THE SHADOW GEOGRAPHY

Novel Synopsis & Book Jacket BlurbTitle: The Southern StarGenre: YA Gothic Dark Fantasy / Magical RealismLogline:In a gothic town where shadows are traded as currency for survival, a numb boy with a coin-sized shadow must protect a fallen star-girl from the predatory entity that rules the valley [Chapter 1, Chapter 2].The Blurb:Welcome to Blackwood, an isolated stone valley where darkness is an economy [Chapter 1]. To survive the freezing cold, the hollowed citizens must barter with The Gloom-an ancient, formless entity that demands pieces of their physical shadows in exchange for resources [Chapter 1]. With each transaction, a piece of the soul vanishes, leaving the town trapped in a silent, emotionless twilight [Chapter 1].Seventeen-year-old Evander is nearly a ghost [Chapter 1]. Having traded away almost his entire shadow to save his dying mother, he lives in a state of absolute, gray numbness-until the night the sky shatters [Chapter 1].The Southern Star, a brilliant diamond of light that has resisted the darkness for centuries, crashes directly into the abandoned cathedral cemetery [Chapter 1]. But the star is not a stone; it is Lyra, a glowing girl whose celestial light is rapidly cooling into ash [Chapter 2, Chapter 4]. Dragged to earth by a dark betrayal from the town's ruling High Magistrate, Lyra is hunted by the very entity that rules Blackwood [Chapter 2, Chapter 3].To save her and break the eternal curse of the valley, Evander must guide Lyra to the highest spire [Chapter 3]. But as the shadows close in, he faces an impossible choice: let the last light in the universe die, or sacrifice the final piece of his own soul to give her the spark to rise again [Chapter 4].