Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

Sea of Shadows

By Kelley Armstrong

Genre(s): Fantasy/Horror

Rating: 3/5

Summary courtesy of Goodreads:

"In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.

Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters’ journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they’ve ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court—one that will alter the balance of their world forever."

What would you do if shadowy creatures suddenly appeared in your hometown and destroyed everything you knew and cared about?  I'm not normally one for horror, and had no idea when I snagged this off the Barnes & Noble bookshelf that it was part of that genre.  I just picked it up, read the back cover, and thought "Huh, this sounds like it could be good."  After reading it, I'm on the fence between "liking" and "disliking" it, flipping from one side to the other.  I really wanna like it, but at the same time, I have issues with it.

Sea of Shadows is based pretty loosely on classical/medieval Japan, with quite a bit of fantasy woven in.  The story centers around twin sisters Moria and Ashyn, the Keeper and Seeker of the Forest of the Dead.  The Forest of the Dead is the canyon-surrounded forest that the Empire leaves their "worst" criminals to die.  As the Seeker, Ashyn must go into the Forest to calm the souls of those criminals that died and lead them to pass on.  With the task of Keeper, Moria must stay to protect the village that guards the entrance to the Forest during the Seeking.

This year, however, the Seeking does not go to plan as strange shadow creatures reminiscent of the smoke monster in Lost cause a massacre both in the Forest and the village.  During this, Moria and Ashyn are separated and each are paired off with a different guy (a head-strong imperial guard and a lucky thief that survived the forest) on their journey to warn the emperor of the events that transpired and what sort of omen it could mean for the Empire's future.

One thing I can say for sure about this book: It has an interesting concept.  It really does, and I think it played out pretty well, though not to it's full potential.  While I did enjoy it, there were parts that really made me want to throw the book across the room.

First off was the pacing.

I really don't like when a story goes too fast, but what I hate even more is when it goes too slow.  And this book was slow.  I lost track of how many times I flipped through pages to see how many there were left when a particular section dragged on.  This section dragging happened often.  It felt like all I was reading was one extended part of a much larger book.  When I finished, I had to sit for a few minutes trying to process that it was actually over.

Second, the characters.  Oh, the characters.

You learn pretty early on not to become attached to any characters other than the twins and the two men accompanying them.  Pretty much nobody is safe from the mythical creatures that have started appearing.  Now, I wouldn't normally have a problem with that after other series have had similar outcomes.

Except.

Of the four main characters, I really only found myself caring about Ronan, the thief.  It's still very hard for me to like either of the twins or Gavril, the imperial guard.

Gavril was altogether too uptight through the whole thing and you learn next to nothing about him other than his father being one of the unlucky that had gone into the forest many years earlier.

Ashyn had almost no self-confidence, both in her Seeking abilities at the beginning, and her ability to find romance during the whole journey.  Her incessant knack for putting herself down and comparing herself to her sister was very irritating.  Every time she talked of how men preferred her sister over her, my eyes were rolling before I even thought about it.

She seemed to get a little better towards the end of the book, so I'm hoping in the sequel she develops a backbone.

Now Moria.  In the beginning I kind of liked her and thought she was cool.  By the end of the book, I was thoroughly fed up with her.  She does not change hardly at all.  When you think she's finally matured after all that's happened, something happens to revert her back to the child she was in the beginning, stubborn and won't listen to anybody.  She blindly believes what happened is true, and doesn't even question it when those around her are skeptical.

"'He admitted it. He used us and betrayed us, and he played a role in the massacre of our village and the death of our father.' She gripped her dagger. 'For that, I'll kill him.' 

'Moria, don't talk like that.' 

'Like what?' Moria spun on her sister. 'Don't threaten to kill the boy who helped massacre every person in our village? Who helped murder our father? [His] life will end by my hand, Ashyn. I swear it" (Armstrong 398).

Girl, you need to sit down and stop taking those sorts of things at face value.  I get that you feel betrayed, but you need to take a step back and actually think.  In Moria's case, I'm hoping she starts to think before she acts in the next book.

And finally, the romance.  I'm a sucker for romance in YA books, especially with female leads, but this book lacked greatly.  There was the urgency of warning the emperor and not much time for love at all, and I understood that.  What I didn't understand was the quick relationship between Ashyn and one of the guys.  They barely knew anything about each other, heck, they had just met a few days earlier.  Yet before the end, there was a kiss.  I fangirled a little, but then realized there had been almost nothing before said kiss.  It was mostly just friendly back and forth and Ashyn's inner voice comparing herself to her sister.  I'm not even sure when she developed feelings for the guy.  If anything, there should've been a little more, even if in little fits and bursts, so the reader isn't left wondering where this sudden chemistry came from.

While the pacing and a few of the characters leave much to be desired, I did enjoy the book.  It has a great concept and potential to expand on in the next two volumes.  The romance could also use some touching up, just some small things here and there.

I feel that great things await in the next book.  Who knows?  Perhaps Moria will put her head back on her shoulders.