REVIEW: The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Title: The Book of Blood and Shadow
Author: Robin Wasserman
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery.

Publication Date: January 19th 2012
Publisher: Atom
Format: Paperback
Pages: 440
Rating: 4/5

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.

When the night began, Nora had two best friends and a boyfriend she adored. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands. Chris was dead. Adriane couldn’t speak. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora’s determined to follow the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. But Chris’s murder is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

*I read this and wrote this review back in June so I have no idea why it took me so long to put it up.

This book was one of those random pick-ups for me. I saw it pretty much perfect condition in a second-hand bookstore for a few dollars and I decided I was going to have it. I didn’t know anything about the story, in fact I’d never heard of it before…but I cannot escape the lure of the cheap books.

The Goodreads rating is pretty average for this, so I didn’t have massively high hopes but I was surprise on how much I enjoyed it. I was in a little bit of a book rut, so I was surprised how quickly I got through this. The story itself was incredibly enjoyable- there were moments where it dragged a little, but it was all very mysterious and entertaining. I hate it when people say things like this, but it did really remind me of a YA Da Vinci Code. That being said, it is a unique story and incredibly different to what I was expecting. 

The majority of the book is set in Prague, which is just incredibly amazing. I loved the reading all about the city, especially as there are various references to its rich history within the story. Can someone buy me all expenses paid trip around Europe?

Moving on. I loved the main character, Nora. I wasn’t sure whether she would turn out to be one of those annoying protagonists originally, but I really liked her. The other characters…well. They will drive you nuts- in a good way. Every single character has this mystery surrounding them so that you can never quite work out who to trust and who not to. It’s brilliant, and horrible at the same time.  

So this book is about Nora, but throughout her story, there is the story of Elizabeth through her letters written in the 1500’s. These were awesome, especially as there were parts of Elizabeth’s letters that mirrored Nora’s life. This being said, there were times where they dragged on a little too much. I did, ultimately, care more about what was happening to Nora than Elizabeth. Finally, another awesome part is the Latin. Now, I don’t know Latin myself, but seeing it used within the book was amazing and the other languages that were included, like Czech etc. 

This was definitely a fun, reasonably quick read for me. Like I mentioned, I’m really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I think the only thing that kept it from being 5 stars was the ending- it was kind of a let-down, unfortunately.