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This story begins with a wizard being killed, which apparently is quite difficult to do safely. In this case, the people were given very specific instructions: don't spill his life-blood, don't let him speak a curse, don't let him use his hands to work magic. However, there was one thing they didn't account for: as he is bound and dying, the sun comes out and this wizard casts some unspoken spell to free his shadow. Some time later (years, perhaps), a traveling peddler named Crocken passes near the spot where the wizard dies, and he is persuaded/coerced/bargained/threatened into taking on this shadow and carrying it with him to the far-off country of Armyn.

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Shortly after I started reading this book, I thought I recognized the standard hero and heroine of a Grace Livingston Hill novel-- the beautiful, angelic, unspoiled but well-educated and refined Minister's daughter, Lynn; the tough but sweet, good-looking neighbor boy, Mark Carter, who grew up with her but is now in some kind of trouble and estranged for her (of course they must be meant for each other); the spoiled rich boy, Laurence Shafton, who may be a slight distraction for the good girl-- she won't care for his money or fine things, but he will be drawn to this beautiful, religious girl and maybe it will change him for the better. That story does play out rather like I expected (although the characters have more depth than the caricatures I've suggested), but I was pleasantly surprised by this story: as much as it is about Lynn and Mark and Laurence, it is really Billy's story-- the young, tough neighborhood kid who looks up to Carter (or "Cart", as Billy calls him) and loves Miss Lynn's Sunday School lessons. In trying to earn some extra cash, Billy gets tangled up in some bad business and messes things up for others around him-- and as he tries to make things right, he seems to learn and finally understand true grace.

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It's a little hard to believe that this intense, violent story set in an oppressive, dystopic world was written for young adults, but now that I've read it I can understand why the series is so popular. The story is narrated by Katniss, a teenager who's provided for her family (mostly by illegal hunting) ever since her dad was killed in a mine explosion. They live in District 12, one of the poorest districts of the nation of Panem, in what used to be North America. Out west beyond the Rockies is the luxurious, wealthy Capitol city-- but the people of the districts are oppressed and kept poor even as they work for all the goods that supply the Capitol. As punishment for an old rebellion that left a thirteenth district completely destroyed and as a reminder of who has the power, every year each district must send two of their children-- a boy and a girl-- as "tributes" to participate in the Hunger Games, something like a reality TV show in a huge (but controlled) outdoor setting where the children must fight to the death. Katniss's little sister, Prim's (the only person Katniss is sure she loves) name is the one that is drawn-- so Katniss volunteers to take her place. Of course, that's only the beginning of what is quite an engaging, page-turning, compelling story.

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When Sunshine is getting ready to go into battle with Con, and expecting to die (for about the third time in this book), she thinks about what to do with the two days she has left-- and one of the options that crosses her mind is reading:

Reread your favorite novel, the one you only let yourself anymore when you're sick in bed. I might have enjoyed this more, since I'm never sick, if death didn't seem like a very bad trade-off.

This caught my eye because I was actually sick in bed re-reading Sunshine. I don't know if that makes it my favorite book (it is definitely up there), but this book was such a wonderful, complete distraction from my own misery to escape into Sunshine's crazy world (and in particular her humorous, self-deprecating attitude that comes through in the narrative as she provides commentary). It feels like such a full, real world too-- populated with fascinating characters, and details of slang and history and myths, and since we get everything filtered through Sunshine's perspective, we don't know which myths are true and which aren't. Sunshine lives in a dangerous world that I'm not sure I'd want to visit-- I'd love to sample her cinnamon rolls and crazy decadent desserts at Charlie's coffeehouse, but I'm not sure I'd want to navigate the dangers of Old Town to get there.

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