I wanted to like this one, as I've read (and loved) every other one of his books, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't even finish it, I was too depressed by it. ( )

I found those one- and two-page "interludes" between the chapters very confusing, and I think the ending was rather contrived. ( )

After all the adults vanished, monsters came and collected the children, to be turned into monsters who fought for the delectation of other monsters as they reached age 14. A few escapees, with the help of an artificial intelligence, are trying to fight back. The worldbuilding doesn’t make any sense if you think about it for half a second, but the monsters are creepy, especially with their battle poetry and indifference to suffering. ( )

For a YA novel (and Garth Nix typically aims for the younger end of YA or straight-up middle grade), Shade's Children gets really dark. Not that YA can't be, or frequently isn't, dark. But Nix takes it to some pretty messed up places this time.

With Shade's Children, Nix tells a very slim, spare story. He's only preoccupied by the lives of four children over the course of a couple of weeks. There's a much larger story at play, but we only get hints of that. Nix focuses in on Ella, Drum, Ninde, and Golden Eye's story to the exclusion of almost all else. The result is rather impressive. Shade's Children is a much stronger book for the intense focus.

Fantasy and sci fi tends to be very expansive in its scope. It was nice to read a story that did the opposite of that. ( )

This one features an improbable dystopia and non-stop adventure. Nasty nasty creatures from perhaps another dimension have made all the adults disappear and for 15 years have been raising and refashioning children to use in their war games. It's all very creepy and exciting, but never quite makes sense. An AI named Shade has created a sanctuary for escapees from the is trying to save them, or is he? His last team of four are there to find out... ( )