Heather Beal’s EXTINGUISHING SHADOWS is a coming-of-age tale centered around Mara, a young, daring, and adventurous creature from a species called the Viajante. They physically look like humans, but have supernatural powers that include altering others’ perceptions, telepathically communicating, and mind reading. Related loosely to Celtic culture, they are somewhat disconnected from (but still engaged with) human society. In the book’s lore, vampires and Viajantes have territories across Earth and hold a shaky kind of peace that dates back millennia. Mara’s own parents were killed by vampires when she was six. As a result, she grew up in a kind of Viajante orphanage—so for her the divide is particularly acute. Readers first meet Mara and learn about her skills as she races her sports car along a cliffside with enemies in quick pursuit. Able to disguise herself and alter the perceptions of those immediately around her, she leaps out of the car unseen while her vehicle rolls off the edge. Presumed dead, she disappears into the undergrowth and delves into the vampires’ territory.
This frantic action sequence is not atypical of EXTINGUISHING SHADOWS, but the novel is more than just a series of wild chases. There’s a heavy social element, too, including strange interactions in bars and kitchens where two different species converse with each other telepathically. There is a rush of romance blended with danger as Mara becomes involved with Terrill, a vampire, and the reader learns more about their dark pasts. Beal’s book does engage in a few expected tropes (vampires fighting the urge to drink blood, being hundreds of years old, etc.), but it’s also a fast-flowing and accessible teen drama. There are tinges of Twilight, a few light elements of Romeo and Juliet, and the kind of otherworldliness that feels as if it’s sucking readers into its own distinctive, moody imagery with passages like this: “Mara led them to the path leading down to the ruins. The green of the familiar landscape shone brightly in the dark and the ruins themselves lay bathed in the gentle glow of the nearby full moon.”
With occasionally heart-racing and lightly sexual content, it is largely PG—and lends an element of weight as Mara and Terrill learn about each other’s worlds. The characters’ journeys eventually take them from California to Ireland, where Beal portrays green-tinged ruins, dramatic weather, and a kind of lore that explores Shamanism, warlocks, and gene mutation. This novel conveys a period of self-discovery without ever losing the sense that the past is chasing Mara and her companions.
Heather Beal’s EXTINGUISHING SHADOWS is an accessible and fast-paced text planted firmly in an underworld of magical folklore and vampire fantasy that remains fresh with engaging characters and a consistent aura of adventure.
~James Hendicott for IndieReader