A review by fourhand13
The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

dark medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Electing to not give this a rating for now as I don't fully know how I feel about it.

There were aspects of this book that i enjoyed and some bits that I really did not care about in the slightest. The tone is totally different to the first book which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I personally found this a more depressing read as we follow
Ciara's
POV for the most part. This definitely left me in a weird headspace.

ok more in depth thoughts:
I did enjoy the exploration of Ciara's thoughts and her past even if I found it a difficult read at times. The allegory of demonic possession as an addiction was pretty well done and it's very easy to see how she snowballed to that point after the treatment she'd received from people around her.

Near the end it felt like Ciara was having a Carrie-esque moment of going mad with power and the want to destroy everything before regaining clarity- and I was half expecting it to end the same way after she was shot through the chest. She's a much more interesting and compelling character than Niamh LOL.

Leonie's sidestory was unfortunately boring imo. I think if we were made to care about Hale's influence as a villain, then her tailing him may have had some stakes to it. Up until the infiltration of Aeaea he just kinda felt like a nebulous big bad.

Wish there was more Holly and Theo.

The very last pages are the most confusing thing and don't make sense, I will be reading the next installment bcs I wanna know how we ended up with Milo as Lucifer.


As with my HMRC review, there is more of the same irt TWs regarding mind reading and additionally, mentions of childhood emotional abuse are more prevalent so take care.
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