Shadowshaper
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| Author | Daniel José Older |
|---|---|
| Genre | Urban fantasy, young adult |
| Set in | Brooklyn |
| Publisher | Scholastic/Levine |
Publication date | June 30, 2015 |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | 978-0-545-59161-4 |
| Followed by | Shadowhouse Fall (2017) |
Shadowshaper is a 2015 American urban fantasy young adult novel written by Daniel José Older. It is the first in the Shadowshaper Cypher series. It follows Sierra Santiago, an Afro-Boricua teenager living in Brooklyn. In the book it is revealed that she is the granddaughter of a "shadowshaper", or a person who infuses art with ancestral spirits. As forces of gentrification invade their community and a mysterious being who appropriates their magic begins to hunt the aging shadowshapers, Sierra must learn about her artistic and spiritual heritage to foil the killer. Four sequels have followed: "Ghostgirl in the Corner" (a novella, 2016), "Dead Light March" (a novella, 2017), Shadowhouse Fall (novel, 2017) and Shadowshaper Legacy (novel, 2020).[1]
As her summer vacation from Octavia Butler High School starts, Sierra Santiago begins work on a mural of a dragon on a building. Known as the Tower, it is an unfinished, five-story, concrete architectural aberration in a Brooklyn neighborhood of brownstones. The aging men of the community, including Manny "the Domino King" who publishes the Bed-Stuy Spotlight community newspaper, have asked Sierra to create the mural on the building to express their dissatisfaction.
While painting, she is startled to notice that an adjacent mural of a deceased neighborhood artist has begun to fade, change facial expressions, and cry a painted tear.
Back home, Sierra looks in on her abuelo, Grandpa Lázaro Corona, who has suffered a stroke and rarely speaks in complete sentences. Now, however, he suddenly voices a mysterious warning, apology, and urge to finish her mural as fast as she can. He mentions the shadowshapers and tells her to seek the help of Robbie, a Haitian classmate and fellow artist. Sierra tries to ask her mother, María Carmen Corona Santiago, about the shadowshapers but is rebuffed.
Sierra heads to a party with her best friend Bennaldra a.k.a. Bennie. At the party they see their friends and classmates, Big Jerome, Little Jerome, girlfriends Izzy & Tee, Pitkin, and many others. Sierra finds Robbie; they discuss Grandpa Lázaro and the shadowshapers. A walking corpse, or corpuscule, of a missing neighborhood man and shadowshaper, Vernon Chandler, interrupts the party and chases Sierra through the streets.
She later visits Columbia University's library and meets a Puerto-Rican librarian named Nydia Ochoa who helps Sierra research. Using the knowledge of her neighborhood, family, and mixed heritages, Sierra starts to pursue information about the mysterious shadowshapers, the force that is hunting them, and the spirit Lucera. She begins to learn of her own artistic power in order to protect her community and culture. The story ends with Sierra, her friends and Robbie ascending the Tower to defeat Johnathan Wick, a shadowshaper who had been exiled by Corona and the other old shadowshapers.
