A compelling read, blending historical fiction and paranormal suspense. As a native San Diegan, I loved the setting!

I have to admit that what drew me to this title was the cover. In the Shadow is a great read. It is a historical novel with a touch of paranormal that is devoid of zombies, but imagines an end of the world situation that was very real. In 1918 a flu was killing by the thousands all over the US at the same time our boys were dying in trenches in the European theater of WWI. It examines the spiritualistic activities of the society: seances, spirit photography, and experiments to weight the soul at death. What I loved most about the writing in this story was the real sense of fear that paraded the empty streets of San Diego as people cowered under the fear of the flu as they had no resources except homemade folk remedies. There was a real sense that this might be the end of the world, and Winters brings the reader right into the middle of it.
My only problem with the story was the treatment of Aunt Eva. I was so happy to see Winter's used her to show that women entered the workforce to fill important jobs while the boys were at war (as they would do again later for WWII) but Mary Shelly kind of treats here Aunt like a member of the help who has to work all day and then whip up some onion soup. Poor Aunt Eva is there to be disobeyed.
A similar read, although it takes place during the Civil War, is Picture the Dead. And readers who enjoy well written stories of pandemics would also like this one (At the Sign of the Sugared Plum,etc). I could also see reading this paired with All Quiet on the Western Front. Thank you, too, to Winters and crew for adding a note in the back listing sources and further reads.

A fantastic mystery that takes the reader back to a frightening time in history. Perfect for fans of horror/mystery and historical fiction.

I enjoyed the look into spiritualism and séances that were all the rage in this time period. This was a very well written historical fiction story the author truly immerses the reading into the time and it takes a good writer to do this. This was my first book by this author but surely won’t be my last.

Angela Goethals’ narration was really well done and I thought she did a good job at all the voices and characters.

4 Stars

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is a unique and haunting story, beautifully told. It's rare that I read historical YA fiction in which the main character actually seems like a teenager. Mary Shelley Black seems not only like a real teen, but also a teen of her time. She's smart and stubborn and a little rebellious, and you can literally feel her chafing against the limitations on women in 1918, a time in which men had gone off to war, but most American women were still not allowed to vote.

I loved the way In the Shadow of Blackbirds took some real and fascinating issues of the time -- World War I, the Spanish Influenza epidemic, and spiritualist photography -- and wove together a story that is both incredibly gripping and truly spooky. Mary is interested in science and electricity, and also has just fallen in love for the first time. Her world falls apart as her father is imprisoned for helping men evade the draft, her true love Stephen is sent to the battlefield, and she is sent from Portland to San Diego to live with her aunt.

In her new home, Mary has to deal with her aunt's paranoia about flu germs (to be fair, the flu killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide) and Stephen's brother's desire for her to help him in his spiritualist photography business. As people perished, both in the war and from the flu, these photographers promised grieving family members a glimpse of their loved ones.

As bad news comes about Stephen, Mary also has to solve a mystery: what happened to him? For me, this part of the book was truly spooky, evoking not only the horrors of war, but also questions about ghosts and the afterlife.

I highly recommend this one if you're feeling like you need something really fresh and different, if you're a lover of historical fiction and/or ghost stories, or if you just love a good story, compellingly told.