The Shadow of the Bear

Well, here I go, trying my hand at this review thing.  I would have typed this out and posted it a while ago except our family computer crashed and while a Nook works well for viewing blogs, it does not work nearly as well for typing out posts and posting them.  Anyways, moving on!
I have to warn you, I am a huge fangirl of these books, not only because they are so well written and action packed, but also because they are very Catholic.  Personal opinions aside, I will try my best to provide some reasons why this book is not perfect.  First though, a quick sketch of the storyline:
The book is a retelling of the Fairy Tale 'Snow White and Rose Red' by the Brothers Grimm.  The retold story is set in modern day New York, where Blanche and Rose Brier live with their widowed mother Jean Brier.  One snowy night Jean is coming home from work, and as she steps out of her car, a crazy driver swerves toward her.  A young man (nicknamed Bear) saves her just in time.  Mrs. Brier invites the young man inside and so begins a friendship between Bear and the Briers.  Bear, however, is in some sort of trouble, and even though he visits the Briers multiple times, the girls are never able to figure out what the trouble is.  Until one day...  But that would be spoiling the story :)  I won't hand out spoilers now.  Let me just say that it leaves you wondering whether or not they will make it to the end alive!

I really like the plot of the story, it's definitely cool and makes for an interesting story.  It is a little, how do I say this, extreme?  The story is one that I suppose could happen in real life, but it's definitely not something that seems likely to happen.  Drug gangs, mean teenagers, kidnappers, murderers, they're all real, but roll them all together (SPOILERS!!!!!) and add a guy who's so obsessed with beautiful church vessels that he's willing to murder a priest and frame the priest's two young friends (yep, that's Bear and his younger brother Fish), and that's when it gets a bit extreme.  (SPOILERS end here, you can look now) 

The characters are definitely people that you can imagine are real.  They've got their high points and their low points, their good qualities and their quirks.  Rose and Blanche remind me of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility.  Both sisters share a love of books and poetry, and Rose loves to quote poetry at any given time.  Rose also mentions that Blanche has read more of the classics, while Rose prefers poetry.  Blanche is the more down to earth of the two, and tends to be a bit less rash than her sister Rose.  Blanche is very shy and believes that she lacks in courage, although at the end of the book she disproves that theory.  She is also a little more profound in her thoughts, and despairs a bit more easily.  Rose on the other hand is extremely optimistic, brave (or is the right word silly? A bit of both I guess), a lover of adventure, and imaginative.  She mentions to Bear in the beginning of the book that she believes most people are really something else, a prince, a princess, a witch, a wizard, a dwarf, a knight, a king, etc., and that they have either forgotten who they really are, or secretly know.  She also believes that her eyes are similar to a chameleon in that they can change color when she wants them to.  At one point in time Rose gets mad at a boy at her highschool for bullying her sister and when she goes to confront him she cues her eyes to change to a stone grey color XD  I've always thought that was really funny.  She does have something of a temper, and like I said, is too brave for her own good.  Bear is an interesting character, sweet, protective of Rose and Blanche (especially Blanche).  He is unwilling to draw the girls into his secret danger, but enjoys their friendship too much to just let them go.  You get a much better picture of the girls' characters then his or his brother's, because, as I forgot to mention, the book is told from the sister's point of view.  More about that in a minute.  Bear's brother Fish is okay, he doesn't really enter the story until the end, but he is referenced to and ( HUGE SPOILER!!!) Rose meets up with him while venting her feelings through playing violin in a park. (end of Spoilers).  He's a very detached person, and quite sarcastic.  He is also an escape artist, and very smart and resourceful.  You never see much deeper into his character than that, at least in this book (Waking Rose, the 3rd in this series, centers on Fish and Rose and is told from their viewpoints).  Mr. Freet, the antagonist, is quite a character (I keep misspelling character, as charactar, why????).  He is theologically and philosophically messed up, believing that beauty has its source in itself, beauty, and not in truth.  He is also obsessed with beautiful church vessels, and doesn't shrink away from murder and lying to get the ones he wants.  He's a pretty crazy guy (especially since his doorcode is 666, does that give anyone else the creeps?), and a cold-hearted, cruel villain.  Pretty stereotypical, except for his aforementioned obsession with church vessels.  Although, most villains are obsessed with something, like Rings, or the destruction of prophecies, or someone's downfall.

I really like the way that Regina Doman wrote this book, she is a great story teller.  There are like one or two references to some more mature content, but my younger sister, 9 years old, is reading it now, and she will either not realize what they're talking about, or realize that it is not a good thing.  The immoral stuff is always shown in a bad light though, just to clarify.  Rose gets into a tight spot with a guy, but escapes before anything happens, and some mean girls make some rude remarks about seeing Blanche with Bear at a prom.  That's really it.  As I mentioned before, the book does swap back and forth between viewpoints which is cool and gives several different perspectives on the story since the sisters are so different.  It might be annoying for some people, but the change is clearly marked by a small picture of a rose at the beginning of the paragraph where the swap occurs.  Sometimes the swap is a bit sudden and a little confusing though.  Once you read through it again it makes more sense, but you do have to read through it again sometimes.

One of the highlights of this book is that it is soooo Catholic!  Rose and Blanche do go to a Catholic highschool, they are Catholic, Bear and his brother are Catholic, sacred church vessels are a main part of the plot, the girls pray whenever they find themselves in a jam, how much more Catholic can you get?!

Enough!  This is getting really long, and I need to stop.  If you've read this far, good for you!  If not, well, then, I suppose you won't be reading this, so um, well, awkward.......

Verdict: A+
I'm adopting my friend's rating system :) I really like this book, it's AWESOME!!!!  The book is a really fun read, and short too (under 200 pages).  I love pretty much everything about the book, from the characters to the plot, to the profound philosophical and theological thoughts stashed away in the book that took me two or three times to realize they were there!

Well, thanks for reading, and tell me what you think about the book, about my review, about what you're eating for lunch today, you get the idea :)  Oh and let me know if you would like me to review some more books!