Secrets, Secrets, Are SO Fun

There's nothing I love more than reading about a crumbling old mansion containing secrets within its walls. You get the eerie feeling that they've witnessed more than you could ever know. And, if you wait around long enough, all will be revealed in due time.

It's one thing to read about decaying houses. It's another thing entirely to live in one. Olive Dunwoody has always had a vivid imagination - one that her parents, both absentminded mathematicians, don't really understand. When they move to their new home, a sinister-looking mansion, Olive knows there's something not quite right... How do you explain the fact that cats, patrolling the residence like sentries, can speak? And why do the creepy paintings, permanently mounted on the walls, give Olive the feeling like they're hiding something?

"The painting looks scared.  It's like the houses are trying to pretend they're asleep and stay quiet...like something bad is coming."

In The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere, Jacqueline West fashions a world with portals that take Olive on a terrifying quest for survival - all within the confines of the house. As she travels inside the dark and dangerous paintings with the help of antique spectacles, she comes closer to unlocking the truth about the mansion's history. Lurking in the shadows, someone wants Olive gone for good. And it's up to a girl afraid of the dark and her unusual allies - an insolent boy with a temper, talking house-cats, and a pair of spectacles - to piece together the mystery and reclaim the house.

This book was exactly what I was hoping for and so much more. Delightfully haunting and deliciously secretive. After reading this book, you'll start wondering about paintings. And whether their insides are really as beautiful as they seem from the outside.