In the Shadows, by Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo
Fantasy/Graphic novel
First line: “The world swayed beneath Cora.”
Booktalk: This book contains two connected stories.
One story tells the tale of Cora and Minnie, two sisters whose family runs a boardinghouse in a very unusual town. Two of their guests, Thom and Charles, are brothers who have inherited a deadly secret that will almost certainly kill Charles. Together with the girls’ maybe-cousin Arthur, these five teenagers must defeat the sinister forces that are converging upon the town – and threatening to destroy the rest of the world.
The other story, told through illustrated pages with no words at all, follows Arthur as he embarks on a desperate, dangerous journey through time. Arthur must destroy a murderous, seemingly invincible group of magicians in order to save the world – and the person he loves the most.
Similar titles: The Chaos of Stars (Kiersten White), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs, also available as a graphic novel), Untold (Sarah Rees Brennan)