Shadowhouse Fall

By: Daniel José Older

Narrated by: Anika Noni Rose

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

The extraordinary sequel to the New York Times best-selling Shadowshaper is daring, dazzling, defiant.

Shadowhouse rising

Sierra and her friends love their new lives as shadowshapers, making art and creating change with the spirits of Brooklyn. Then Sierra receives a strange card depicting a white beast called the Hound of Light - an image from the enigmatic, influential Deck of Worlds. The Deck tracks the players and powers of all the magical houses in the city, and when the real Hound begins to stalk Sierra through the streets, the shadowshapers know their next battle has arrived.

Worlds in revolution

Sierra and Shadowhouse have been thrust into an ancient struggle with enemies old and new - a struggle they didn't want, but are determined to win. Revolution is brewing in the real world as well, as the shadowshapers join the fight against systems that oppress and incarcerate their community. To protect her family and friends in every sphere, Sierra must take down the Hound and master the Deck of Worlds...or else she could lose everything that matters most.

©2017 Daniel José Older (P)2017 Scholastic, Inc.

A worthy sequel

Loved this book! Anika Noni Rose is phenomenal in her embodiment of the characters. Older writes with an authenticity and wit that is sorely missing in YA. Can't wait for the third book!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Anika-best narration

Anika’s narration is fabulous. She gives each Chaka distinct voice and does it very well. A good story made great by her narration.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fell completely, utterly in love with this world

What made the experience of listening to Shadowhouse Fall the most enjoyable?

ok, so Anika Noni Rose reads it, so of course the voices are full and real. Especially Sierra Santiago, the young Afro-Latina protagonist. Sierra and her friends get swept up in a battle of magic that also has to do with family, community, ancestors, artmaking, archives, and colonialist ethnography. Yup, Older gets teen agency, humor, magic, romance, and politics effortlessly into a story you can't put on pause.

What other book might you compare Shadowhouse Fall to and why?

It feels so fresh, it's hard to compare, quite honestly.

What about Anika Noni Rose’s performance did you like?

Rose brings to life a huge variety of characters without ever drifting into stereotype or caricature. She brings life.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes I laughed, yes I cried, yes I learned, yes I can't stop telling everyone to read/listen.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Prodigious Read

The reader/ performance of this book was hands down in my top 3. I was hooked from the beginning. It's pace was perfect. I loved that you really didn't need to have read the 1st book. This second book was a stand alone story; but synched wonderfully if you had read the first. The world created by the auther would make a great television show. I would even switch over to Univision to watch (with English closed captioning of course).

Great sequel - waiting for the next story...

This was a great next story to the first one. I enjoyed the first book just a little more because this one seems to be trying to evolve our knowledge of this world quickly and stretch it a bit further. For me the first one was less of a leap to buy into than this one, but I found myself wanting to know more either way. The narration is amazing. Anika Noni Rose's performance makes it a great listen and enhances the story more than if I was just reading it. I hope to see more performances by her in the future because I would check those books out just because she's the narrator.

Excellent wonderful gritty amazing!!

I loved it, look forward to book three!! I feel like it was my girlfriend's story and she inducted me too.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

great story and fantastically narrated!

Not only was this a very well written book.The narrator Anika Rose
's ability to give you true separation between characters was amazing and truly truly bought all the characters and this book to life for me. I can't wait for the next installment of this series

Nice Follow up

I liked it. I wont lie, I've been in my feelings about this series since the first book, but like the first I still enjoyed it.

The first half isn't filled with as much action as the last 40%, but once the action started it picked up for me.

I think it had important topics brought up in the book, though I'm not sure the author took into account everything when putting them in the situations he did.

It's a very important story, and as an Afro-latinx woman, I'm glad it exists. I still think I'll have to wait longer for the afro latina heroine I can truly identify with, but the book and characters and language are really good.

I've been told so long my venacular wasnt worthy to be in a book, or was too stereotypical, and I'm glad books of today are proving that wrong.

Mad props to Maria getting in that dude's @÷× at the end. You dont mess with a boricua's daughter😂

Unashamedly Fantastic and Fun

I've listened to both books in the series. I keep imagining what my love for reading would have been, or more accurately (since I love to read), how so many others who grew up like me would have been inspired by fiction that so directly connected with their own cultural and urban experience. The celebration of Black and Brownness. The teenage angst. And, of course, the story line which ties so well with the first book and sets you up for the next. Although I did not grow up in Brooklyn, I did in Chicago. The use of the people, places, social and political issues, youth and old skool culture, is brilliant and fun to read. I'm very much looking forward to the next book.