A young boy, his older brother Jim, and his younger sister Mary, become witnesses to strange happenings in their 1960s Long Island neighborhood.  There is a Peeping Tom roaming the streets, looking in the windows of the unsuspecting; a neighborhood kid goes missing; and a elderly man from down the street is eventually found dead.  Most strange of all, though, is the cardboard recreation of their neighborhood, what they call Botch Town, the brothers have in their basement:  whatever changes little Mary makes to it seem to happen in real life.

The siblings, though, pick up on the strange things occurring and decide to investigate most likely out of a desire to get away, even for a little while, from their home life.  Their father works two jobs and is most always absent, their mother is an alcoholic artist who can’t cook, and their grandparents, who show them the most love and affection, live in the converted garage.  The main protagonist, the middle child (who I can’t remember his name, or if it was ever given, sorry), isn’t the most popular kid in school, and is very often tormented by his older brother.  Jim can be a bully, but deep down looks after his brother and sister, and little Mary talks to imaginary people who help her plan the changes to Botch Town, and, though still in elementary school, has a smoking problem.

This sleuthing trio is peculiar, and experiencing the strange year of dangers and mysteries they face, from the close of Summer, through Halloween, a treacherous Winter, to the next end-of-school break, is a marvelous read.  The Shadow Year is one of those books, funny, delightful, nostalgic, and full of wonders, that begs to be read more than once.  If I were to read it a second time, and I will at some point, maybe then I’ll be able to ignore why it’s just a shade shy of being perfect.

Author Jeffrey Ford gets most everything right in The Shadow Year.  What isn’t right, and what doesn’t sit well, or fit into the puzzle well, is the ending.  The character of Ray, a teen who moved away from the neighborhood with his family, shows up late in the novel, and he just feels too convenient.  I think Ford could have written him into the story better.

The Shadow Year has a similar vibe as Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, and just misses the mark of being that good.  For it all, though, I have included this book on the October Countdown because it stirs up certain feelings in the reader, at least it did me.  It may not be pure horror, but it’s a tale of weird fiction that has a certain haunting quality.  The passing of time, the old giving way to the new, growing up, looking back, facing the unknown.  There is a timelessness to The Shadow Year.

4.5 out of 5
John Jason