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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780425188224
ISBN number: 0425188221
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 480
Printing Date: March 04, 2003
Publishing house: Berkley
Release Date: March 04, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 255715
Studio: Berkley
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The #1 New York Times bestselling author's all-time horror classic
Now with a new introduction by Peter Straub
Few modern horror novels have been able to stand the test of time like Shadowland. Now, with a new introduction from Peter Straub, this classic becomes a collectible for his insatiable fans-and for new readers who have just discovered Straub through the bestselling Black House, co-written with Stephen King.
Amazon.com Review:
First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play--forces that very first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer. Shadowland is a superb, under-recognized, early novel from a master of literary terror. Get it while it's back in print!
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Rated by buyers 
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Peter Straub's "Shadowland" is a coming of age story with fantastical events, horrific twists and classic tragic plot turns. All these elements beg the reader to want to love this novel, but in the end the story comes across empty somehow (even if the last 150 pages is a terrifically executed wild ride).
As adolescents at a boarding school Del Nightingale and Tom Flanagan form a bond through a mutual love of magic. The boys, who spend a summer at Shadowland with Del's uncle ( a grand wizard of magic), soon realize that their bond was no accident and all the events leading-up to their final summer together were not just random series of events. Shadowland tests their skills, morality and friendship in ways they never expected.
Peter Straub's introduction explains that much of "Shadowland" was conceived as a tribute of sorts to fairy tales. That influence is felt through out the book in its style and stories within the action (King of Cats, mermaids, The Brothers Grimm, The Goose Girl, evil sorcerers...). It is fun to try and catch all the references, although I must admit I am sure I missed 95% of them. Unfortunately, it is the need to present "Shadowland" as a fairy tale that really pulled the book down for me. Fairy tales are stories told by a third party who is telling a tale passed on to them, and "Shadowland" is no different. The story is told to us by a narrator who is communicating what he was told by our hero Tom Flanagan. Because we are not getting the information very first hand (although the action is written as if the reader is present at the time it happened), there is a detachment to the horror and the reader questions if what is happening is real. Because the novel's plot is based on magic, there are illusions and hallucinations to further confuse the reader as to what is happening. It is this confusion and lack of identity with the characters and events that made an intriguing plot somewhat dull and uninspiring.
Although it contains terrific writing, "Shadowland" falters due to the authors sweeping endeavor to do too much which gets in the way of presenting an effective story. I wanted to like the story but it never lived up to expectations.
Rated by buyers 
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I just finished this book last night. I had only read Straub with King before. I was hoping this would turn out better - it had such a build-up that I thought the end would amaze and delight. But the ending left me cold. This book about magic was definitely full of illusions: it had the illusion of fully formed characters, a cohesive plot, and an exciting ending. But if you look a bit deeper you find that it's just a trick.
And a big problem for me is that there is very little "magic" going on in this book. Collins tells stories and gives performances and confuses the boys but no actual learning of magic is discussed apart from some card tricks. Also I felt that there was too much separation between Del and Tom at Shadowland. In fact Del is pretty much nonexistent in the second part of the book. They were inseparable in the very first part it seemed and barely talked in the second.
I'm glad i read this but it could have been better. As for horror, it is not horror but more dark fantasy.
Rated by buyers 
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With the publication of Shadowland in 1981, Peter Straub enhanced his already impressive reputation as a modern master of the horror/dark fantasy genre. Although more subtle than its predecessor, the modern classic Ghost Story, the book's exquisite pacing was more effective in pulling readers into Straub's surreal fantasy world, making them wonder if such a place might not exist after all.
The novel is the story of the friendship between two young men and their encounter with a sorceror supreme. The magician, one Coleman Collins, exposes the two boys to a variety of bizarre and perilous situations, all designed to test, but also prepare them, for the time when one of them will inherit Collins' mantle of king of the magicians. The story moves quickly, as Tom Flanagan and Del Nightengale make the acquaintance of the strange denizens of the magician's mansion, Shadowland. There, they meet the charming Brothers Grimm, as well as Collins' warped servants, who go by the unlikely names of Mr. Peet, Roof, Rock and Seed. They also must deal with the evil "Collector," a mirror that steals souls.
The boys struggle with the malevolent forces which surround them and confront the dark side of their own personalities to prove themselves worthy. But Collins proves to be jealous of his power, causing a challenging summer of wonderment to climax in unspeakable tragedy. Pupil faces teacher in a final, bloody confrontation, winner take all.
The phrases "I couldn't put it down" and "Read this one with the lights on" are overused in describing horror stories, but in this case they are a perfect fit, as Straub succeeds admirably in his professional goal "To take the classic elements of the horror novel as far as they could go." Enter Shadowland, and explore the boundaries of your own imagination.
Rated by buyers -
Probably a little long, so a bit on the dull side at times and takes
perseverance to get through this creepy and eerie story of two boys
interested in magic.
An older magician relative has the boys stay with him for a while
to teach them, but are his skills actually more to do with real magic
than illusion is the question here.
Rated by buyers -
Shadowland is a ambitious novel, and Peter Straub deserves praise for having attempted it at all, let alone for having seen it through to its publication in 1980. Yes, this is a diplomatic way of saying Shadowland is a good concept but the idea doesn't quite find full realization on the printed page. It is a rare example of when a screenplay might have been able to flesh out a plot better than a book can. Maybe one day it will find its way to the big screen, and in the right hands it could be powerful.
Shadowland is Straub's tip of his hat to the genre of dark fairy tales, magic (and magick) and the gritty fantasyland we all love deep down in our souls. When Tom Flanagan, and Del Nightingale, two teenaged friends from a stern, second-rate Arizona prep school, each preoccupied with stage magic, travel to spend the summer at a foreboding New England house called Shadowland, guests of Del's notorious uncle, Coleman Collins, a retired theater magician, they are soon sucked into Coleman's demented and fantastic world in which magic tricks are quite real, time exists in a vacuum, and creatures from tall tales walk among them. The novel soon becomes a story about moral good versus self-serving ambition, the corruption of dark desire, and the loss of innocence and identity.
Shadowland is a tragedy. It is slightly sad from beginning to end, and only in a few masterfully-composed chapters is a reader paroled from its morosity long enough to be swept up in the wonder of what is possible at the magical estate. Fatal train derailments arranged for convenience? The animation and sexual possession of the inanimate? The enslavement of the living? Murder? These are waved away and dismissed by Coleman as side effects unavoidable in the amoral life of a master conjurer, for whom all the world is but a tool to be used for his pleasure. In this does Shadowland's horror lie.
Perhaps most of all I liked the sly side references to past Straub books that were seamlessly woven in here. Did anyone else catch that the upperclassman who came in to speak sternly to the new boys at the school was none other than Miles Teagarden, tormented protagonist from Straub's If You Could See Me Now? Those with a knowledge of that brilliant but emotionally-taxing 1975 book would recall that after the tragedy in 1955 that was the focus of If You Could See Me Now, Miles was sent away to what he'd told us was " a prison-like boarding school," and guess what? That school is the same one Del and Tom attend! Nice, Mr. Straub!
Shadowland is a de rigueur stopover for anyone serious about the literary works of Peter Straub, and it's fairly readable and sound for its genre, but as far as recommending it to the average reader...there I'd hesitate. For its limitations and occasional failings I rate it three stars overall, but for sheer ambition as far as what he was trying to say, Straub deserves more than five stars. Simply put, he has a wondrous imagination!
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