DNF Review: Brotherhood of Shades by Dawn Finch

Brotherhood of Shades
by Dawn Finch
Published by Stone Cold Fox Press
YA, fantasy

From the chaos of Dissolution rises a secret order, a Brotherhood formed to protect the world of the living from the world of the dead.

Adam, a teenage boy living on the streets of London, knows nothing of the fantastic and precarious world that exists just beyond his reality – until he dies, cold and alone, aged 14. After years of rejection, Adam discovers he is important, and the Brotherhood needs him. His recruitment to their Order will take him on an adventure that spans the worlds of both the living and the dead, as he and a living girl (14-year-old Edie Freedom) battle to solve a prophetic riddle and save the world.

DNF at 20%

I was super excited for this - it sounded like epic adventure. However, try as I might, I can't get into the story and I'm so confused of what's happening here. There's barely any explanation for anything; while the blurb makes it seem like Adam, a 14 year old boy who died, is the main character, this far he's barely been in it. It's been mostly narrated by D'Scover, who's one of the dead guys, and his perspective doesn't really explains things as he already knows how everything works.

I'm also not impressed by the writing style. There's a lot of dialogue, sometimes pages worth of it without anything else, and the dialogue is rather stilted and stiff. There's problems with pacing and this far, it's been really slow. I took a look at other reviews and it seems like there problems doesn't go away, and since I have so hard time focusing on and continuing the story, I decided to DNF it. Brotherhood of Shades simply isn't for me.

No star rating since I did not finish

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(A copy of this ebook was provided in return for an honest review.)