The thing is that I really enjoyed Wintersong. I couldn't wait for this book to be released. I so wanted to read more about Liesl and the music that was in that book. This book went in a completely different direction. The romance that seemed to bloom between Liesl and the Goblin King doesn't seem to exist in this book. This book was primarily told in dialogue and parts of it went in circles. There was an adventure and that was fun. This book took place mainly in

Vienna which was nice to explore. The main relationship in this story was between Liesl and her brother. Although he is part of the lore told about in Wintersong, this book did not explore more of that lore, or the underground. The last 25% of the book was pretty good but overall I was unsatisfied with this series ender.

As with Wintersong, I found that Shadowsong somewhat missed the mark for me.
That being said, I did find the writing to be quite lovely; S. Jae-Jones has a way with words and she makes them dance across the page. I also enjoyed the German inspired setting and the exploration of the relationships between siblings.
I had a couple issues with this novel which is why I think it fell flat for me. One big thing was the pacing; Shadowsong is very slow going and it dragged at several points. My biggest issue, however, was that I just didn't feel invested in this story or these characters.
I definitely think that other readers will really enjoy this series but it just wasn't for me.

I received with thanks an ARC copy of Shadowsong (Wintersong #2) from St Martin’s Press & Netgalley.

This is my true and honest review of Shadowsong by S Jae Jones. This was released for publication on 11th February 2018.

I am happy that I have finished this duology. I did love Liesl and the Goblin King. For the me the underworld was more enjoyable that when we spent time with Liesel’s family. I did prefer this one to the 1st book. My main downfall was at the start. All the letters are made to look as if they were handwritten, this at times made it difficult to read. This is a dark and haunting tale that will last with me for a while.

I adored Wintersong. It was a lovely take on goblins and music and sisters and love. The romance between Liesl and the Erlking was awesome. I loved it.

Shadowsong was a bit tepid for me. It lacked the whirlwind that Wintersong was. I liked what was going on with Josef but I missed the Erlking. He was a thought and a memory and a force to be reckoned with in Wintersong and I felt his absence here.

I do wish that the note about mental illness was after the story. I think is colored my whole reading of the book. So I was constantly looking for it and analyzing actions of characters, I think that it actually changed some of my enjoyment of the story, especially my ability of a reader to guess what is going on instead of being told.

So overall I enjoyed it but no where near the level of awesomeness that was Wintersong.

I had been eagerly anticipating this book ever since I’d finished Wintersong. That first book had an ending which left me wanting more and needing resolution. I needed this book in my hands as soon as possible. I even preordered this book because I needed to know how it would all end. I was in no way prepared for the story given in this book and I enjoyed it but I have spent the past two days struggling to put into words why I loved it.

Just as a warning there will be spoilers in this post because it was hard enough writing a review, any review, so editing it down to not include spoilers would be too damn hard. I don’t hate myself that much.

The premise of this book is simple. It’s in the summary above, but Liesl has been out from the underground for a while and strange things are happening. Her brother is not ok and she is not ok and both aren’t willing to admit it. It’s a book about Liesl dealing with her grief at leaving the one she loves. Struggling with the madness which lies in her family and the concern of what that means for her. She struggles with trying not to delve into the madness she experiences composing in the underground by avoiding her music altogether.

It’s so hard to explain this book because the story itself is relatively simple. Not a lot happens. Like the first book, the pace is slow and is far more about character development than fast paced story action. As the author mentions at the start, Wintersong ‘was her bright mirror’ showing the brighter side of who she was whilst Shadowsong is the dark one showing ‘how all the monstrous parts of the Underground’ and how they were facets of herself. This really reflects within the books. Whilst there were manic aspects to Wintersong with Liesl suffering with her creativity getting to the extreme lengths composing music, it was always magical and charming and never as dark as Shadowsong gets. Shadowsong feels a lot more hopeless in how it’s written. Liesl seems to accept the inevitability of her life outside of the underground and denying the magic which she knows exists… maybe in concern that her experiences were a sign of madness.

I think my love for this book came from the character journey rather than a fast paced storyline (because fast paced this book is not). I loved the exploration of Lisel’s character and her discovering who she is and what it means to accept her whole self. It was about Josef realising who he was and what his differences meant. And it was about the Goblin King getting to lead his own life with those he loved and that it shouldn’t always be about sacrifice.

Look, this book wasn’t anything like I expected and whilst at first I struggled with the slow pace as Liesl seemed so accepting in her angry existence denying her love. I did adjust to the pacing of the book and love exploring the characters thoughts and slowly seeing the story unfold. It was such a satisfying ending to a magical ending. It had the exact same feel as the first book did but also a whole different vibe. I loved it and cannot fully explain why but it was an excellent read and if you’ve read the first you definitely need to check this out.

Um.. what? What was that? I don't get it.

First of all, Shadowsong like Wintersong, is NOT the book to read when you're trying to get over a reading slump. Time slows down, everything slow down, time freezes and it's just you and endeless words in random order trying to become something. This is what reading Shadowsong felt like.

If you take a small part of this book and add it to Wintersong, it's perfect. These two books could have been two standalones that happened to be in the save universe and the readers could choose which book to read. The one with the Goblin King, or the one without. Because let's face it, we're all here for the Goblin King and he was a no show so what gives.

I appreciate the trigger warning and I totally get what the author did with this, but, this is not a sequel to Wintersong.

As a note. The Author’s note actually gives a trigger warning for Self-harm, Addiction
Reckless behaviours and Suicidal ideation.

I’m not even sure what I was expecting going into Shadowsong from Wintersong. I had loved Wintersong and I was actually okay with the ending. Sometimes I don’t mind seemingly loose ends. I feel Shadowsong really does a great job of wrapping up the ending in a way that makes sense.

The plot had a slow start for me. I was frustrated with both Liesel and Josef. Josef was being such a jerk and Liesel, well it felt like she was a shadow of the kick butt girl I remembered from the first book. She is so clearly wrapped up in her struggle to leave behind the Underground and the Goblin King that she is completely unaware of things happening around her. There is a point where things change and the book picks up in all the ways it needs. Once the Countess and Count enter the picture things get more interesting.

This book is more about Lisel and Josef and their relationship then it is about Lisel and the Goblin King. Although he is not completely absent either. Again I was frustrated with Josef for being a jerk but it was interesting to see Lisel see herself from Josef’s eyes. Despite my frustrations with her, she actually experiences quit a bit of growth. To see the things she has done and how that has affected others. Kathe and Francois felt a bit under used as characters but they also still have a presence.

There is more insight into what Der Erlkonig’s own really means. We also get to delve more into the history of the Goblin King and the first bride. I found those aspects really contributed to the understanding of the world as a whole. I was excited to learn more. I loved the way the pieces slowly fit together and eventually will reveal what makes the Goblin King, the Goblin King.

The writing is lyrical and haunting. Almost like you are lost in the pages of a song. You can still feel how much music is a part of everything. Since it’s such a special part of Lisel, Josef and the Goblin King. I’m glad that it didn’t fade from the first book.

I enjoyed the book. I really like how things were wrapped up in the end.

I absolutely loved Wintersong, it was my favorite book of 2017. But somehow Shadowsong was so much more to me. It was darker, more lyrical, had more realism. It was heartbreakingly beautiful. I still can't get over JJ 's author's note. It was powerful, it spoke to the reader, and it made me connect to Liesl's story just that much more. The added part of Josef's struggle was magical and I'm so happy she included his struggles along with Liesl's story. Wintersong was about Liesl saying yes to herself. Whereas Shadowsong was about Liesl saying yes to others. I can't get over the ending still. I'm so happy I was able to read this story before it was released. Thank you, S. Jae Jones, for once again writing a beautiful, heartfelt story that really stuck with me.

A great follow up to Wintersong. I prefer Wintersong but both have great stories and are great reads

I would recommend to other.

This is the second book after Wintersong and you really need to read that one first to be able to follow this one. It's a good book so I would recommend reading it anyway. So we revisit Elisabeth after she returns to her world. She of course does go on with her life but really it's only a half life as her heart is still with the Goblin King. A lot happens in this book to get us to the end, some ways it is very convoluted on how we get to the end. I do think that everything that happens and brings us to the end is how it should go, otherwise we would not get there.

After being kind of on the fence with wether or not I really liked the first book or not I still had very high hopes that the second book might do it more for me. Sadly it just didn’t meet my expectations...

Ehh... TBH this was kind of disappointing because I LOVED the first book and I expected to love this one even more. But sadly I didn't love this book. I don't have much to say about this book, because the stuff I liked about it is very similar to what I loved about the first book. :D DON'T GET ME WRONG - I really enjoyed reading this. I just didn't love it.

<b>Why I didn't love this as much as Wintersong</b>

•I NEED MORE GOBLIN KING

•WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO KÄTHE AND JOSEF??? THEY TOTALLY CHANGED!

•90% OF THE STORY'S SET IN THE REAL WORLD (I MISS THE UNDERGROUND)

•JOSEF DIES. I NEED MORE JOSEF + FRANÇOIS MOMENTS THEY'RE SO CUTE

•I GOT KIND OF CONFUSED BECAUSE I COULDN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DREAMS LIESL HAD OF THE GOBLIN KING AND REALITY

Again, JJ's writing is so overwhelmingly beautiful <3 SO MANY QUOTES I WANT THEM TATTOOED ALL. OVER. ME.

<i>For love is our only immortality, and when memory is faded and gone, it is our legacies that endure.

There was ever a part of me that loved to face danger, to stare it in the eye and dare it to do its worst.

Yes, this is oblivion. This is heaven, and this is hell.

"Madness is not a gift," I said angrily.

"Nor is it a curse," the Count returned gently. "Madness simply is."</i>

Dear S. Jae-Jones,

You know what?

<img src="https://media0.giphy.com/media/7vnLYLzwY9c8E/giphy.gif?cid=dc79c3575a7ed00746796a6c679b2fde"/>

Sincerely yours,

Chloe

<b>Overall rating</b>

★★★★

Welp, I'm kinda disappointed, but STILL. This is really good. GO READ IT.

Things I liked:

- Liesel is bipolar, and I loved that the author included a content warning in which she discusses how she, like Liesel, lives with bipolar disorder and how difficult and rewarding it was to write a character who reflected many of the mental and emotional struggles she has faced in her own life. The author is upfront about that fact that this second part of the series "contains characters who deal with self-harm, addiction, reckless behavior, and suicidal ideation,” which I felt set up the book’s emotionally more chaotic and darker tone. I felt that being aware that Liesel is intentionally a character dealing with bipolar disorder added another layer of richness to the story that I may not have experienced if I hadn’t read the author note.

- On that note, I also felt that Liesel's uncertainty over if she can trust her own mind created an interesting tension within the story itself. We, the readers, struggle with Liesel as we try to decide if what she’s seeing/experiencing/remembering are accurate depictions or if they are influenced by unreal elements (and whether or not that makes the story less ‘true’).

- The lyrical prose that I loved in Wintersong continues in Shadowsong, however it takes on a much darker and introspective tone. The story felt more fragmented than the first book, and there was a great deal more time spent examining Liesel's interior landscape than the outside world. However, these introspective moments were interchanged with stories about the Goblin’s past as well as action sequences.

- I enjoyed that the focus of this book was less on Liesel’s relationship with the Goblin King (though he does appear in this book) and more on the fallout Liesel experiences upon leaving the Goblin world and the way it affects her relationships with her siblings, especially Sepp. I wanted to give Jae-Janes a round of applause for including the touching scene between Kathe and Liesel in which Kathe calls out Liesel for expecting Kathe to continue to do all the emotional work in their relationship, and the negative emotional toil this expectation has had on Kathe, and the damage it has done/will do to their relationship as a whole unless Liesel steps up and starts putting in effort. Emotional labor is labor y’all, and I love that Jae-Janes took the time to discuss the value of shared emotional labor in having healthy relationships.

Things I didn’t like:

- Kathe’s storyline felt underdeveloped. She disappears from the story, and then re-emerges only to fulfill plot points. You are told that she’s doing BA things, but you never actually get to see her doing them or watch her develop as a character.

- Not a lot of the Goblin King. So this wasn’t a deal breaker for me, but it did catch me off guard that the Goblin King was so absent in the book. If you are thinking Shadowsong is going to have more of the passionate romantic moments that were in Wintersong, think again because there are none to be found here.

In summary, I really loved this darker installment of the Wintersong duology. I loved that the multiple characters deal with mental health issues in this book, including the main character, and that this second book explores what “living for herself entire” really means to Liesel. In many ways, this book is an study of Liesel’s journey to self-actualization and self-love. It takes her lack of self-worth (what caused her to take her sister’s place in the first book) and digs into the root of the issue. I also really appreciated the the book explores the effect depression and other mental health issues can have on an individual and on their relationships with others. Honestly, I felt that Shadowsong was in many ways a stronger book than Wintersong, and that Jae-Jones did a great job subverting the expectations of the readers while still creating a captivating second installment to this duology. If you are looking for a hauntingly lyrical romance, the Wintersong/Shadowsong books are for you!

Disclaimer: I was given an electronic ARC copy of this novel from the publisher (via Netgalley) in return for an honest review.

I received a free copy for an honest review. 

More accurately three-and-a-half stars. 

Shadowsong is a sequel to the popular young adult fantasy novel Wintersong, with a story revolving around a young musician-composer and the tales about Goblin Kings and old nature laws. The story picked up sometime after the conclusion of the first book, with our protagonist and heroine, Elisabeth, better known as Liesl, trying to survive back in the world of the living after her father's death sometime between book one and book two. 

In my last review, I stated how I saw great potential in the book and its ideas, and that I said if the author makes the story-line stronger and more fast-paced in book two, it will greatly improve the series in my opinion. I will also definitely enjoy it more.

Well, that didn't happen. 

This book had the exact same problems that I stated and wished for improvement in book one, with no changes at all. The story had the same slow pace that actually kind of feels like it's in slow motion with our same...Liesl.
I really, really, actually don't know what to say about her. I don't know how can I describe what I'm feeling right now without making this review a complete jumbled mess. 
The only reason I didn't give this book a worse review than book one is that I am conscious about the fact the same problems only felt worse this time because of the combination from suffering from book one added on to this book, not because any the problems in Shadowsong was actually worse in any way. But that is not good. There should've been improvements. It's understandable when the first book is slow due to the world buildings, story build-ups and character introductions, but if book two is still just as slow, there are no more excuses for that. 

The second books are always the point in a series where the story is supposed to be picked up. This is why there is even such a thing as the second book syndrome. It's caused because authors tried too hard to make the first book interesting, resulting in the second book to be slow. The correct way should be slow, fast, medium to fast. It's just like running. When writing a series, authors must look at the entire picture - the whole story arc in order to properly plan a series so that the timings would be right. If you run too fast the first lap you'll get so tired before even reaching halfway. If you run too slow the first lap you'll never catch up to the required pace. If you run slow the entire time you have just failed PE class mile time. 

Looking at this series now, it most likely would run a twenty-minute mile by the time the series ends with book three. 

I think the story's slow pace is actually its biggest problem. I may have mentioned about Liesl being part of the problem, but thinking of it now I think it's that way because of the slow pace. Its slowness really made me annoy about everything in the book, including Liesl. Not like she was better or worse. She still feels like the desperate heroine from Wintersong, but...it's not entirely her fault. Lots of books have heroines like Liesl, but they didn't annoy me as much as Liesl did because their books didn't give me so much time to be so fed up with her (because the other books weren't so slow paced). 

It's such a shame because it's really not like this book/series is a complete unredeemable train wreck that makes my eyes bleed when I read it. It literally only has one problem, and if the author just does one thing and this entire series would be so much better. The review probably makes it seems like I loathe the book, it's actually not exactly like that. I didn't really enjoy this book/series as much as I should've, but I can still see through all those problems and recognize that this is not a  bad book. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Everything about this book was great - the world building was on point, the ideas weren't like they were a mess, and the characters weren't (too) bad. I can still see why it was so popular. I am just so sick of how slow it is. 

I would recommend this book (kind of), but for those with a book purchase budget, I'm warning you: borrow this book, don't buy it. You'll really hate yourself later for it. At least for me anyway.

Wintersong was one of my favorite reads of 2017 so I was beyond excited when I was given the opportunity to read this as an advance copy. Unfortunately, this second installment in the duology did not live up to the expectations set by the first novel. I wanted so much to love this book, but I found myself feeling bored by the plot and wishing Liesl could just get back to the Underground to be with the Goblin King. Their relationship was such a huge part of the first book that having so little interactions between them in this novel felt strange. I did enjoy getting to see Liesl and her siblings together, and the descriptions of the world were as beautiful as they were in the first novel. In the end, I would still recommend this to fans of the first book, but perhaps tell them to go into it without the really high expectations that I did.

It is rare that I enjoy a sequel more than the first book in a series. It is even rarer that I finish a series completely content and satisfied by the ending.

Shadowsong managed to accomplish both.

From the very first page it is clear how much more confident S. Jae-Jones became as a writer from Wintersong to Shadowsong. That is not at all to say I didn’t enjoy Wintersong–I absolutely adored it–but Shadowsong is notably stronger. She found her voice and she ran with it, and the final product is gorgeous.

Shadowsong gave me so many things I live for in my fantasy. Morally gray characters. Honest mental illness rep. Dilemmas with no good solutions. It is unapologetically dark and twisty and brutal and raw. I never wanted to put it down, and if I hadn’t been reading during my lunch breaks at work I probably never would have.

The mental illness rep, in particular, was so, so well done in ways I’m struggling to articulate. It was honest, yes. I loved the moments where Liesl was reflecting on her own illness, openly struggling to control her moods despite being so aware of them.

I knew I was insufferable, yet my irritability was a force both beyond and beside me. Even I found my own whining exhausting at times. I vacillated between rage and despondency, furious I couldn’t force happiness on myself.

I related to this line so much it hurt. Oh. And I see all you reviewers badmouthing Liesl as being whiny, or annoying, or inconsistent and unrealistic. I see you hating on a character for her mental illness. It’s been very disappointing and hurtful seeing this, but especially from people claiming to be diversity advocates. Those of us with mental illnesses know we’re your last priority, but you could at least pretend.

Anyway.

More than all of that, what really struck me about the mental illness rep was how seamlessly it was woven into the greater plot. This duology is dark, but in Shadowsong S. Jae-Jones really forces you to stare that darkness in the face. Liesl’s story is not just about a girl trying to run from her past, it is about a girl trying to run from herself. And seeing her learn to embrace her madness as part of herself, even if it is a part she hates, was incredibly empowering.

The character relationships are also incredibly well done, especially Liesl’s relationship with her siblings. We get to see much more of Kathe and Josef in Shadowsong than we did in Wintersong. We also frequently get chapters in third person that follow Kathe or Josef when they are not with Liesl, so we get to see how they develop both in relation to Liesl and on their own. Kathe becomes much more of a character in her own right than I remember her being in the first book. She’s grown up a bit, and I really loved getting to see the relationship between the two sisters.

I think that choosing to have some chapters follow other characters in third-person rather than sticking to Liesl’s first-person narration was a risky move that paid off big time. It provides so much of the story’s tension by giving you little snippits into what is happening elsewhere. It also slowly delves into the Goblin King’s past, which were some of my favorite chapters. The shifts never felt sudden or disorienting. It was handled masterfully, and makes the book so much better than it ever could have been from Liesl’s perspective alone.

There is a content warning in the beginning of the book that I strongly encourage you read before starting Shadowsong. Characters have suicidal thoughts, exhibit reckless behavior, deal with addiction, and there are references to self-harm. Everything is handled very well, in my opinion, but they can still be triggering.

I will also add a warning for my fellow ace-spec babes: there is a line near the end of the book that seems to imply that one of the ways changelings are different from humans is that they do not desire physical intimacy. I think the line is meant to explicitly state that this character is ace (though again please always remember that asexual does not equal sex adverse thank you), but it definitely suggests that his being a changeling is the reason he is ace. The book makes it very clear that love without interest in sex is not a lesser form of love, but the fact that sexual attraction was used to differentiate changelings from humans did catch me off guard.

All in all Shadowsong is a beautiful, haunting story and I loved absolutely every second of it. I have no doubt that this will be one of my favorite 2018 reads, and I hope you all love it as much as I did.

I struggled with the first book in the series because I did not form a connection to any of the characters. The main character was a quivering mass of contradictions and those surrounding her just felt flat. Unfortunately, those opinions haven't changed for the second book but I feel like I appreciate the story more than I did the first time. I realize that I was a little harsh in my first rating.

The writing itself was very well done. It was poetic and impactful, drawing the reader in through written depictions of the music and the magical landscape. It is there that the author flourishes, despite what I still believe to be a lack of character development overall it is certainly improved from the first book.

The story's focus in both books is on Liesl and I feel that we received an abundance of character development for her. As readers, we spend so much time inside her head that we intrinsically know manic mood swings and lack of self-worth. I believe that is what makes me feel that the other characters like her brother and sister are so woefully under developed. I want to know so much more about them and their motivations. I felt this was better addressed in Shadowsong and was so happy to see the characters given more depth. We even get to know Liesl's "austere young man" more, which was something I specifically wanted from the first book.

Despite the fact that this is a retelling of the Goblin King and a fantasy novel, there is an element of mental health in it which is nice because you don't normally see that in fantasy. It is also own voices as the author has struggles with some of the same things that Liesl has.

Overall, after taking a step back from the story I found myself less critical of it. It is not the richly populated character piece that I would have prefered, but I ended up enjoying the author's writing immensely. I still believe that this series is suited more to older teen and adult readers as a result of the poetic nature of the author's writing.

When I read Wintersong last year, I was so impressed with the lovely writing and vivid imagery. I am pleased to say that I enjoyed Shadowsong just as much! It's quite a different book from its predecessor, however. To me, this was absolutely fine, I loved the direction the story went in. It felt logical to me to have the characters focusing on the aftermath of the previous book, and ultimately trying to find themselves and their places in the world.

The tone is dark, in a different way. The main character, Liesl, is dealing with mental health issues- a rarity in fantasy, and I applaud the author for including it (this is also #ownvoices, make sure you read the author's note!). She's also trying to put her family back together, all while dealing with her own broken heart. I absolutely felt for her during the course of this story.

I realize that some people will be a bit unhappy that the romance isn't front and center of this book as it was in the last book. But I think it was quite important for Liesl to work through her circumstances, and to figure out who she was and what (or who) she was willing to fight for. And of course, the Goblin King is involved, no worries!

There was a point in the middle that the plot felt like it was meandering a bit, but the beginning and end were quite strong and definitely made up for some of the slowness in the middle. I also do need to mention, the formatting of the eARC was a disaster- and that sometimes that took me out of the story a little. Obviously I'd never fault the book for that, but... it was some of the messiest formatting I have ever encountered. I assume my trouble was perhaps part that the story was a bit slower in the middle, but also that I was trying to decipher stuff and that made it feel even more so? It's as good a guess as any, right?

Ultimately, this book completed the series nicely. I had feelings during the course of the story- happy, sad, swoony, all the things. And I felt that it was a strong conclusion; not too many loose ends, nor too neatly wrapped up. Definitely one of the best series ends I've read in awhile!

Bottom Line: With completely enchanting writing and fabulous character development, this sequel provided a very satisfying ending to a lovely series!

This review appears on Goodreads and will also appear on my blog later this month.

I think this book may have suffered slightly from being a sequel.

I don't mean that it wasn't as good as the first book, because I do actually think it was an enjoyable book. Had I read it in a different context, I probably would have given it four stars, and walked away from there satisfied with what I'd read. However, what I was looking for was a sequel to <i>Wintersong</i> -- and this book is just very different from the first one.

There were a few reasons I loved the first book. It was a very <i>me</i> book -- one where I wondered why I hadn't read it earlier. It had music and Christina Rossetti and otherworldly beings and angsty immortals, and while it had plenty of romance, it managed not to put me off by virtue of being strongly focused on music, which I could relate to without caring about kissing. The Goblin King gave me a ton of feelings about a couple of my own characters, which always biases me towards liking a book.

This book, however... well, it still had music, that's true. In some ways, it had more focus on the music world, although I think slightly less on the actual processes of creating music, mostly because Liesl and Josef are not in the most productive stage of their life.

However, it wasn't really a book about angsty immortal otherworldly beings. They briefly came into it, but not to anything like the extent that I'd hoped. It was, essentially, a book about mental illness. The author says as much in a note at the beginning. And it was a good book about mental illness! I enjoyed reading the emotional journeys of the characters and seeing how they handled their ups and downs. I had a lot of feelings about Liesl's relationship with her brother and how much she cared about him.

In fact, that relationship was definitely central to the book, and you would think that, objectively speaking, I should have liked it more than the more romance-focused first book, since sibling relationships are much more my thing. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't. Josef gives me many feelings, it's true, but he's got a while to go before he can occupy the 'angsty immortal' space in my heart, since he's still only a teenager; maybe that's just what it was.

Overall, though, the issue was that I was expecting a fantasy novel in the same vein as the first one, and I got a very different book about family and mental illness, with a fantasy veneer.

That said: this book doesn't only suffer from my expectations and the fact that it's a sequel. It also suffered because I read it instead of going to sleep becaues I was having an existential crisis at the time and was existing in a state of terror about the inevitability of mortality. I was not in a good place. No book read while feeling like that is ever going to have positive vibes associated with it.

I did also have a few unrelated problems with it. I wasn't a big fan of how Josef's feelings towards Francois were treated. It felt a little... no-homo-ish? Althought there are very real reasons why Josef doesn't exactly experience love in the same way as everyone else, there were a few statements about it being a love of the minds or a relationship between their creativity or whatever, and that just seemed to detract from it as a canon queer pairing, which I wasn't a fan of. Just because Josef isn't interested in physical intimacy doesn't mean he can't love Francois as much as the next person; after all, ace people exist. So those lines felt odd to me, and I wasn't a fan of them.

On the whole, this is a book you need to go into without expectations. Did you read the first book a while ago, and have now forgotten what happened in it? Good, that'll help. If you go into it expecting something like that, you'll be disappointed, and that's a shame, because this book doesn't deserve to be a disappointment. It's a good book, and like I said, in another context it would have got four stars. But it's not a great sequel, because it so completely avoids the things I cared about in the first book, and so I'm only going to give it three.

That said: there were still feelings. Different feelings to the ones I expected to be feeling, but many feelings regardless.

Once again, I have been bewitched and consumed by S. Jae-Jones words and “elf-touched” world that is illuminated in the conclusion of her duology known as Shadowsong. While much of Wintersong focused on Liesl and her ventures in the Underground, Shadowsong provides an emotional layer to Liesl’s life outside the Goblin King’s realm—in a real world where chaos ensues from both the supernatural and human order. Shadowsong is so emotionally driven and parallels so many classic literary themes, which made me love this story and conclusion so damn much.

One of my favorite aspects of Shadowsong is that the story focuses a lot on Liesl and her strong relationship with her brother, Josef, and also her sister. The bond between Liesl and Joseph is solid and so emotional that it makes my heart ache. And what I adore about their connection is that even the secondary characters can see and feel that selflessness and love between these two.

Although he flickers in and out of Liesl’s life in Shadowsong, I obsessed over every page the Goblin King was present. The Goblin King is much like the brooding Mr. Edward Rochester of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Both males see themselves as selfish and monsters; but I love that both still hold a spark of hope to be with their beloveds. Like Mr. Rochester, the Goblin King can be found beckoning Liesl through haunting whispers of her name. He may wear the wicked smirk of a wolf, but his love still burns so bright and hot for his true Goblin Queen (Elizabeth/Liesl).

Similar to the Victorian novels that I adore so much, I itched for the dramatic reuniting scenes between the Goblin King and Liesl in Shadowsong. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed with how much their flame burns and sizzles on the page. Their love story is truly the essential piece that had me continuously turning every page for a reunion of passion, heartache, and sacrifice.

Shadowsong reads like a beautiful sheet of music. The words form a melody that enchantingly carries the reader through the grittiness of hopeless dreams, yearning questions, and unattainable passion. And as the tempo quickens, the pacing of the story throws the characters into a whirlwind filled with burning desires and unsettling fears. For me, reading Shadowsong, was like meeting with an old friend—at first, there is that instant panic that your connection will no longer be present, but once you are in each other’s presence, everything clicks like no time has ever passed. While reading Shadowsong, it felt so natural and blissful to be back in this goblin-infested world again, and now that the story has concluded, I just want more.