2009: The Shadow Year

The story of the narrator's sixth-grade year in the New York suburbs in the 1960's. In addition to dealing with issues with school, bullies, and his alcoholic mother, he and brother Jim and sister Mary are searching for a prowler that has been seen in the neighborhood. That search becomes much more frightening when they realize that a serial killer may actually be stalking their town. They are aided in their pursuit by "Botch Town", a model of the neighborhood that Jim has built in the basement. Mary seems to have the ability to place the model citizens of Botch Town in the same locations as the actual people of the town.Why it's on the listThis interesting fiction is an amalgamation of mysticism, imagination and mystery. The twelve-year-old narrator maintains a journal detailing all the shenanigans in the town for the year and since the story is told in his first person, readers get into the heart of an young adolescent boy. The atmosphere is gothic and reality and the supernatural meet to form a book well worth reading.The Shadow Year is most definitely worth reading. Jeffrey Ford's uses compelling prose, excellent descriptions and lifelike imagery to invite us into a life that we can all relate to. At the same time the story provides a riveting mystery with plenty of tension and spellbinding suspense. On top of all this, we also get to be share the touching relationship between the boy, his big brother and their little sister.Jeffrey Ford has managed to create an adventure with twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end.