First off, allow me to say that I will not just be reviewing Anastasia Hopcus' Shadow Hills... In fact, I will be gushing... at length... in abundance....And with that, commence gushing...California native Persephone (Phe) Archer has made a life altering decision to move across the country to attend a prestigious school, Devenish Prep. The cause behind this effect is thanks to her older sister's sudden death nearly a year before. Athena had been considering going to Devenish for reasons that die with her, and it is up for Phe to unearth them.Phe arrives at Devenish and immediately things seem off. The town seems to have too many secrets, the students are all way too smart, and Phe has too many nightmares about her sister. When Phe meets Zach and Corrine Redford, the local Adonis and amazonian siblings, things get even weirder. Zach can do things that Phe has never seen a human do, and Corrine seems too ready to chase Phe off. Does their behaviour tie into what happened with Phe's sister a year before?This book is wonderful... delightful and sweet, and so well written. I've been telling people for two days about my new book crush. I'm so glad that the initial premise had a phenomenal payoff. It does ring of themes I usually like... specialized prep school, outsider coming in, a bit of a mystery and a supernatural taste... however, all those things considered this is a wholly unique concept for YA paranormal urban fantasy. Wow. I can honestly say that having said all of that I still have not read anything like this before.I love this book. I loved the main characters and the conflict. I loved the fact that reading this book made my entire life go away for about 48 hours. I love that Hopcus managed to surprise me and elate me... and, miracle of miracles, managed to write an ending to a Mystery that I DID NOT SOLVE!!! Seriously, huge gush points there. My main problem with the mystery genre is that I always pinpoint who did the deed within the first 100 or so pages...usually a character introduction is sufficient. Well, Shadow Hills delivered my first culprit I have not been able to guess in I can't tell you how long. I thought one way and it ended up being someone totally different. Genius. Awesome. I can't tell you how happy I am that I could not guess it. Bravo.So...yeah... 5 of 5 stars. As if I needed to clarify.Ms. Hopcus, I want a sequel. Pretty please with everything on top?*Endgush*- review courtesy of www.bibliopunkk.net
