Shadowland (novel)
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Shadowland is the Young adult novel by author Meg Cabot and published by Avon Books in 2000. It is the first part of The Mediator series.
[edit] Plot summary
Suze Simon is a mediator. Which means she spends a lot of time directing the unhappy dead into the afterlife. And it isn't easy - not all ghouls want to be guided. Newly arrived in California, Suze has hardly unpacked when her mediator skills are put to the test. A vicious spirit is hell bent on making her life a complete nightmare. At least she's sharing her bedroom with Hector (Jesse) De Silva - the most gorgeous ghost ever. But dare she make a move on the sexiest spook in town?
The book starts off with Suze travelling to California via plane and meeting her mother (Helen Simon-Ackerman, stepfather and three stepbrothers Sleepy (Jake Ackerman), Dopey (Brad Ackerman) and Doc (David Ackerman). When she arrives to her new home, she finds it to be a very old house, built in the nineteenth century, complete with a bad reputation (back in its day as a boarding house) and bullet holes in the wood, which Andy Ackerman is very proud of and has framed. Her room is the best room in the house, with an en-suite private bathroom, four poster bed and beautiful view overlooking the town and the sea. However, the room houses a ghost, named Jesse. He seems to be Spanish by his appearance and accent, and he was rather shocked on being talked to by Suze, after 150 years of not being able to be seen. Suze gives him a choice, either move out or she forces him out, despite the fact she's a bit attracted to him. She spends the next few hours with her family to give Jesse a chance to make his decision. She falls asleep watching a film with Dopey.
A few days later she starts school at The Junipero Serra Mission Academy, which also happens to be an old building, but to Suzes confusion there are no ghosts, but one. Her name is Heather. She is the only reason Suze could get enrolled in the school; over the break, she shot herself when her boyfriend dumped her. She now haunts the school, her old locker (which now happens to be Suze's) and her ex. Suze first goes to the principle's office, to catch up and so he can see whether or not she would fit in here. But there's something strange about him, it seems he can see Heather too, but the pleasantries don't last after Heather insults Suze and Suze punches her into the locker. Before Father Dom can tell her off, her new homeroom teacher interrupts and Father Dominic is forced to leave her there.
Suze makes a definite impression on her new class when Debbie Mancuso bad-mouths CeeCee (an albino) and Suze threatens to break her fingers after school. At first, CeeCee is a bit defensive about Suze defending her as she thinks she just feels sorry for her, but she soon drops the guard and agrees to show Suze around. CeeCee introduces Suze to Adam, her best friend and crush, who is attracted to Suze. It's not long before Suze is caught up with all the gossip including what happened between Heather and Bryce. Its not long after she's informed that Heather makes a re-appearance and tries to kill Bryce but Suze intervenes and saves his life causing another buzz to go round the school, it also causes Bryce to ask her out on a date to say thank you. When she gets in the car to go home its all any of the three boys can talk about. After dinner Suze gets lots of calls including from Father Dom, Bryce, CeeCee (with Adam) and even Kelly Prescott the most popular, richest girl in her year. She tries to sneak out of the house at midnight to try and talk to Heather when she is interrupted by Jesse, but he saves her when Heather starts fighting dirty. Over the next few days Heather seems to get more and more violent whilst Suze gets closer and closer to her old friends and her old life that she desperately wants back. Suze is now nominated and eventually gets to be the sophomore class vice-president after Kelly who is president. Heather eventually gets to Bryce after Father Dom tries to help her and save Bryce, but they are both badly injured and have to stay in hospital. Suze gets mad. Real mad. She goes after Heather with a big score to settle and tricks Heather into believing that she can go back to her old life but is actually exorcising her. Heather soon realizes and goes on another rampage before suze can exorcise her. In the end Suze wins and Heather is exorcised but not before bringing half the breezeway of the school down with her and on top of Suze. Doc and Sleepy come to her rescue but when quizzed about how he knew Suze was at the school, the only way Doc can explain it is that the ghost that haunts their house woke him up and told him. This causes another disrupt between Jesse and Suze as she warned him not to come to the school as he could get exorcised with Heather and he saved her life, again - evidently there is something there. Before this Suze asked doc to try and find something out about the house, to try and find the connection to Jesse. Its here that we learn his real name is Hector De Silva - he's called Jesse by his mother - and was suppose to marry Maria De Silva his cousin back in the eighthteen hundreds but he never showed up for the wedding, he just disappeared and was never heard from again. Doc is very brave for his age as despite seeing the ghost and being a little afraid of him and wary of Suzes room he still offers to switch so she can feel safer but she declines the offer. Out of everyone, he knows the most about Suzes talent although she hasn't directly told him, he's deducted what he knows and come to an answer. Suze finds out she has won the election for the sophomore class vice-president with two-thirds of the class voting for her even though she's only been there a week, and her first act as vice-president is having a memorial for Heather instead of the traditional prom like dance thats usually held. In the end she decides to make the most of this new start as she's says 'we should stick around for a while'.
[edit] Characters
Suze Simon - Suze is the heroine of the series. She's a Mediator, which means that she can communicate with ghosts and guide the dead to their "final destination". Suze would much rather be a normal girl, with a normal life and a boyfriend. Instead, she gets a hot ghost haunting her bedroom.
Jesse De Silva - Jesse is the ghost who haunts Suze's bedroom. He was murdered there over 150 years ago and still has not discovered why he hasn't "moved on". Jesse is a Spanish rancher's son. His body is unearthed when Suze's stepfather and stepbrothers are digging a hole for their hot tub (book 4).
Father Dominic - Father Dominic is a priest, and the principal of Suze's high school. He too is a mediator, and he works with (and argues with) Suze. His approach to dealing with the undead is different than Suze's, though. He is into the "touchy feely" aspect of mediation, while Suze would rather fight it out.
Jake Ackerman - Jake is Suze's oldest stepbrother. She calls him Sleepy because he is always tired from his late night pizza delivery job. Jake is considered a stud by most of the female population of his high school, but in the course of the book, he is going out with a girl from the staff of the hotel where he and Suze work. He thinks Suze is in a gang.
Brad Ackerman - Brad is Suze's stepbrother. He is her age, and she calls him Dopey because he is an idiot. All the girls in his school think he's awesome, but in reality, he is a jerk.
David Ackerman- David is Suze's 12 year old stepbrother. She calls him Doc because he is extremely intelligent. Suze is closest to him out of her stepbrothers.
Andy Ackerman - Suze's stepfather
Helen Ackerman -Suze's mother (although Suze's mother has no official name. When asked Meg said she named all mothers in books she was writing at the time Helen.)
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