Today is my stop on The Stricken by Morgan Shamy book tour hosted by TBR and Beyond! You can find the full book tour here.
Summary:
What if our spirits walk to another life while our bodies sleep?
Every day in Clara’s world, a dark cloud descends upon her town. The storm comes like clockwork, erasing everyone’s memories. Everyone except Clara. But after Clara’s father mysteriously disappears, things change. The Diviners, captive souls who feed off memories, come for her. With the help of a mysterious figure, Clara escapes the Diviners and flees to Khalom, a city in a parallel world, where she hopes to find refuge. There, Clara discovers that she is a Noble—one of the few people to have knowledge of both worlds, along with the ability to venture between the two.
Forced to live the Noble life, Clara goes to school with peers who want her dead. Meanwhile, a rare and dangerous power begins to stir inside of her. The power of Death. And it grows until she’s not sure if she can control it. When the Diviners break through the city’s defense and students begin to turn up brain dead, Clara must find a way to harness her newfound power in order to stop the attacks before the city—and her mind—is wiped clean.
For readers who enjoy A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab, Crave by Tracy Wolff, House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik.
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My Thoughts:
Morgan Shamy is someone to keep an eye out for. The Stricken is the first book I have read by Shamy and if will definitely not be my last. The Stricken is unlike anything I have read before. It took me a few chapters to get in and get a grasp of what was happening, but after that, I was hooked.
What really hooked me into The Stricken is this line from the summary: What if our spirits walk to another life while our bodies sleep? I had to know what this was about, how does one tell a story that builds on this thought? Shamy does just that with easy.
We meet Clara as she saves her mother from the dark cloud that descent upon her town. At first the dark storm was a distant worry, then something that came monthly, weekly, now daily. The dark cloud erases one’s memories, that is, everyone’s by Clara’s. She hears a guiding voice in her head, Cael, that is trying to protect her. She worries how much longer her and her mother can live like this.
Everything changes when Clara escapes to a parallel world, in which, she discovers she is a Noble. Not only that, she has the ability to venture between worlds and hold knowledge of both as well. Want to know more? Well you will have to read to find out.
I really enjoyed Clara as a character. She has to learn who she is and how to control her powers, all while living in a new world. Speaking of the magic system, it is one of a kind. There was not one moment that I knew what was going to happen next. Shamy does a great job of keeping the action high, it take a few chapters to get used too, but once you get a hold of the pacing you will have a hard time putting The Stricken down.
I highly recommend The Stricken if you enjoy fantasy YA!
About the Author:
Morgan Shamy is an ex-ballerina turned YA writer.
She has been immersed in the arts since the young age of 4, where she performed alongside a professional ballet company for over seven years, and has danced on prestigious stages like soloing at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
She has taught hundreds of girls in her fifteen years of teaching, where some of her students have received full-ride scholarships to schools like School of American Ballet, the Harid Conservatory, Kirov Academy of Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet, to name a few.
Morgan discovered writing when her three-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. It was through that experience which instilled the need to share art and magic with children through words on the page.
Morgan is also an accomplished concert pianist. She was the first girl in Utah to receive the 75 pt. Gold Cup in the Utah Federation of Music in piano solo/concerto competition. Morgan currently lives with her X-Games gold-medalist husband and four children in the cold mountains of Alaska.
Lit Lemon Books 