much an acquired taste and seems like the sort of thing that would be positively adored by the right reader.
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I forgot about this one until now. Read it a gajillion years ago and I remember not liking it. Might be worth a re-read... maybe.
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Some of the more surreal moments, as well as the occasional switches in narratives, made this book a little hard to follow at times, but there IS a reason I gave this book five stars: it was terrific. It's not the all-out horror fest that the cover (of the 1980's paperback) promised, but there were some truly gruesome scenes towards the climax, as well as a general tone of mounting tension throughout.
Tom Flanagan is a very memorably three-dimensional young protagonist, and all the conflicts of childhood innocence and naivete being challenged by oncoming adulthood (and in this case, some more unusual challenges!) make him all the more believable.
The twisting narratives, like multiple concentric circles (overlapping each other at times!) are also highly engrossing, and never boring (not even the miniature "stories" - which have everything to do with the plot, and cannot be skipped!). The only thing that I fear may turn a lot of readers off is the slow buildup of the first 140 pages or so, describing the boys in school: I cannot begin to tell you how important it all is to the story later on - it's not just filler!
'Shadowland' was an enchanting read, and all the more welcome for its subject matter in the wake of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Seriously - read it, and enjoy it thoroughly. -
During the extremely unsatisfying experience of reading Lev Grossman's "The Magicians", I kept thinking of how much better Straub's treatment of similar themes was, so literally the minute I finished "The Magicians" I went to my bookshelf and picked out this book to re-read. With it's nods to everything from Grimm's Fairy Tales to Hans Christian Andersen to John Fowles' The Magus, this is both a literate homage to the art of storytelling and a gripping story in its own right. The tale of two boarding school best friends, one of whom is destined to be the greatest magician in the world, and the malevolent wizard who seeks to keep the mantle for himself, this is a mournful story filled with melancholy, violence and tragedy. The journey from innocence through temptation to self-awareness provides the backbone for these characters, and the layered narratives and "realities" are skillfully wrought. A perfectly crafted gem.
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I can't even review this. I hated it. Finishing it was like Chinese water torture. I just.. Hated it. I have no idea what the point was... It was just... Ridiculous and bad and ridiculously bad.
I don't want to waste another moment thinking about it, so that's my review.
Not recommended. -
This book was sooooo close to being a five star read but the climactic final scenes were very rushed and generally all over the place. If Straub wasn’t under the influence of some heavy drugs when he wrote some of the scenes in this book I would be surprised...
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As you can see, it took me forever to read this book. Some parts were beautifully written, but it really felt like 2 books in one. The latter being a struggle that literally took me years to finish. I just hated the ending. It was weird and strange and took too much imagination to even make sense. I can't say how much I didn't enjoy this book. It wasn't for me. I'm struggling to finish Koko as well which is making me apprehensive to start Ghost Story. I really want to like Straub, but his writing style is too much. He just drones on for pages at a time. Well, I tried and I'll continue to try, for now anyway. Sorry. 2 stars for me.
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Peter Straub can do no wrong apparently. 5 stars, all the way!
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The first part of this book really wraps you up in the young characters lives--makes you feel as if you know them a little, the rest gets wilder by the page, as the boys make a trip to the magicians house.....evil magic....and a magician looking for THE ONE to cary on in his place when the time comes (he doesn't care a bit that one is his nephew). There's friendship heartbreak, a girl who the two wonderfully written young boys both want. Then things get trippy, and then trippier (the bugs bunny scene was just a bad choice, Mr. Straub--what were you smoking? It certainly made me feel like I'd taken something illegal--and it was a very bad trip) bloody with evil oozing from every chapter. It seems like there's no escape...and a promise that one will end up dead. :(
I promise to make this review better soon as I accomplish a few other things, This book---you will love it or hate it. -
3 confused, hesitant stars. It's like a 4.5 with a whole bunch of -10 details.
If someone asks me if I like Peter Straub it'll probably trigger a migraine now. Yes? Kind of? I hate his work very much? I'll probably read this again and I don't know why I want to, but I do want to. Send help. -
This book was my January 2016 buddy read with super-reading buddy
Edward Lorn. For a number of reasons, we abandoned it that time, at close to half the book read. Edward suggested it was time to give it another chance and I'm grateful for that! At the same time, I can understand the way we struggled with it the first time around; the read is not like much else, even if I'm having a quite hard time pinning down what sets it apart.
The story, which is quite well-known I guess, I won't go into it all that much, is about two young boys - 15 years at the time the main part takes place. Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale are schoolmates at a boarding school where most of the first half of the story takes place. For the longest time, I thought that the narration shifted between Tom and an omniscient third person, but I soon got to realize that most (all?) is told by an unnamed classmate/friend of theirs. Thinking back, I guess there was something concerning this in the earliest part of the book, but it must have eluded me in some way. Anyways, the 'school part' of the book is quite good - a coming-of-age story involving a boarding school including the bullying, strict teachers and what you can expect basically. Oh, and some hints of magical stuff that you might not.
The second part of the story has the boys traveling to Del's uncle and his estate Shadowland. The uncle, Coleman Collins, is a now retired stage magician, that proves to do much more than sleight-of-hand and misdirection. Starting out, the boys are fascinated by his stories and the prospect of learning from the old master. Soon though, his motivations and goals with having them proves to be something other than they thought.
Throughout the book, different stories are relayed, ranging from the supposedly old folk tale "The King of the Cats", which plays a large part and is a cool one, or Collins experiences during the first world war, which is a great story. Other stories are of less importance and yet others seem to not be of any major significance to the main storyline, or have much of a conclusion. These I felt sometimes dragged a bit - at the same time they do bring some feeling of authenticity to the whole. Not easily explained, but the end result is quite satisfying. The end, though, drags along for quite many pages after it should have been wrapped up and is the main reason to why I'm holding a star back from this, ultimately, strange but really good reading experience. -
Underrated Horror master! Straub is detailed, eccentric, and is a natural story teller. No wonder King keeps wanting to write books with him.
Shadowland was intense. From the multi layered timeline approach to investing in prep school students as lead characters, this story covered much ground for a singular title. There were parables within the story that related to where the story was intending to go, provided clues as to who was tricking whom, and added dimensions that expanded the tale beyond the pages being read.
Oh to be sure, the casual reader will quit during the stereo typical prep school hazing segment. But venture beyond and the tale continues to unfold, yet be mindful of what you've read! We have seen these characters before, elsewhere certainly, but under different names. Yet in Carson, they have a role to play.
I guess the "hero" would be Tom Flanagan, since it is his tale to share to the unknown writer/classmate from years ago. But do we drink in his tale whole-heartedly? or do we remain skeptical throughout? You decide. But then who, when, and where does the villain appear? Read and find out.
The engagement of the reader from the here and now, relating to a story of teen years that includes further historical tales of relevance beyond that, with cautionary Grimm's Fairy Tales, every so often, only to have a digression into the nearer present era, then return to the teen story involving staged productions to distract...worked for me.
(Would have loved to see his storyboard of ideas when drafting this story.)
I didn't feel any true terror, per se, but felt the tension between the characters as displayed. And eagerly, vicariously, shadowed their footsteps throughout their adventure. There were singular moments that Straub nailed from the age perspective, that made you know what he was putting into the story, and that he knew those moments deeply.
I read elsewhere and would agree, this was a known precursor to the Potter series, easily read by Rowling and interpreted by her, toward a more family friendly audience. The character beats are there, certainly (two boys, and a girl traipsing thru magic-ville, for starters) and the over whelming and likely unacknowledged occult parallel world around the characters involved.
This tapestry was expertly woven, until you are left breathless.
Thanks for reading. -
Despite the fact that Peter Straub is my second-favorite author, I always go into his books with a slight sense of trepidation and doubt. Straub is an excellent writer, no doubt about that; his books just require a certain frame of mind because... well, they aren't always as they seem. Straub is the king of hidden meaning and messages, and he enjoys confusing (errr.... "challenging" -- let's go with "challenging") his readers. I enjoy that about him -- his books always make me really think, which is nice. But the density of his work as a whole can get a bit tiring.
However, in the case of Shadowland, that backfires. Sort of.
Shadowland mostly focuses on Del and Tom, two teenage boys who become friends at a prestigious boarding school where things are wrong and going more wrong all the time. They bond over a love of performing magic tricks. Del is an aspiring magician and spends each summer with his uncle, a famous user of the dark side of magic. This summer Tom wants to go along with his friend to protect him -- he feels nothing matters more than that.
Before I go much further, I must point out what is perhaps the most important part of this novel: the narration. This story is told in first person past for the majority, and the narrator is an unnamed, unknown classmate of the two boys retailing the story of what happened at Shadowland nearly twenty years after the fact. We never know who the narrator is, but Straub leads the reader to believe this guy is pretty important.... but we're never let it on who it is. Adding to that, the narrator mentions on several occasions that what he's writing down could, in fact, be wrong. He's going by heresay alone -- he never personally experienced most of what goes on with Tom and Del. For all we know, Shadowland -- Del's uncle's place of smoke, mirrors, and horrors -- could, in fact, not even exist. Annoyed yet? If so, join the club. It's something that irritated me and genuinely fascinated me throughout my reading. If anything, Peter Straub is the master of unreliable narration and keeping his readers at arm's length away from the heart and minds of the characters. In this way, despite them only being on the page, they feel truly alive and fully colored because these folks are like living, breathing humans -- none of us really know everything about each other.... especially what motivates and drives us. Still, this can create a sense of disconnect when reading.
This novel deals a lot in magic and what is real vs. what is not real. Shadowland is a mansion in secluded New England filled with trap doors and secret passages and hidden rooms, all bent at Del's uncle's sadistic will to alter the boys' sense of time and place. Because, you see, this summer is not like previous summers in which Del has come alone -- Coleman Collins is looking for an apprentice, and he ain't no nice guy. Because of this, it's hard to know at times while reading the story what's really real and what's been planted in the boys' heads. It's sometimes hard to know what's an illusion or trickery. And.... if I'm being honest, that gets sort of exhausting. I found myself ready for the novel to be over when I was only a little over halfway through, and yet I remained intrigued up until the end. I loved and hated this book, often at the same time.
I realize I've done a rather shoddy job at summing this book up, and that's because it really can't be summed up. Aside from the boys' prep school catching on fire and some weird stuff with Bugs Bunny and Humphrey Bogart, nothing much happens. However, I didn't realize nothing was happening until I turned the last page and tried thinking back on what I'd just read. In a way, I suppose Straub pulled a magic trick on his reader.
I'm not sure how I feel about Shadowland. I feel like it's a great coming-of-age tale filled with memorable characters and scary situations, but it just doesn't entirely work for me. It's a complex book, and when one primes the pump, he or she will be rewarded... and yet, not rewarded at all. I don't remember the last time I felt so conflicted about a book. I loved it, but I struggled with it. At times I would have preferred to watch paint dry than read another page, and sometimes I couldn't put it down. It threw me into a massive reader's block -- one I still haven't really returned from. I'm going to give it 3 and a half stars and a weak recommendation. If you're curious about Peter Straub, start with Ghost Story. If you're familiar with his works and enjoy a smodge-podge of fantasy and horror that doesn't always work on a logical level.... well, you could do worse. -
Read this book again, some 30 years plus, after I first stole it out of my school library. Same edition, yellowed by time. I've always said this was one of my favourite horror novels, and this re-read, all these years later did nothing to dissuade me from this opinion. It's a classic horror tale, which upon second reading I see similarities in minor ways to Stephen King's The Shining.
In this book two boys spend a summer at a magician's house, the magician being the uncle of one of the boy's, Del. Del thinks his uncle is grooming him to become the next great magician, but in reality the uncle is grooming Del's friend, Tom. And it's more than just "the next great magician" but the next King of the Cats, the next master of the dark arts. Except Tom wants nothing to do with it, and with the help of the mysterious girl, Rose, he plots his escape.
Ultimately, and inevitably, a great betrayal takes place. This book also has some of my favourite characters, including Rose and Skeleton Ridpath, arguably one the most tragic villains in horror.
A great magical ride. -
Often-times, the less fashionable is subjugated to the lower shelves of desirability, than the in-thing. In this way Peter Straub's tour-de-force- “Shadowland”, has been relegated to the untalked-about, the lesser-known realms of fantasy and magic. Making it a work that, sadly, few of the younger generation have read.
If the now people, readers of Erin Morgenstern, Casandra Clare and Suzanne Collins, opened their minds, they would discover MAGIC comparable to any flights of fantasy the aforementioned writers have created. This is a wondrous tale, dark and beautifully plotted. It is also exquisitely written, I challenge anyone to let the book fall open on any one page, quite by accident, and not discover writing as memorable and exciting as any well constructed poem. Peter Strub... I SALUTE YOU! -
I'm not going to lie I found this book a struggle by the time I got to the middle of it, I had totally forgotten what the start was! So this review is going to be a struggle.
A person meets the now adult Tom Flanagan in a bar on the sunset strip. From there Tom gives the guy what as the reader finds out involves a strange surreal tale of Adolescent reminiscence . That starts in a private posh school for boy's were he meet's a boy called Del nightingale. From there we find out that Del has a knack for magic. Both him and del strikes up a friendship. But sadly there school life bliss doesn't last long at all when Steve Ridpath is introduced, his nickname by the boy's is skeleton. And this character set's an uneasy tone to the tale.
I wouldn't say it was a horror theme but much more of a thriller. -
Nothing remarkable or exceptional, failed to excite me, read like a simple generic story. Could have pulled a lot better because the setting was huge.The most infuriating thing was the absence of any suspense like common how banal the story was! 3 stars for the ambitious setup and good character development.
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Shadowland was one of the first horror books I read growing up (I think I may have been twelve at the time that I read it). Along with some of the early works of Stephen King, it was one of the big reasons I became addicted to the genre and later became a writer. Shadowland is a richly written, complex books that I quickly became engrossed in. Shadowland follows two friends Del and Tom in boarding school. Both boys are into magic and dabble at it while they are in school. After the school year is over, they spend the summer at Del's uncle's house. Uncle Collins is a crazed, retired magician who gives the boy's a tutorial in real magic. As the book evolves, it starts to become clear that Uncle Collins isn't all in the up and up, something that Tom begins to pick up on. He comes to the conclusion that if he and Del are to survive the summer at Shadowland, they are going to have to escape. The only problem is that Uncle Collins has taken a keen interest in Tom and isn't about to let him go.
Shadowland is one of those books that perfectly fits the description of "hard to put down". Straub does a brilliant job of making the characters come alive. I've read many of Peter Straub's novels and this is my favorite. He did an excellent job of weaving in sub-plots and creating a story world that was both highly entertaining and very rewarding to read through. A definite horror classic, I would strongly advise to pick up a copy if you haven't already read this one.
Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity -
A magical coming of age.
The shadows start early in the story. Carson school is a strange and brooding place and the characters really came to life, especially Skeleton who is particularly unpleasant.
None of what comes before the boys actually go to Shadowland can prepare you though. The book takes on a really strong sense of illusion after that. Collins is always dark and menacing, an old fashioned sinister uncle who I loved.
The only down side for me was the ending. I actually struggled to follow it and all the magic that was being thrown about. Maybe that's just me but nevertheless I did enjoy it! -
What I'm about to say is extremely unfair, but : I have SO blown my teenage sorcerer emotional wad on Harry Potter, I had absolutely ZERO interest in these characters. It's as clear as day to me that J.K Rowling had read SHADOWLAND before writing Potter, but it's such a longer, broader and more immersive project than Peter Straub novel, I kind of shook my head and denied Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale any emotional connection on my end. I laughed these guys out of the room. No way whatever they were facing would equal the epochal battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort.
It's too bad, because the allegory of SHADOWLAND is ridiculously smart and effective. Shadowland is a place domineered by adults who earn a living from deceiving others and manipulative reality. It's a metaphor for the passage to the adult age, where Tom and Del need to relinquish their innocence in order to thrive. It's a fun idea, but it doesn't live very well in a post-Potter world. It hasn't aged kindly. If you're a teenage sorcerer flick, I guess this is your thing, but otherwise...meh. -
This was really a good book except for one scene involving Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny? Come on, someone should have told Mr. Straub to cut this scene. It added nothing and detracted from the overall mood of the book.
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God, in the orthodox view, causes famine, plague, and flood. Was God evil? Evil is a convenient fiction.
Scions of privilege ride the rails after Hogwarts becomes Columbine.
Master wizard is defeated by Harry Potter after the latter is crucified.
I honestly wish I was making this shit up. I don't understand the allure of this book. Is it about aging and the vanishing magic of life?
Perhaps, it is also bloated and ridiculous. It is likely for best to step away from the portrayal of women, yet I want to consider such. Before anyone asks there are “Magic negroes” but the treatment is evenhanded. Yet again we have an all powerful entity fallen by a pesky kid. We understand this from the opening pages and yet we inveigh against the inertia of hundreds of pages before the conflagration. The trip east appears to be connective tissue linking two distinct narratives despite that ubiquitous haunting owl—a pan-dimensional predator drone.
