Review of The Shade of Highfall

[Anupam Jyoti]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Shade of Highfall" by Mark O'Dell.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Written by Mark O'Dell, The shade of Highfall (The tale of Shrew) is the story of a girl named Shrew. Left alone in a cruel world to fend for herself, Shrew struggles to acquire the bare necessities just to survive. She was starting to get a handle on things until she was captured and thrown in the flooded sewer system underneath the city where she came across a magical dagger. And from there onwards her mystical adventure starts, from training to become a silent knight, uncovering the truth about the long lost city of fey and fighting the evil priest who's trying to raise the dead from there slumber, Shrew now has to fight to save the humanity from the clutches of the darkness which is threatening to consume it all.

O'Dell has brought the whole city of Highfall to life with his elaborate descriptions of the city's designs and the peaks and mountains surrounding it. The characters are well defined and the setting of the story is thoroughly thought out. It provides a clear imagination of the city in the minds of the readers. I really liked the illustration of the map that author provided of the city and its surrounding areas, it was very inventive and eye catching. The character of Shrew is very interesting, it will make the readers root for her until the end of the story. The Novel keeps the readers on the edge of their feet to find out what happens next.

Although it is a very well written and descriptive plot, it can get a little dull in between. Some of the words are hard to understand and new exclamations such as "Sirra's breath" might take a while of getting used to. Just like the city's description which are very graphic, the descriptions of the gruesome details of a fight are graphic too which might create a bit of uneasiness in the mind of readers. There are also many forms of ancient profanities mentioned in the Novel, which can be sometimes hard to understand.

But in my opinion the things I dislike pales in comparison to the amazing storyline and editing of this novel. The use of some new words and exclamations threw me off a bit but I was always hooked by the creative storyline. I suggest this Novel for the young adult genre, it's a good Novel for teenagers as well as adult. Especially to readers who are big fan of realistic fantasy world. Therefore, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars for its amazing, innovative and clever writing.

Thank you, hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Happy reading.

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The Shade of Highfall
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