Review: When Shadows Fall by Lindy Enns

Blurb:

“Everything I hated and feared was outside that window. There was nothing between me and the night, nothing but a boy I didn’t know and shouldn’t trust.”

When the sun sets in Merak, a terrifying shadow world appears, guarded by nightmare beasts that prowl the darkness enforcing the rule of a tyrant lord.

Terrified of the night and plagued with crippling panic attacks, seventeen-year-old Ara Holstenner’s only solace from her anxiety is the bond she shares with her brave younger sister. But when Lan is taken by shadow creatures, Ara must embark on a perilous quest to rescue her, aided only by a strange boy who claims to be from her past.

But the night is not what it seems. If Ara cannot untangle the dark secrets lurking within its shadows, she will condemn her sister—and herself—to a lifetime of unimaginable torment.

Review:

"When Shadows Fall," by Lindy Enns, is a novel that provides a reading experience difficult to define in simple, concise terms.

Much like the protagonist in the story she tells, I often found myself asking complicated questions and trying to formulate them as best I could.

As a reader, and in this case reviewer, it means re-examining sentences, paragraphs, whole chapters.

Uncertainty accompanied me through much of the first act, filled with references to medieval, post-apocalyptic, and perhaps even gas lamp or steampunk atmospheres.

Yet the charm of the basic idea and the well-defined characters kept me very entertained.

But let's go in order.

First a broad glance, then a few closer looks.

THE IMPLIED WORLD. THE EXPLICIT WORLD.

The world that Ara, the protagonist, experiences is not the world we see between the pages of this novel.

The uncertainty I mentioned in the introduction all stems from the aesthetic impact and some conflicts between the implied and the explicit.

The descriptions are all in all effective, but they push us in different directions.

At first I thought I was dealing with a classic fantasy, medieval inspiration. Instead, after a considerable number of pages, we are shown a world that may have been trapped in a stalemate. Social and industrial evolution is undermined by the rule of a dark lord who mercilessly controls, restricts, and judges.

Indeed, this result of both uncertainty and curiosity may have been entirely intended. This would not be the first novel I have read in which the author decided to remain cryptic, especially in the first act, to let the story and its context grow organically as the pages flow.

Yet I wonder if it was the best choice.

Let me give an example. Let's talk about bigwigs just to make sure we understand each other without a shadow of a doubt.

In Brandon Sanderson's "The Stormlight Archives", the lush visuals of traditional fantasy settings, complete with knights, princesses, and elaborate gowns, reign supreme, painting a vivid picture of a classic world. However, the author is quick to make it clear that those elements are present, yes, but reworked in a very clear way.  We see the various types of clothing, understand what they imply and how they differ from the classic fantasy aesthetic we are all familiar with.

We observe the world and realize that instead of lush forests and towering mountains we are dealing with desolate (seemingly desert) plains infested with huge lobsters.

This is a deliberate and gradual process. From the usual to the original.

Robert Jordan did it in very elegant and subtle ways in his Wheel of Time, Mary E. Pearson showed us how to do it with great skill in her Remnant Chronicles. The same is true of Leigh Bardugo and her Grishaverse.

Enns here keeps it more vague. The elements and information that should guide us are few, some seeming to conflict with what was established at the beginning of the story.

But these are rarely shortcomings capable of ruining the reading experience altogether.

I wish I could have seen, and experienced, Ara's world more effectively. A more precise and detailed characterization of the whole context would have been helpful.

But if descriptions, or lack thereof, interest you little, know that there is much to love in this story.

THE ANCHOR

As I mentioned, Ara is a beautifully defined character and the anchor that tied me to this story.

At seventeen years old, Ara lives in fear. She lost her father to the curse that oppresses the village in which she lives and has been plagued by terrible panic attacks ever since.

Her relationship with her sister Lan is complex. They love each other, of course, but they often clash because of diametrically opposed dispositions.

Lan is distracted, somewhat rebellious, and wants a present (and future) that Ara cannot even imagine.

The girls' mother is a figure consumed by the need to protect her daughters and survive in a nightmarish world.

There are layers upon layers of delightful and complex personal interactions that make all these characters distinctly endearing.

The rest of the cast is well done, but never quite reaches the same level of depth.

FUEL, QUESTIONS AND DRAMA

Ara has a natural aptitude for using technology to regulate the basic activities of this world. It all revolves around using emotions as "fuel" to operate machines of all kinds: from teapots to large tools for harvesting grain.

The intricacies of how these machines work are explained well. Don't worry if they don't seem to make sense at first. Little by little the basic logic will become clearer.

The plot is well organized and proceeds fluidly, bringing into play a series of interesting questions that accumulate little by little and find answers with equal regularity.

I really appreciate how questions and answers always go hand in hand with the introduction of new characters.

The biggest mysteries in this novel, the most threatening ones, always have to do with the staging of worldbuilding, but the answers always come in a personal and intimate way. This should be the case in any good fantasy novel, in my opinion, but it often doesn't. 

In this story, however, this aspect is handled well, without any contradictions and with an admirable progression.

I actually have some doubts about the effectiveness of the encounter/clash with the main villain.

The tension builds up little by little, as do the questions and the fear. But when it comes to the big moment the real collision is very fast.

It makes sense on a thematic level, it credibly resolves the conflicts that motivate the story, yes.

But I would have liked more on a dramatic level.

UNUSUAL BUT STRONG

As I said at the beginning, evaluating this novel was difficult for me.

Overall, it is an excellent read for the characters and the way the story unfolds. I really appreciated Ara's development, the way she faced the difficulties, internal and external, and the spirit that she brought out.

However, I would have appreciated a deeper story from the point of view of the lore and with a more incisive aesthetic characterization.

The uncertainty I was talking about, in any case, lightens as the reading progresses and the characters begin to take over.

So if you are looking for an unusual fantasy novel with good characters, this novel will offer you hours and hours of excellent entertainment.