Joan Elste (Children's Literature)
The combination of fantasy, supernatural suspense, and mystery mixed in with the small town atmosphere of a boring Louisiana summer all lend a rather scary appeal to the suspense generated in Shadowed Summer. When a dead boy’s spirit whispers “Where y’at, Iris?” reality mixes with mystery and dredges up memories of Iris’s late mother. She is compelled to solve the mystery of Elijah Landry, a boy who disappeared one night almost twenty years ago, leaving drops of blood on his pillow. Landry seems connected to her family in some way. With the help of a Ouija board and microfiche records at the local library, which add even more mystery to the story, the ghost becomes more persistent. Iris’s friendship with her testy girlfriend, Collette, and Collette’s jealousy and competition for their neighbor Ben’s attention, keep the boat rocking. The story is suspenseful and interesting with enough disbelief and fear in it to keep the reader glued to the pages. Until the ending, which seemed to pop up too quickly and then float away without the emotional impact the story was building. There is enough here, however, to appeal beyond its target market. 2009, Delacorte Press, $15.99. Ages 14 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2009 (Vol. 77, No. 1))
Iris and Collette, best friends with plans to get out of their sleepy little Louisiana town as soon as they can drive, find themselves faced with some unexpected challenges in the summer of their 15th year. Although they have created and collected "spells" for as long as they can remember, neither of them is prepared for the bona fide supernatural experience of a real ghost. It haunts Iris, pursuing her until she, with some help from Collette, solves the town's most significant mystery—the disappearance of Elijah Landry, a boy who vanished from his bedroom one night, leaving drops of blood behind on his pillow. The tension strains Iris and Collette's friendship, as does the presence of Collette's first love interest, Ben Duvall, which introduces jealousy from every direction. While teen readers will appreciate the suspenseful plot and the tragic story of what happened to Elijah, they may well be put off by main characters who seem either incredibly naïve or a couple of years shy of their supposed 14. 2009, Delacorte, 192p, $15.99. Category: Horror. Ages 12 up. © 2009 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February 2009 (Vol. 62, No. 6))
Where y’at, Iris?” whispers a ghost into Iris’ ear, and suddenly fourteen-year-old Iris’ enduring game of spirit-hunting with her friend Collette takes on a frightening reality. Throughout the steamy summer in their small Louisiana town of Ondine, the friends, aided by Collette’s crush and maybe boyfriend Ben, try to unravel the secret of the ghost who appears to Iris. When it becomes clear that it’s the spirit of Elijah Landry, who disappeared without a trace in 1989 when he was seventeen and whose fate still mystifies the town, the trio decides they must solve the mystery of Elijah’s end in order to set him to rest. Mitchell sets out in assured fashion right from the start, conjuring up a credible picture of a small-town populace with complicated layers of interrelationships past and present underlying the cozy everyday familiarity. Iris is skillfully drawn: she’s a good girl who runs benignly wild as the only child of a widowed father working the night shift, and the book hits the right notes in her slightly rocky friendship with the tempestuous Collette and her growing acceptance of Ben. The ghostly details are genuinely shivery, and the author teases readers enjoyably with credible teen fakeouts amid the real, genuinely creepy if unthreatening manifestations. While the truth of Elijah’s end is a little shopworn (Elijah, afraid of public condemnation of his homosexuality, committed suicide), there’s enough context to make it more than random, and he remains a tantalizingly enigmatic figure even after his mystery is solved. Good ghost stories are, like ghosts, a little thin on the ground in these times, and readers will be pleased to find this atmospheric reaffirmation of the power of a good haunting Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2009, Delacorte, 192p.; Reviewed from galleys, $18.99 and $15.99. Grades 6-9.