Book review: The Second Shadow by Elizabeth Arroyo

Jake thought being demon meant a shredded humanity, stripped of all human emotion. Chaos and self-preservation dominates a demon’s instincts. But Jake feels every ounce of pain and despair around him. 

And it’s driving him deeper into Hell.

Gabby’s choice to save him last summer left a fissure in Hell’s gate that released a malevolent evil. When Jake’s given a mission by the demons to shadow a human girl who may know the whereabouts of an ethereal weapon, he doesn’t expect to see Gabby. But Fate has her own agenda.

When Jake and Gabby are thrown together on a camping trip with a group of delinquent teens, Jake begins to grapple with the haunting choices he made in the past. When the evil finds them, the group begins to battle for their lives, alliances are made, and truths revealed. 

As the evil begins to influence Jake, he questions his link to the demons, his purpose, and his love for Gabby. 

But the answers to those questions are only found in Hell. And it may cost him his soul.

A free copy was given to me in return for an honest review.

The Second Shadow is the sequel to The Second Sign, which I read not long ago.  Most of what I have to say is that the sequel is even better than the original.  The only problems I really had with it were surface errors, mostly typos and the whole ‘use a word that’s close to what you mean’ mistake.  There were also a few things that I felt like should’ve been revealed in the first book rather than the second.  It was a bit rushed at times, throwing realizations and information on you with little time to really digest it because it’s in the middle of the action and the characters have to get on with things.

Other than that, the story is well-put together.  There’s obvious effort in the lore, taking class Christian mythology and fitting it together with Arroyo’s own ideas and interpretations.  And like in the first book, she was definitely not afraid to show the more graphic scenes.  Descriptions of Erra’s influence on Gabby make your skin crawl (literally in poor Gabby’s case) and Alexi’s torture in hell doesn’t pull any punches in its descriptions.  I don’t usually enjoy graphic things like this, but I feel like it would’ve lost something if it weren’t all there.

And some of it is just surreal.  Jake has moments where he slips into Hell, or something like that.  I can’t even really tell what’s happening, but I have the feeling that’s exactly how I’m supposed to feel.

All-in-all, I’d have to say it’s a successful sequel.  The ending also leaves room for another book if that’s what Arroyo has planned, but unlike so many other books, it doesn’t just simply drop off and make you think “Wait, where the rest of it?” So, happy reading!