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You have been there…
if you have ever been afraid.
Come back. To a dark house deep in the Vermont woods, where two friends are spending a season of horror, apprenticed to a Master Magician.
Learning secrets best left unlearned. Entering a world of incalculable evil more ancient than death itself. More terrifying. And more real.
Only one of them will make it through.
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Del's uncle is a half-crazy, alcoholic, retired magician. He sets about teaching the boys magic. His magic, though, consists of more than tricking the eye with a slight of hand. At Shadowland, nothing is as it seems. An hour can feel like all day. The sun can set at 11am. You can find yourself suddenly half-way across a continent, just to find that you haven't moved from your spot at all. There are others living at Shadowland that are unseen, and whose existence is denied. There are rules that are made in the hopes of being broken. As Del's uncle spends the summer recounting his life, in all it's horror, to the boys Tom realizes that the horror is only starting. As he sees things that can't be real, but are, and he sees the immediate horrors being committed at Shadowland, Tom realizes that he has to leave, and Del must come with him. Unfortunately, for Tom and Del, Uncle Collins has realized something about Tom that even Tom doesn't yet know - and he wants it for himself.
In Shadowland, Peter Straub has written a brilliant piece of fiction. There are plots, subplots, and subplots within those.
... Read more ›This is an extraordinary book, something that might come from Walt Disney, if Disney was capable of coming up with anything either adult or horrific. It is best described as a nightmarish fairy-tale, full of magic - but mostly from the dark side.
As is typical of Straub, the story is constructed in convoluted and highly complicated form, all of which builds nicely to the conclusion of the main story at hand. The action begins in an Arizona boys' prep school, moves to an isolated mansion in Vermont, and includes numerous stories of Collins' highly checkered past throughout war-torn Europe, each tale of which increasingly fuels a mounting sense of dread - for Coleman Collins is much more than he seems; much more, and much worse.
I'm amazed no one ever attempted to make a movie of Shadowland, for it is highly cinematic in style. It isn't as good as Straub's preceding masterpiece, Ghost Story, but is still a worthy successor and a great, involving read. The characters are well-realized, the action intriguing, and the atmosphere and actual magic of the piece are striking.
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