Review: Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

Title: Shadow Hills
Author: Anastasia Hopcus
Series: -
Genre: YA
Release Date: July 13, 2010
Publisher: Egmont
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Bought
Blurb:

After her sister Athena's tragic death, it's obvious that grief-stricken Persephone "Phe" Archer no longer belongs in Los Angeles. Hoping to make sense of her sister's sudden demise and the cryptic dreams following it, Phe abandons her bubbly LA life to attend an uptight East Coast preparatory school in Shadow Hills, MA — a school which her sister mysteriously mentioned in her last diary entry before she died.

Once there, Phe quickly realizes that something is deeply amiss in her new town. Not only does Shadow Hills' history boast an unexplained epidemic that decimated hundreds of its citizens in the 1700s, but its modern townies also seem eerily psychic, with the bizarre ability to bend metal. Even Zach — the gorgeous stranger Phe meets and immediately begins to lust after — seems as if he is hiding something serious. Phe is determined to get to the bottom of it. The longer she stays there, the more she suspects that her sister's untimely death and her own destiny are intricately linked to those who reside in Shadow Hills.

I read this novel in one sitting, once I started I just couldn't stop. Phe, the main character, decides to go to the Shadow Hills boarding school to discover it's connection to her sister's death. Phe is a very tough girl; she's been through a lot and is trying to figure out who she is while discovering Shadow Hills' secrets. She's a very likeable character and I loved seeing her relationship with Zach evolve. Zach is a mysterious but sweet character, he has a connection with Phe and tries to help her the best he can, even though most of the time it means breaking the rules. I loved how they trusted each other no matter what.

Shadow Hills is a strange but very interesting little town, I liked how the author introduced us little by little to most people, although I would have liked to know more about the town's past and what kind of changes the inhabitans of the town suffered.
Dreams are very important in this book, Phe's dreams in especific. Most of the time I hate reading dreams, but the author made those scenes very interesting and cryptic, they worked really well in this book.

This was a very intriguing and suspesful debut book, with a heavy touch of romance and supernatural events. While this is a stand alone novel, I really hope the author is working on a second book. This was definitely one of my favourite 2010 YA books.


Memorable Lines:
The real reason I couldn’t tear my gaze away, the thing that turned my muscles to ice even as my skin burned, was the one and only thought running through my mind: That’s him. That is the guy from my dream.

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