Review of Ignite The Shadows by Ingrid Seymour (plus a giveaway!)

Today we’re featuring Ignite The Shadows (Ignite the Shadows #1) by author Ingrid Seymour. I’m not a super fan of YA but I was curious about this book. The blurb made me think of crazy sci fi stuff so I just had to read it.

Read more about the book and check out my review! And of course, you have to enter the blog tour giveaway, too, at the end of this post! Enjoy!

Ignite the ShadowsAbout the Book

Sixteen-year-old Marci Guerrero is one of the best teen hackers in Seattle. However, she’d give up all her talents to know she isn’t crazy.

Marci feels possessed by what she perceives as shadowy spectres that take control of her body and make her do crazy things. While spying on the clandestine group known as IgNiTe, she’s confronted by the leader, James McCray. His presence stirs the spectres inside her brain into a maddening frenzy. Her symptoms and ability to control them don’t go unnoticed by James, who soon recruits her and shows her the awful truth.

Half of the world’s population is infected by sentient parasites. They bind themselves to the human brain and replace the pathways for all thoughts and actions. The creatures then morph their hosts into grotesque monsters with extraordinary strengths. Winged, clawed, fanged half-humans become living nightmares. Now Marci wishes she was crazy, because the truth is worse.

She’s infected.

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Fast-paced story, intriguing plot, interesting characters

About halfway into the book I realized that I misunderstood the blurb. I thought this was going to be some kind of techno sci-fi type story where peeps are “infected” with something like a computer virus that takes over their minds. I KNOW. Totally misread the blurb, but close enough. I guess I just saw the words “hacker” and “infected” and just came to that assumption. Hah.

Not a problem though. Ignite the Shadows is not really a techno sci-fi – though the main character Marci is a hacking genius and there’s a lot of high tech stuff in the story – but it’s still a quick, fun sci-fi/fantasy read with an interesting storyline and a bunch of interesting characters.

I like the main idea in the story. I mean, creepy no-one-knows-jackshit-where-they’re-from-and-since-when-they’ve-been-here parasites infecting people’s brains and seeking control always makes for an interesting storyline, right? And you throw in a tough-on-the-outside heroine with a group of people out to fight the crazy parasites. Crazy exciting stuff. Well, should be. There are actually so many things happening in the book and some subplots are left hanging but the main storyline did keep me reading, even though for me the end was a bit anti-climactic. The book is definitely action-packed but I felt that there wasn’t any ‘real’ resolution to anything at the end of the book. Then again, this is just the first book in a series so I guess we’ll find out more in the next one.

I like Marci as a heroine. She’s kickass and has a ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ thing going on, but you know she’s struggling with a lot of things in her life. Surprisingly, I’m not too annoyed with her or any of the young characters. I tend to steer clear of YA because I always end up incredibly annoyed with the young, teeny bopper characters (I’m such an old fart, right?), but Marci – and Xave her bestfriend, for that matter – are okay. LOL. The other characters are also quite interesting as individuals though you don’t really get to know anything much about them in the book. Hopefully, book two will flesh them out more to make things even more interesting.

Overall, Ignite the Shadows is not a bad start to the series. Though it has its share of imperfections, I guess it sort of lays out the main elements of the series well enough that it leaves you with a curiosity to know more.

Note: I received a review copy of this book as part of my participation in the tour. All opinions and views expressed here are my own.

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About the Author

DSC_5214-240x300Ingrid Seymour is the author of IGNITE THE SHADOWS (Harper Voyager). When she’s not writing books, she spends her time working as a software engineer, cooking exotic recipes, hanging out with her family and working out. She writes young adult and new adult fiction in a variety of genres, including Sci-Fi, urban fantasy, romance, paranormal and horror.

Her favorite outings involve a trip to the library or bookstore where she immediately gravitates toward the YA section. She’s an avid reader and fangirl of many amazing books. She is a dreamer and a fighter who believes perseverance and hard work can make dreams come true.

She lives in Birmingham, AL with her husband, two kids and a cat named Mimi.

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Giveaway

Yay giveaway! One (1) winner will receive a paperback copy of Ignite by Ingrid Seymour and a $10 Amazon GC (INT)

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Check out the rest of the tour stops: Ignite the Shadows blog tour

chapter by chapter blog tours

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