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Book Review of Shadow Dance

Shadow Dance
reviewed on + 929 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3


This book was really hard for me to rate. It wasn't so horrible that I hated it, but it wasn't so good that I enjoyed it. So I put it in the middle. I have read a lot of Andersen's books and I have liked all of them except this one. I only liked three characters in this book and they are all side characters with barely any lines: Charlie the slave-driving chorus director, Joe the detective, and Peter the gay dancer. All of the other ones were annoying and I just didn't understand.

Amanda seemed almost too complicated. There were times where I didn't understand what she was thinking or why she was acting the way she did. I was at a lost with Tristan as well. It expected Andersen's character development to be more clear since she seemed to spend a lot of time on it. I remember the first time Amanda and Tristan declared their love for each other. My thoughts when I read that was, "Wow, that came out of nowhere." I know Andersen was building to it but it never really built up properly to that point. Rhonda, her best friend, was just got on my nerves. She was just too caught up in sex and men. She was obtuse and then all-knowing. I guess to sum it up, her characters in this book was not consistent.

The suspense part of the story was okay. I would have liked if she kept us guessing on who the killer was a little bit more.

It wasn't so bad that I would tell someone not to read it, but if you have something else by her read that first.