In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters - OPTIONAL

Winters, Cat  In the Shadow of Blackbirds, 387 pgs.  Amulet Books, 2013.  $16.95  Content:  Language:  14 swears; Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13 (torture).  

Mary Shelley is in love with Steven, a young man who recently left for World War I.  She is moving to San Diego because her father is in prison for helping others avoid the draft and she now has to live with her Aunt Ava who works in a manufacturing plant.  Mary Shelley and Aunt Ava are friends with a photographer who is well known for capturing spirits in his photographs, and he is Steven’s brother.  But after Mary Shelley survives a lightning strike she is visited by Steven’s tormented ghost.  As Mary Shelley investigates what happened to Steven, she uncovers many frightening truths about Steven’s brother and the spiritualist photographs.  

I was pulled into this ghost story and couldn’t put it down.  The historical setting of 1918 was full of fascinating insight into World War I veterans and the Spanish Influenza making the reader learn what it felt like to live during those historical events.  Up until the end, this book was advisable because of the great mix of history and fiction, but the mystery of what happened to Steven ended up being human caused violence and torture which was grisly to read pushing the rating between rated R and PG-13, and moving it to optional.  

HS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.