SHADOW

SHADOW (BOOK 2 OF THE HEIRS OF NEVERLAND) by Kara Swanson

Kara Swanson's Shadow, Book 2 of the Heirs of Neverland Series, picks up where Dust left off and takes readers into the heart of the brokenness of Neverland.

Peter Pan is selfish, and that selfishness has affected the inhabitants of Neverland for a long time. Shadows have filled the world and its people. The light is being snuffed out bit by bit. It's time to deal with the root cause of all of this darkness before it is too late. It is time to grow up, to take responsibility, to face the consequences of past actions, so the darkness can be defeated and the light returns.

Shadow is a redemptive story. However, there is a lot of darkness that you encounter. At the end you hold your breath and hope that things are going to turn out alright, because there is death, there are prices for the sins of the past that do not just easily wrap up and drift away. But that is the truth of life, is it not? Forgiveness and a new life through Christ are a choice, but not everyone chooses to accept the gift.

Before I jump to the Heads Up section, I want to talk about the author for a minute. Kara Swanson grew up in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea as a missionary child. She lived in what we could almost equate as another "world." Reading this book I feel that we are getting glimpses of that upbringing. I am going to go out on a limb and wonder if some of the warfare we are seeing is the result of spiritual warfare maybe seen. This is PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART! Swanson does mention at the end of the book in her Acknowledgements that she fought some shadows this year. She says we all did. The book was published in 2021.

HEADS UP- There are some elements to the story to be aware of. There are a couple of gruesome parts as people die. There are a couple of throats slit with blood that pours out as a war rages for the saving of Neverland.

Swanson also refers to "dark magic" in the book. It's hard to exactly pinpoint the darkness that is affecting Neverland. Is it an overtaking of sin or at one point I questioned whether we are dealing with possession of one of the characters. He has a blackness that overtakes his body with veins that drip an ooze out. At one point the shadow residing inside the character talks to a person it's fighting using the pronoun "we."

**Side note - My oldest daughter loved the story of Peter Pan from her childhood. In high school she drew the silhouette of Peter with scenes from the Disney movie that you see in the picture.