Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5) by Richelle Mead

4 out of 5 stars

My thoughts as expressed by my spirit animal James Franco.

FAIR WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!

Richelle Mead sure knows how to shock her readers

Oh, what incident would have made me think that you ask? Well, I'm referring to Sydney and Adrian's marriage, of course! Honestly, I never EVER would have thought that they were going to get married in one of the books, let alone in the second to last one. I thought maybe they would be married in the epilogue of Ruby Circle, not Silver Shadows.

Before I started reading, I "accidentally" took a peak somewhere towards the end and the first two words I just happened to see were "Mrs. Ivashkov", and naturally, my response was HOLY CRAP! (Actually, it was much more unpleasant than that). Still, I was (pleasantly or unpleasantly, I still can't decide) surprised, and...confused.

Let me backtrack for a second. I was so frustrated with Adrian in the beginning, I just couldn't stand him. I never thought I would say this but, I found him to be so annoying! He was sulking went he could've been looking for Sydney. He has this terrible habit of drinking his sorrows (though it's not like they even go away). He's so dependent on people telling him what to do and what not to do that can't even do much of anything for himself anymore. Whenever he talked about his college classes and his attending them, he would say that he did so for Sydney. First of all, it's nice that he cares about what she thinks regardless of whether or not she's actually there BUT, he isn't just doing things like staying sober, or quitting smoking, or taking art classes for Sydney, he's supposed to be doing that for himself. 

Also, sometimes he's just (how do I articulate this?) too mushy, for lack of a better word. Let me better explain: He's just a little too perfect. He says all the right things, at the right times. I don't know why that bothers me so much, but it does. 

 Okay, enough of Adrian.

What I really want to discuss is Sydney's time in re-education. It was actually not as bad as I thought it was. Maybe that's because I felt like this book focused more on Adrian's endeavors than Sydney's. And personally, I prefer Sydney's POV to Adrian's. Honestly, I don't think I even as taken by this book as I was by the previous books. I don't exactly know why considering it certainly was sort of action-packed. I just don't know what it was about it that made me a little less intrigued.

Anyway, again, reeducation wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Keith, the one-eyed Alchemist that defiled Sydney's sister Carly, was sent to reeducation before and made it sound like hell...except, it really wasn't that bad. I mean, sure the detainees were tortured if they didn't comply with the rules or if were even suspected of having pleasant ideas of Moroi or Dhampirs, but they had classes, art classes, and fancy-ish non-oatmeal food. Alchemists must have the best idea of imprisonment and isolation there is. After Sydney got out of solitary confinement, I was so wary and suspicious of every one of the detainees, especially that Duncan kid. I was expecting him to turn on her any second, but he didn't, and neither did anyone else for that matter.

Actually, I've just come to realize that that was the reason why I not really into this one. I was so ready for someone to betray or prove to be a threat to Sydney that I was kind disappointed (?) to find out that wasn't going to be happening. It all just seemed too easy. Alchemists are supposed to be the most secure, perfectionistic (that is a word, by the way) and critical group of people out there. You'd think that 1) they'd have more Alchemists on the job of securing and monitoring the rogue Alchemists 2) they'd be much more strict in minimizing resources for the detainees instead of having them take art classes (I thought they'd offer classes like Hypnosis 101 or Intro to Mind Reprograming) and finally, 3) they'd have thought of every possible escape scenario, maybe even thought of the fact that Moroi of Dhampirs might help some of the rogue Alchemists escape.Quite frankly, I was disappointed in them, the Alchemists, that is. It's not so much that I wanted them to succeed, but I want them to put up a good fight so that it wasn't all too simple. But, things started picking up when Sydney and Adrian went their own way after escaping with the other detainees, ex-alchemists (including Marcus), and the rest of the gang (Eddie and Neil, Angeline had to stay back in Palm Springs with Jill). When they went to Vegas, got married, narrowly avoiding being caught by the Alchemists. When they were on their way onto a helicopter from a nearby Academy, Sydney and Sheridan had an "I dare you" showdown. It was EPIC. (I had to use this gif for emphasis)

If you've read the book, have you noticed that Sydney's personality's evolved? Not just in terms of her hatred and suspicion of Moroi and Dhampirs, but now she's a lot less critical of things, she isn't as well put together as she used to be, I think.

I'm currently reading The Ruby Circle, the last book in the series. It's sad that the series is coming to an end, but I read somewhere that Richelle said "we haven't seen the last of these guys", so now I'm kind of hopeful for what she has in the works, but I know it'll be a while.