I liked this one better than the first... This one had more coherency to me, and I had a more vested interest in the lives of the characters. Still not one of Sharon Shinn's best works, in my opinion, but not a terrible read. ( )

Once you get about halfway through, this is a very engrossing read. The first half is enjoyable, but the pace is slower, more relaxed. At about the halfway point, I found I couldn't put the book down. ( )

Two stories of people who live with shape-shifters; both end incredibly sadly. Janet is normal, but has abusive parents. As a teenager, she meets Cooper, who comes to her in wolf form while injured, and she nurses him to health. Later, Cooper comes back in human form and she gradually falls in love with him. They share their life together, as she finishes high school and goes to college and grad school in vetinary medicine and research (trying to find a cure for Cooper's changing.) Meanwhile, Ann is a shape-shifter who is sister to Melanie, who is not. Melanie is FIERCELY protective of Ann and the need for secrecy about her nature. Ann falls in love with another shape-shifter, William, who is also takes a dog shape. Ann soon becomes weaker and weaker and they find Janet who tells them that it is the changing between human and dog that is wearing her out and that she will not live long in either form, but will die very soon if she stays human. Melanie tries to convince her to stay a dog all the time in order to extend her life, but Ann can't resist the desire to be human when she knows that Melanie is at home.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: I really had mixed emotions about this story about a woman who is willing to ruin all her own personal happiness to keep an eye on her younger sister, while another woman is willing to ruin her life just to be with the one she loves. I enjoyed this story in the end, I just had a hard time with the morality of the characters and the life decisions that they choose for themselves.

Opening Sentence: I’m sitting at one of the three stoplights in Dagmar on Monday morning when Kurt Markham strolls down the crosswalk in front of me so slowly that he’s only halfway across the street before the light turns green.

The Review:

Still Life with Shape-Shifter is the follow up to The Shape of Desire in the Shifting Circles series. This series is about shape-shifters with their incredibly short life span and the lengths that people will go to in order to keep them a secret. Still Life with Shape-Shifter could be read as a standalone in the series but it does tie in with characters from the first book in the series and some clues from the first book are also revealed that tie them together.

Melanie Landon lives every day for her sister. She waits impatiently for her sister, Ann, to appear at the end of the day. If Ann doesn’t appear Melanie collapses in a fit of despair and loneliness. You see, Ann is a shape-shifter and she often spends weeks at a time away from home. Melanie often worries that Ann is hurt or dead and she would never know because Ann is out in the world all alone. Melanie is ten years older than Ann and has been Ann’s surrogate mother after Ann’s own mother disappeared in her own world of being a shape-shifter and their father lost his memory. Melanie has completely thrown her own happiness out the window. She is only happy when her sister shows back up at home. So she is horribly devastated when Ann shows back up at home and declares that she is in love. The last thing Melanie wants is to share Ann with someone else.

Melanie’s life is forever changed when Brody Westerbrook enters her life in a whirl of happiness and smiles. Brody informs Melanie that he knows her sister is a shape-shifter and he wants to write a book about her. Melanie will not confirm that her sister is a shape-shifter but after breaking down in Brody’s arms he invited her on a date in order to make her feel better. He even agrees to not talk about shape-shifters if she will go on said date. Melanie just believes he is trying to ingratiate himself into her life so she will eventually slip up and tell him that her sister is actually a dog in her other form.

After Melanie’s sister is revealed to be sick, Melanie just doesn’t know what she will do to continue on. Brody is an outlet but she still thinks he’s after her knowledge of shape-shifting. Ann wants to make sure her sister is happy in life and I loved what Ann does for her sister. I do think Melanie’s decision is a tough one but one that had to be made. It was kind of obvious though with how that story was going. This story was very heart-wrenching.

Still Life with Shape-Shifter also follows another story. Janet is a girl who learned about shape-shifters when she was sixteen and met a wolf that also changes the course of her life for good. Cooper reveals himself to Janet after she helps him with a wound and gives him some food. After that point, Janet and Cooper are pretty much inseparable, even when Cooper is in wolf form. Janet sleeps on the back porch of her home. Everything that Janet does in her life is decided upon by how Cooper can follow and how he can get by with both sides of his life. Janet makes the boldest decision that I don’t entirely agree with. I think she was quite selfish. Janet was the one person who was trying to help the shape-shifters and her decision just kind of infuriated me when I would think about it after reading the book.

The two stories do tie together in a heart-wrenching way. Shinn does set up a bleak and weary world with the shape-shifters. I will say this is not my favorite world at all just because of the fact that they have incredibly short and terrible lives. This does seem to be a realistic version if shape-shifters were currently hiding out in our society today.

Overall, I’m just mixed about this series. I want to like it but it is kind of too world weary and depressing after the fact. I didn’t like the choices made and I just felt entirely sad for everyone involved. There are some really touching moments and I do feel like I came away with a message after reading it. I’m still not entirely sure I want to read the third book if it is still as depressing as this one was. I want a happy ending not a ‘this is just how life is’ ending.

Notable Scene:

“And you’re a reporter for a TV station?”

“Used to be,” he says around a mouthful of food. “Now I mostly do freelance writing and editing.”

Ann’s gaze is absolutely limpid, her voice innocent as a child’s. “And I understand you’re writing a book? What’s it about?”

For a moment, the silence at the table is absolute. My stomach has clenched so hard and so fast that I’ve momentarily lost in the ability to breathe. I can’t even summon the will to glare at Ann as she deserves. God, for a girl as fresh-faced, as happy as she is, to be so bent on self-destruction. She would run headlong to disaster and be laughing the entire way.

Brody swallows, sets down his fork, and takes a drink of water. Then he smiles at both of us. “Ah, let’s not talk about boring work stuff,” he says. “Tell me some more fun stories about when you were kids.”

It’s a moment before I realize that, given Ann’s wayward sense of humor, this topic could be just as dangerous. That’s because all my brain cells are coping with my sense of shock that he would so kindly and deftly turn the subject away from the one I dread above all others. It’s deliberate, too; he’s made me a promise, and by this action, he is demonstrating that he’ll keep it. He is trying, without much fuss or flourish, to prove to me his is someone I can trust.

FTC Advisory: Ace/Penguin provided me with a copy of Still Life with Shape-Shifter. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“Melanie Landon and her half-sister share a unique bond. For her entire life, Melanie has hidden the fact that Ann is a shape-shifter. The never-ending deception is a heavy weight to bear, but Melanie is determined to keep Ann’s secret and protect her from a world that simply wouldn’t understand.

For months, Melanie hasn’t seen or heard from Ann, in either of her forms. When a man shows up saying he’s there about her sister, Melanie fears the worst. But Brody Westerbrook doesn’t have information about Ann—he’s in search of it.

A freelance writer, Brody intends to include Ann in a book he’s writing about the existence of shape-shifters. While Melanie is immediately drawn to the stranger on her doorstep, she denies his claims, knowing that trusting him isn’t an option.

But when Ann finally appears looking thin and sick, Melanie realizes exposure is the least of their worries. Protecting her sister has always been such an enormous part of Melanie’s life, but as Ann’s health rapidly deteriorates, Melanie must come to grips with the fact that saving her may mean letting go…”

Where the first book in this series was about trust, this one is about love, pure and simple--the kind of love that gives all and asks nothing in return. At the center of this is Ann, who is wasting away as the use of her shape-shifting slowly drains her life away. Ann is a woman full of life, and it’s almost impossible not to love her, despite her seeming indifference to that very life that others value. Her partner (someone from the first novel, although I won’t mention who) and her sister stand by her no matter what, but that loyalty comes at a cost.

The thing that I like best about these novels is how understated they are. Don’t expect grand declarations of love or passion, and don’t expect heroics. When I read this book, I saw the quiet ways in which we support our loved ones on a day to day basis. So many books go for the drama and the fireworks, but Shinn beautifully portrays the things that we do for love without even thinking about it. Interestingly, there’s a side-story woven through the main narrative about a young woman who falls in love with a shape-shifter whom she meets by chance, and the tale of their admittedly star-crossed love. Both narratives work well together.

The author’s worldbuilding is also very good. It made me smile to see how the characters tackle the mundane details of raising a shape-shifter. The families are fairly insular as a result, but not hermits. They mix in the real world as much as anybody else, with all the concerns that such actions bring. I was especially amused at the images of small children turning randomly into fluffy puppies. Yes, I’m a sucker for cute fluffy things, so perhaps this book was right up my alley.

This is one of those series that I feel doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. There’s no lack of interesting things going on, but the low-key tone tends to be something that many readers don’t like as much. I’d urge you to give this story a try, though, because there’s a lot to appreciate in it. Still Life with Shape-Shifter is a softly poignant tale of the power of love.

This review originally appeared on Owlcat Mountain on February 15, 2013.