The Shadow Year (2008) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“Very good. Creepy. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“diamondgirl said: 4 stars

Fun book to read. Reminded me a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird, Stand by Me and The Sandlot. About 2 brothers and their sister in a small town. There is a prowler on the loose looking in windows and they decide to investigate since the police won't. The boys have a model of their town set up in the basement, and pieces start moving of their own accord, or is it their strange younger sister and one of the personalities she has invented? When bodies start showing up they get more than they bargained for, and the pieces on the board start being predictions of what is to come.
”

• Rated 4 stars

“4 stars

Fun book to read. Reminded me a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird, Stand by Me and The Sandlot. About 2 brothers and their sister in a small town. There is a prowler on the loose looking in windows and they decide to investigate since the police won't. The boys have a model of their town set up in the basement, and pieces start moving of their own accord, or is it their strange younger sister and one of the personalities she has invented? When bodies start showing up they get more than they bargained for, and the pieces on the board start being predictions of what is to come.

”

• Rated 2 stars

“This book didn't strike a single chord with me. There was little about it that I enjoyed. It felt more like passing the time than reading...maybe it was the setting, the lack of character development, the characters themselves or the writing style...but I just couldn't get into The Shadow Year. It has a great premise but the content doesn't back up the idea, not for me, anyway.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Very interesting and rather sweet novel, giving us a small glimpse into a disfunctional family back in the 1960s.”

• Rated 5 stars

“I loved this book. It does put you in the mind of to Kill a Mockingbird in the way it takes you back to your childhood. It views the world from the child's perspective. I will be looking for more books by Jeffrey Ford.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I can see where some people might not enjoy this as much as I did because it is more a story about a time and place that meant something to me than about "what happens." If you grew up in the 1960s the way I did, it can really resonate -- Ford reallly pegs the picture of suburban childhood in the 1960s, at least the way I remember it. I particularly enjoyed the mysterious "powers" of little sister Mary, enough that I was little disappointed by what happens to her by the end of the book.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Love it! Eerie tale of two boys who decide to unmask a neighborhood Peeping Tom. They soon come to believe that the same person may be responsible for a missing classmate's disappearance. Tinge of paranormal. ”