Meg Cabot

Shadowland (The Mediator, Book 1)

Sarah Sammis

Oh the nom de plume... tool of authors everywhere. Source of endless frustration to the librarian and book reviewer. To add to the mess, authors as they get popular with one name or perhaps start writing under their actual name, sometimes have their old books released but without the nom de plume. In the case of Meg Cabot, she started having all her books published by one publisher instead of three and opted to use her own name.

Back when The Mediator series was first published, the author of Shadowland was Jenny Carroll. I vaguely remember reading on her blog but I read that fact long before I started reading her books. Since I've already reviewed one Mediator book under the Meg Cabot name I will stick to reviewing them that way.

Shadowland begins The Mediator series. Suze is newly moved California to be part of a blended family now that her mother has remarried. Suze has a new step-father and step-brothers. She also has an unwanted but hot ghost haunting her room.

At her new school there's a vengeful ghost out for blood unless Suze can help her on her way to the afterlife. The book is somewhere between The Ghost Whisperer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a little dash of The Sixth Sense. Suze explains her long history of seeing ghosts including her own father's shortly after his untimely death. I liked these dark glimpses into Suze's past and wished Shadowlands had more of them.

Where the book falls short for me is Suze's characterization. Although she seems more like a teenager in Shadowlands than she did to me in Haunted her voice still seems to miss the mark.

Jacalyn Boggs

I recently found the tv series based on this book series while checking out Netflix. Since I enjoy Meg Cabot as a YA author, I thought I would give this a whirl and I was not disapointed. Meg Cabot books are a little bit of whimsy and fun and this combines that with the speculative genre which was a whole added bonus! I'm moving on to book 2 and I'm looking forward to reading it! At some point this summer I plan to watch the TV Series (and we'll see how bad they mess it up! hehehe).

Christine Bruce

One of my favorite book series of all time!!!

Marissa Luzio 

This was such a nice, light read. I've been reading heavy-paranormal type books lately and they've always been series so when I saw this book, I decided I should give it a go. Im so glad I did because even though, yes it's about ghosts (paranormal) and yes it's a series buuuuuuttttttt it's actually so light and funny and it doesn't feel like you have to skim any parts just to get it over with. And I've done that on a lot of books, trust me, this was a relief! At first, I actually thought this was just one book and not a series. So I started reading it last night, I finished it in roughly 3 hours and when I noticed some stuff wasn't explained at the end of the book, I sort of panicked. Thats when I went on trusty Goodreads and found out there are currently 6 books! 

Now, when I usually see that I have started a series and there are many books still to go... I tend to not read it or skim over half of it.. I have no clue why... But this book was so light and the humour in this book was unbelievable.. I was up at 2am last night, not really sleepy but tired nonetheless, I was laughing my head off! The main character Susannah is HILARIOUS! And the romance between the main character (16 year old) and the man (a GHOST) in this book wasn't finished and still left you hanging at the end, so of course it makes me want to read the other books to find out what could happen. 
I say, read it, its a light fun book to read and if you think you would be interested in reading all 6 books, GO FOR IT! I am :)

Emma Miller

Totally lived up to my childhood memories but shorter than I remember

Helena Cristina Nogueira Pereira

Re-read in 21/11/2020
3.5 stars
.......
Não foi uma das melhores leituras que eu já fiz, mas foi sem dúvida uma leitura que desfrutei! Estou apaixonada pelo Jesse <3!

Kairou Watoshimi

I first read this series when I was in middle school and fell absolutely in love with it. Rereading now in my late 20s has not changed my love for this book. Susannah Simon has always been the kind of girl younger me wanted to be and even the me now if I am to be completely honest. I mean, yeah, she's a bit hot-headed and stubborn but she's blunt and confident. And confident female characters, really makes me happy.

Another thing about this book that I appreciate now (but did not notice when I was younger) was that Susannah is a teenager and she acts like one. Despite her abilities to see ghosts and her "job" as a mediator, she's still a teenager. She still has teenage problems and teenage needs. She still notices cute boys and gets crushes and wants to fit in her new environment. And reading it makes me happy in a way I cannot explain. 

And her relationship with her mom is wonderful. I mean it. I'm not sure if I haven't been reading the right YA books or something but I am just so used to parents of main characters being... well, their parents. Like, they don't have a real impact to the characters; they're just a necessary concept. Teenage characters? Of course they need to live with parents that have to make an appearance every now and then. But no, Suze's mom is more that just the word "mom" on paper. Throughout the entire book, Suze's love and concern for her mother is shown in the way she notices her mother's happiness, in the way she takes her mother's thoughts into consideration, et cetera. 

And it isn't just her relationship with her mother that is written so wonderfully. Suze's developing relationship with her new step-family and new friends at school has just gotten started, leaving so much for development as this series continues. 

And Jesse, of course, how can I write a review without mentioning Jesse? I remember shipping them so hard as a child; I cannot wait to reread the entire series again and re-experience the development of their relationship.

So yeah, this is a wonderful read; a fun, light-hearted series for anyone who just wants to sit back and relax to enjoy.

Shadowland (The Mediator, Book 1)

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