Title: Shift
Author: Bdicocco
Genres: Fantasy/Teen Fiction
Description: When Kayden witnesses a sudden explosion in New York City and runs into a mysterious boy dressed in all black, she is quickly pulled into a sub-world of magic that she didn't know existed. "Potestas"--those with power--work side-by-side with those who know nothing of them, but can summon unimaginable power with the use of a spell book and a piece of chalk. But when magic becomes unstable and threatens to destroy anyone who uses it, Kayden finds herself in an even more unstable world of politics, love, and power.
Amount I've read: First seven chapters
Review: Okay, can I just say that this blew all of my expectations away? Great. Since I have no idea where I was planning on going with that, I guess I'll tell you all of my previous expectations. When I read the summary, I thought this was going to be another Beautiful Creatures knockoff: a teenage human meets a mysterious person dressed all in black for the first time when the black-dressed person accidentally blows something up when they fail to control their emotions. The human later finds out that the mystery person is a magic-user, and then they get pulled into the deep dark world of witchcraft and wizardry. They fall in love, beat the bad guys, the end. Now, while a lot of that beginning stuff did happen, not a single chapter struck me as boring or cliche.
For a story written in the third person, the reader is able to get a very good handle on the characters' thoughts, emotions, and personalities. From page one we know what main character Kayden is like and exactly what she thinks of those around her. When I read other people's suggestions for stories on this site, one of the things I most often come across is the advice, "Show, don't tell." Well, I can guarantee you that no one will ever need to say that to this author. Instead of telling us what the characters are like and expecting us to go with it, she shows us through their words and actions. While the main characters do tell us what they think of other characters, their opinions are always backed up by the others' behavior. Don't trust Kayden that her cousin is annoyingly perky? That's okay, read the first chapter and be annoyed by her yourself. Don't trust Blaze that his father is strict? Fine, read the second chapter and try resisting the urge to virtual-slap him.
Thanks to the great way the characters were portrayed, I looked at their personalities and found that I really liked them. Kayden is much like the average teenager, though she seems to be smarter than most judging by her quick thinking after she find's the boy's book in her room. When I read "mysterious boy dressed in all black" in the description, I thought it would be like the normal mysterious figure you find in fantasy book: doesn't talk much, has some dark past, and shows compassion to some people while ruthless towards others. But the author took the boy into another direction altogether, one that I much preferred to the average mystery person that shows up at the beginning of books. Blaze seemed a lot like a regular teenage boy, but with the ability to do magic: whiny, sarcastic, and very socially awkward. While he may be "a mysterious boy" at the beginning, he doesn't stay that way for long. He accidentally says something to Kayden that he shouldn't have regarding magic during their first encounter, so he later goes to erase her memories. But instead of making her forget everything he told her, he ends up blabbing his every secret to her. It struck me as a very realistic reaction for someone put under sudden stress, and one that made me laugh.
I liked that the characters aren't too weak, but they're not perfect either. Kayden is very brave and smart, but chapter 7 shows that she has a manipulative side to that as well. However, I think Blaze's use of magic shows the balance the best. In many fantasy stories, the wizards are seen as being almost omnipotent, weilding immense power and being almost unstoppable. That couldn't be further from the truth in this story. While Blaze has the ability to use magic, he frankly doesn't seem that good at it and is still learning how to control it. Even for someone who did know how to work the magic with skill, like his father, drawing the necessary runes takes a lot of time, which could be a severe disadvantage in an emergency situation. These types of imperfections leave a lot of room for the conflict to build and in my opinion was definitely a good move on the author's part.
To go more in depth about the laughter thing two paragraphs ago, the later interactions between Kayden and Blaze added an unexpected layer of humor to the story that I really enjoyed. Their conversations with each other is laced with constant sarcasm and quick wit, and I could just see their banter playing out in my head. For being complete strangers to each other, those two bicker like an old married couple. Very entertaining.
Another interesting layer of this is the characters' home situations. They both have their issues, but it's not something major that gets in the way of the main plot. Kayden's annoying cousin is living with her for the summer and Kayden has to learn to deal with Lexi's constant presence in her life. Blaze's father is really strict and seems really emotionally distant from his son. So distant, in fact, that Blaze seems to prefer talking to his magically-created fake people rather than his own father.
One thing that I am ambivalent about in this story are the descriptions. There is a lot of description in this story, and I think it both hinders and helps the story depending on what point it is. At some moments in the story, the narrative is relatively straightforward and doesn't need much description, yet there is a lot of it anyway. On the other hand, there are some moments that are begging to be described to the minute detail which the author nails perfectly. For one example, I thought Kayden's description of the magic permeating the air inside of the rune in chapter 7 was very well described and showed how magical the magic really is.
Overall, I thought this story has a very solid plot and that, coupled with the fantastic writing style, will end up building into an incredible story. Shift has a blend of a little bit of everything in it, so I'm not even sure who to recommend it to. The author says that it's a young adult book, but I think people of any age could easily enjoy this. Fantasy fans for sure, but also people who like teen fiction, humor, suspense, action, and a number of other things. I definitely think that teens will enjoy this the most, though. So...I guess I'll just stick with that.
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