The Shadow Wand

Elloren Gardner is the spitting image of her grandmother, with the power to match. She is the Black Witch, destroyer of worlds and subject of prophecies. Her friends have fled to the East. She has been married without consent to Lukas Grey, a man who loves her but has ambiguous allegiances. Furthermore, she is the weapon Gardneria has been searching for across the continent.  

Elloren’s country, Gardneria, and the rest of the continent are fully in the clutches of a fascist and theocratic government. To defeat her enemies, Elloren trains her magic and her fighting skills under their noses. At least, that was the plan. Soon after she arrives in the desert to train with the world’s greatest sorceresses, they quickly turn on her, convinced that she will bring about the devastation predicted by the prophecy of the Black Witch. In the hopes of joining her friends, Elloren returns to Gardneria and to her mysterious husband, Lukas.  

Elloren is a hopeful, fierce protagonist, dead set on saving the world—no matter what the rest of the world thinks of her. This turns out to be more complicated than expected when Lukas reveals his plans to destroy Vogel, Gardneria’s dictator. As their plans develop, Elloren meets new friends, strengthens the Resistance network, and struggles to recover from the disastrous losses of the past.  

With characters now separated, The Shadow Wand divides into multiple perspectives, though Elloren’s is by far the most dominant. Due to the influx of character perspectives and new storylines, The Shadow Wand is more complicated than the previous two books. To help readers remember all the details, the book includes far too much exposition, which slows the story’s pace. Since the beginning and conclusion are packed with vital information, readers must pay close attention to the details. The plot revolves around characters’ emotional distress, lacks action, and is boring at times. The inconsistent pacing may also annoy readers. Despite this flaw, the story has solidly developed characters, a villainous society, and a positive message. The Shadow Wand highlights the importance of friendship and perseverance even when it seems like the world is ending.   

The Shadow Wand escalates Elloren’s journey through the growing intolerance and paranoia of the magical world of Erthia. The tragedies carried over from the previous book are emphasized through Elloren’s grief, and while the novel takes a darker turn, it has hopeful messaging and ultimately delivers further emotional depth to every character. The Shadow Wand teaches readers the importance of never giving up in the face of the impossible, whether fighting external threats or mental health challenges.  

The world of Erthia will enthrall readers as it grows even more intricate in The Shadow Wand. Readers who enjoy teenagers fighting authoritarian regimes, complex magic systems, and political intrigue will love Elloren’s determination. The addition of her friends’ perspectives provides a broader picture of the intolerance on their continent and how to combat it. The Shadow Wand is about dealing with consequences, learning from mistakes, and fighting even when no one thinks you can succeed. It concludes with an unexpected cliffhanger that will have readers reaching for the fourth installment.  

Sexual Content  

• On the Gardnerian front lines, Elloren’s ally, Thierren, recalls moments with his fiancée. He thinks about how “she’s allowed him one brief, intoxicating kiss,” and how he “can still feel those soft lips, the contours of her slim waist under his palms, her body pressed against his.” 
• While trying to escape the island she’s trapped on, Elloren’s ally, Sparrow, runs into one of the border guards, who calls her lovely. The guard has been harassing Sparrow for the past couple of weeks. He lightly touches her face and asks her to accompany him back to his room. When she refuses, he says, “You’ve put me off long enough . . . I’ve been patient, Sparrow. More patient than any other Mage here would ever be.” She escapes before he becomes a real threat. 
• Having just arrived in the East, Tierney meets with other Water Fae, and one of them, Fyordin, becomes territorial over her. After Tierney speaks to another kind of Fae, he asks if she is “going to take the Death Fae as [her] lover?” 
• Elloren’s love, Yvan, thinks about his time with Elloren on a military base. “Their separation is too much [for him] to bear at times, often keeping him up tossing late into the night, his skin feverish as his fire lashes out . . . desperate to find his Wyvernfire-bounded love.” 
• Elloren reunites with Lukas at a party, and he “kisses her deeply, the feel of [their] powers merging both startling and all-consuming.” 
• Lukas’s father disapproves of his marriage to Elloren, and in an argument with Lukas, he requests that Lukas “seal the fasting and the breed on the girl. And quickly.” 
• Later, when Lukas tells Elloren about the conversation with his father, Lukas says that “the minute there’s a possibility that I’ve got you with child, [my mother] will leave you alone.” Elloren replies that “no one is getting [her] with child.” Lukas agrees and says that he has Sanjire root, a form of birth control.  
• At their wedding, Lukas and Elloren seal the marriage with a kiss. Lukas “pulls [Elloren] into his arms, and brings his lips firmly to [hers]. . . he draws [her] tight against his body.” Later, during the reception, they discover that if Lukas kisses her, he can help shield her against Vogel, so he “kisses [her] so intensely that every one of [her] affinity lines tighten and grow as molten as wildfire.” 
• After the reception, there is a five-page sex scene where Lukas and Elloren consummate their marriage. Lukas “moves in [her], slowly at first” and she “gasps at the fullness of him.” There’s talk of moving quickly and then slowly, but there’s very little description of anatomy. 
• When Elloren is being trained in magic, the only way she can calm her magic down is when Lukas kisses her. So, she “capture[s] his mouth, and bear[s] down, boring power into his lines in a shuddering bolt. A burn races along [her] skin and into his.” 
• After a long day of training, Elloren and Lukas have sex again. Elloren “kiss[es] him passionately, [her] soft curves fitting against the hard lines of his body” and they “give each other everything.” They wake up together in the morning. The scene is described over a page. 
• Before a stressful next day, Elloren kisses Lukas. He says, “If we had Sanjire root, I’d take you right here. Against that wall.” They kiss but do not have sex.

Violence  

• In The Shadow Wand, international relations have deteriorated, and the whole continent is at war. This is primarily because Gardneria has become a fascist, authoritarian state led by an intolerant, isolationist, and xenophobic religion. This novel contains descriptions of hate crimes, sexual abuse and assault, and war crimes.  
• Elloren’s uncle doesn’t want her mother to fight the Gardnerians. Elloren’s mother says, “They’re rounding up all the Fae, Edwin! The children too. We have to help them! . . . The Gardnerians are doing the same thing that the Kelts and the Urisk did to us. Children are being seized. Whole families. Do you know what that’s like? Watching your family, your people, herded together to be killed? The children screaming?” 
• When Thierren is on the front lines, he witnesses Gardnerian forces burning the woods and Dryads. One of the Dryads warns them not to because “if the trees die, we die. You die. We all die.” Though Thierren tries to stop it, the forests are burned to the ground completely, and all the Dryads are executed. 
• When Elloren is training in the desert, one of the groups who have helped Elloren hide turns on her, convinced that Elloren will try to kill them all because she’s the next Black Witch. While many of them resent her, they haven’t yet resorted to violence. One of them eventually goes rogue and attempts to kill Elloren, and the rest are forced to step in to save Elloren. So, “Quoi Zhon reaches for another star as Kam Vin slams an elbow into the woman’s arm, the silver star flashing with reflected firelight as it drops into a patch of smoldering embers. Then Kam Vin strikes the back of Quoi Zhon’s head, and the sorceress collapses facedown on the sand.” Nobody dies. 
• Thierren, Sparrow, and Effrey are caught trying to sabotage Gardnerian forces. Thierren tries to fight “the ferocious desire to draw his wand, cut down every Mage in the room, and flee East.” He ultimately does nothing as the Gardnerian guards restrain him.  
• While training in the East, Yvan is ambushed by Gardnerians, and he “falls to the ground, his whole body arcing against the terrible pain. . . as vine spears impale his chest.” Yvan loses consciousness, and it is implied that he has been killed.  
• After Elloren turns herself in to the Gardnerians, her aunt Vyvian confronts her. Vyvian says, “Do you know what we do now to race traitors, Elloren Gardner? We execute them.” Vyvian threatens her niece, though she doesn’t act on any violent thoughts. 
• At Lukas’s party, Elloren’s old bully, Fallon Bane, confronts Elloren and attacks her. Elloren then throws her “fist forward and punch[es] [Fallon] in the face as hard as [she] can.” Fallon tries to fight back, but Elloren runs.  
• Eventually, Elloren runs into Fallon’s brother, Damion. Elloren attacks him. “[She] slams [her] whole weight against him and lunge[s] for his wand, but he anticipates [her], tightening his grip on his wand as [her] hand closes around his . . . in the blink of an eye, he sends out a spell. [Elloren] cries out as vine bindings fly from his wand and cinch tight around [her] body, the breath forced from [her] lungs.” 
• Elloren and Damion fight until Lukas breaks them up. “Lukas pushes Damion roughly against one of the stone trees. ‘She’s mine!’ Lukas snarls before punching Damion in the face so hard that [Elloren] can hear something crack.” The fight is diffused, and everybody goes their separate ways. The entire scene spans approximately ten pages. 
• Elloren thanks Lukas for his help. She thanks him for marrying her, saying, “If you hadn’t stepped in, Damion would have taken me back to his estate and raped me. And that would be my life. Every day.” 
• On the way back to Lukas’s family estate, Elloren and Lukas are attacked by a sorceress assassin. Elloren’s “head jerks back as pain blossoms, [her] eyes temporarily crossed from the blow as the [the killing star] bounces off Lukas’s shield.” The sorceress soon escapes through a magical portal, and no more harm is done. 
• When Sparrow is working at the Grey estate, she is sexually assaulted by Lukas’s brother, Silvern. He nuzzles her neck, and Sparrow tries to squirm away, desperation mounting. Silvern slams himself against her, as if for emphasis.” Mrs. Grey interrupts, and Silvern is sent away.  
• In their escape from the Grey estate, Lukas and Elloren watch as dragons burn the estate to the ground, killing most of their wedding guests. “Soldiers scream as vivid blue flames and indigo smoke rise high into the air. . . they’re all dead, [Elloren] dazedly realize[s].” There are no dead bodies described. The scene lasts approximately four pages.  
• While training in the desert, shadow creatures attack Elloren and her friends. “The thing’s powerful, serrated forelimb slashes down toward Lukas, who ducks and slides out of the thing’s reach.” They defeat the creature in five pages, and no one is seriously injured. 
• As Lukas tries to give Elloren instructions with her magic, she accidentally “envelops the whole world in fire,” including setting herself on fire as “fire cuts off [her] vision and scalds through [her].” That’s the only description of her fire that’s given. She doesn’t even know she is on fire until her friends tell her afterwards. They eventually extinguish the fire, and no one is seriously injured. Elloren discovers she is immune to fire. 
• Shadow creatures again attack Elloren and her friends. “Lukas pulls his sword, lunges at the bat, and slashes the beast in two.” As more arrive, Elloren’s friends sacrifice themselves for her. She is the only one to make it through the magical portal to the East, implying that her friends died defending the portal behind her.  

Drugs and Alcohol  

• When Elloren enters Lukas’s military camp, she notices that two Gardnerian soldiers “slide the tip of a green bottle out of [a] bag and hastily pour its contents into the water flasks that hang from their necks.” She identifies the contents as “spirits, forbidden by the mage council.” 
• Before they consummate their wedding, Elloren asks Lukas to “bring spirits” for the consummation of their marriage. He says, “[he’ll] bring some wine.” Later that evening, Lukas “pours a small amount of the wine into the two glasses” for himself and for Elloren. They both drink it, but not enough to be drunk. 
• After they escape from the Grey estate and meet up with Elloren’s ally, Valasca, Lukas says, “A glass of Issani wine would be good right now.” She brings out her own flask of alcohol and shares it with the group, everybody going to sleep drunk. 

Language    

• Language is very tame. Words like stupid, idiot, and hell appear frequently. 
• The word whore is used three times. 
• Bitch is used twice. 
• Slut is used once.   

Supernatural  

• This series contains all kinds of supernatural creatures. The Shadow Wand has Lupines, Fae, shadow creatures and monsters, witches, Selkies, Icarals, Kelpies, Elves, dragons, wyverns, and people with skin of all colors of the rainbow. 
• Most of the magic appears in battle and Elloren’s training. Once, while training, Elloren describes her magic as “a savage connection to the wand.” Multiple times she has a feeling like “burning fire” and strong connections to the forest. She claims to have no control over her magic and claims that there was a time “[she] would have killed everyone [she] was with. [She] killed Ni Vin’s horse. [She] melted it.” 
• The priest and dictator, Vogel, is described as being able to see through a “bird’s central green eye, as well.” All the shadow creatures have eyes through which Vogel can see and spy. His magic is described numerous times as “dark, evil, and demonic.”  
• The Elf and Icaral, Wynter, can also communicate with birds, but do so in a less evil manner. She sends some of the birds “East on a hopeful search for Naga, her dragon kindred.” 
• There are various kinds of magical travel in this novel, including portals, winged flight, and rune ships. One of the rune ships is described as having “huge, whirling flank runes and base runes,” casting “the vessel in a penumbra of sapphire light that’s reflected off the current of the Vo River.” 
• The forests are described as sentient numerous times. After escaping into the woods from their wedding, Elloren tells Lukas that “[she’s] been bound,” her magic limited and locked up by the forest because it’s afraid of her. Elloren seems to be the only person who can communicate with the trees.

Spiritual Content  

• The Shadow Wand is full of religious references as a theocratic and fascist government has taken power in Gardneria and is threatening war with the rest of the continent for religious reasons. This religion has strong allusions to the three main monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Their religious structures dictate more conservative norms and different swear words than what people literally use. For example, in a speech to a large crowd, Vogel claims that “the Ancient One has brought us victory after victory over the heathen races who seek to destroy us. Who seek to pollute our lands. Enslave us. And corrupt all that is sacred. And so the Ancient One has enhanced our runic magic, calling upon us to wall out the Evil Ones with border runes and holy purpose . . . we will cleanse this land and bring the Reaping Times to all of Erthia.” 
• Marcus Vogel has been voted the leader of the Gardnerian government. Elloren’s aunt describes him as a “young High Priest” and “the absolute picture of pious elegance.” In the same moment, Vogel gives a speech in front of the council, claiming that “power belongs in Mage hands. We are the only ones who can wield magic to do the Ancient One’s will. So we are the only ones who should control it. All of it.” He complains about other species having power when he believes they shouldn’t because their god says so. 
• Thinking about the wedding, Elloren explains that part of Gardnerian marriage customs include the “Blessing of Dominion. . . when the couple is required, by The Book of the Ancients, to enter the wilds alone and scatter the ashes of a destroyed tree to symbolize the Magedom’s dominion over Erthia.” 
• During the wedding, Vogel officiates and declares that “We gather in the sight of the Holy Ancient One to celebrate the joining of these two Mages. In union with each other and in union with the Holy Magedom.” 
• In the land of the Amaz, a refugee Elf explains to an audience that the Elf coming-of-age ritual requires them to wear a magical necklace called the Zalyn’or, which brainwashes them into the Elven religion. She says, “It forces complete belief in the supremacy of [Alfsiger religion and culture]. And it suppresses all rebellious thoughts, and all physical desire too.” All Elves in The Shadow Wand wear it and are unable to remove it. 

by Kate Schuyler