Okay so since this is a more middlegrade book instead of YA, I'm going to try to review this as if I was a lot younger. Because I love MG books, they often contain the most important messages since they're directed at young, growing, people.

While I loved the characters and the details put in the story, it was really slow paced. The characters were funny and they were fleshed out and really interesting. I loved the interactions between the characters. While this wasn't meant for my age, I'm really looking forward to other books by this author.

I wanted to love this novel. The premise is so promising and the idea has such potentially. Unfortunately, that potential was just not executed in a way I found engaging. The story was incredibly slow, almost agonizingly slow. I honestly had trouble trying to get through it, and had to force myself to continue. The main character, is written too old for his age. His mannerisms and dialogue were outside of his age range and seemed almost dated.. I think the rationalize is that he's suffered and has gone through adult experiences but it's off putting.

Even for being as slow as it was, the story was difficult to follow. There were a ton of flashbacks, characters that didn't seem to come back, and plot lines that seemed to unravel before they even got started. I think this story tried to do too much and couldn't quite interweave all of it. This just wasn't for me.

Convincingly realised across the centuries, Brotherhood of Shades offers a parallel world of spirits managed by the Brotherhood protecting the living world from the world of the dead. Adam is thought to be the foretold saviour who is sceptical about his assigned role. Cleverly plotted with tension and humour, we follow Adam's quest to find the coded manuscript. This is a confident work from a rising debut author; I'll certainly be looking out for Dawn Finch's next book and would be happy to find that it was set in the same world. Recommended.

I struggled to finish this...it just seem to be all over and you where expected to know it. I had high hopes for this book by the description to the cover and I just left disappointed.

This...was so disappointing. The summary of Brotherhood of Shades sounds so good! A 14 year old, with little recollection of his life, dies after a lifelong struggle of not belonging anywhere and being unwanted. After death though, he finds that he actually does have a place in the world, and off he goes to try to battle evil ghostly forces to save the world.

I mean, it sounds action-packed and fun right!?

Wrong.

It was agonizingly slow. My eyes were constantly trailing off of the pages, looking to find something to keep me occupied. I kept thinking to myself when things would finally pick up. They do eventually pick up, but even then it is still so slow! It also doesn't help that the story is a jumbled up mess to follow. Needless flashbacks, characters that seem to have no importance except for 1 line, an extremely out of place first chapter/scene. It was just too much all out once, and even the story had a hard time keeping itself straight. I'm all for great storytelling and interwoven plot lines, but this was not it.

Can we talk about the characters and dialogue? This is what annoyed me the most. Adam is 14, yet he doesn't talk at all like his age. While we see early on that his eyes look weary, like he's gone through most of his life due to all his struggles, but he talks like he belongs in a different centruy. Every once in a while we'll get some "modern" dialogue, and it really just doesn't mesh. I also hated Edie and D'Scover. Sorry, not sorry. I didn't like them at all. Adam was the only one I could somewhat understand and like, but even then it's just not there for me.

Overall, I really disliked this. I gave it 2 stars as there are some redeeming qualities, but this book is just so excrutiatingly slow and annoying. Brotherhood of Shades had a good idea, but it tried too hard to incorporate many challenging elements all at once. I would definitely not read this again unless there was some heavy editing done to the overall storyline.

I tried really hard to finish this but it was just so bad i couldnt get through it. The book was disjointed and all over the place, no real explanations you are just expected to understand that dead people travel through centuries of time.

Im sure some people may enjoy but i didnt. Sorry!

Compelling adventure story with ghosts as the main protagonists. I found the story interesting and liked the way that the historical parts of the story were woven into the present day sections. The idea of a secret society of ghosts (or shades) who check up on any untoward ghostly events is a novel idea. The characters were well thought out although sometimes it felt a bit too convenient about the lack of parents. It's nice to read fiction based very firmly in the UK which this is.

I struggled with this title. I wanted to love it, the premise is fantastic, I wanted to be lost in Adam's world. But unfortunately, I found it hard to immurse myself in this world, purely due to my disconnect with the content through the language used in the book.
I understand why the stuffy Victorian type language is used, it suits the books theme, but It does make it hard to read, makes it feel like a chore.
This being said, I can see this being popular with other readers

This was provided to me by NetGalley for an honest review. This book was good! Liked the characters & the plot, but it just wasn’t IT for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher, Stirling Publishing, for providing me a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

This book has a great plot, it is a paranormal fantasy with a few intriguing twists and some of them I guessed. This is a book about ghosts and there is also a prophesy that plays a big part in this. This is a book that would be great for a reader younger than me. It is a book that is good vs evil which I liked but I tend to prefer morally grey books.

This book follows a boy wounded during the Dissolution of the Church of England during the reign of Henry VIII, another boy from the modern day and a witch who has survived through the generations. I felt a little wrong footed as it goes from Henry VIII's era to the modern day but as I continued I got drawn into the story.

The world building is great, it is also clearly setting up a series. The city of London was great and it mentions many places in London that I have seen. The writing is okay, it could be better in places as it felt a little stiff and some things were a little cliche. Adam is good at everything which is a trope that annoys me. The characters I quite enjoyed, although the writing sometimes made them feel a little stiff. Adam was a favourite of mine as his sense of humour was great. I also liked the characters relationship to each other. D'Scover takes his job very seriously and I liked that he was hundreds of years old in a child's body. Then we have Edie who has been reincarnated for hundreds of years.

A thing I love is that there is an afterword by the author that gives extra information about the real world objects and places that figure in the story.

Overall this is a good book by a debut author. I loved the links to real places and how the characters were written. I felt like it was for younger readers but I managed to enjoy it.

This book sadly didn't live up to my expectations. The writing was choppy, especially the transitions! This has become one of my #1 triggers when it comes to prose. Also, the characters lacked depth; they felt circumstantial. I would've followed them if only the prose were better. Unfortunately, it felt unpolished. Not just "this is an arc" unpolished, but generally, structurally chaotic. I just couldn't do it.

Not what I was hoping for, but hopefully others can look past the prose itself and enjoy the story for its premise!

Good versus evil with a nice ghostly angle. I enjoyed the concept and the plot rattled along nicely. It would probably suit a 12-14 year old. The problem is that the language is often clichéd and the dialogue is clunky. On the whole fun, but flawed.