In the Shadow of Blackbirds

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is a historical horror fiction book published in 2013 by the American author Cat Winters. Targeted at young adults, the book tells the story of 16-year-old Mary Shelley Black who struggles with love and loss in San Diego, California during the waning days of World War I.

In October 1918, Mary Shelley's father is arrested for treason and taken from their home in Portland, Oregon. As World War I rages in Europe, the father is accused of helping men avoid being drafted into the U.S. military. Now an orphan, Mary Shelley is forced to live with her Aunt Eva, a widow who lives on Coronado Island just off the coast of San Diego. While she is sad that her father is headed to prison, Mary Shelley can't help but feel excited that she is moving to the same city where her childhood love, Stephen Embers, lives. Meanwhile, a terrible epidemic of Spanish Influenza has broken out all over the world, including California. For that reason, Mary Shelley and Aunt Eva wear masks over their faces everywhere they go. They also eat an absurd amount of onions, having heard that doing so can help prevent a person from becoming infected.

Not long after arriving on Coronado Island, Mary Shelley and Aunt Eva make a trip to the Embers household. Mary Shelley can barely contain her eagerness over seeing Stephen again. This sense of excitement quickly deflates, however, when Mary Shelley learns that Stephen has just enlisted in the army. He is leaving immediately, and so Mary Shelley must say her goodbyes to him. Some time passes after Stephen departs, and Mary Shelley learns that he has been killed while on duty, though the exact details are scarce.



Mary Shelley is gutted, but soon she is visited by the ghost of Stephen. In spirit form, a terrified Stephen says he is being haunted by blackbirds that wish to devour his soul. When asked how he died, Stephen says he doesn't know. Mary Shelley decides that determining the exact cause of Stephen's death will likely allow him to migrate to the hereafter and avoid having his soul pecked to bits by phantom blackbirds, which makes sense. Over the course of the book, Stephen's spirit visits her and despite the fact that she loves him, the visits can be extremely overwhelming, disrupting her sleep and sense of well-being.

Coincidentally, Stephen's brother, Julius, dabbles in the spirit world himself, albeit in a pretty unethical, underhanded way. He calls himself a "spiritual photographer." For a hefty fee, Julius takes pictures of people in grief then manipulates the photos during the development process to insert strange flashes that he later claims are evidence that the deceased people are still with their family in spirit. In other words, Julius coldly tricks people who are grieving their loved ones into giving him money. Julius even targets Mary Shelley, inviting her and Aunt Eva to a seance during which he claims he will be able to contact Stephen's ghost. But despite having seen the apparition of Stephen, Mary Shelley is as scientific-minded as the author whose name she shares. Therefore, she aims to solve the mystery of Stephen's death through real-life inquiry rather than through huckster seances.

Over time, Mary Shelley is able to track down a mutual friend of hers and Stephen's at a Red Cross hospital for veterans. The friend says he served with Stephen and claims that Stephen didn't actually die in battle as his family claims. In fact, Stephen even returned home from Europe, but he suffered from crippling post-traumatic stress disorder. Ashamed of Stephen's condition, his family refuses to allow him outside the house. In fact, they go so far as to lock him inside his room, chained to his bed.



As if that revelation wasn't appalling enough, she soon learns that Julius and his partner-in-crime, Aloysius Darning, are the ones responsible for Stephen's death. In hopes of winning a sizeable cash prize in a spirit photography contest, the two murder Stephen as a way of capitalizing on tragedy and increasing Julius' odds of winning. Meanwhile, Aunt Eva has come down with the flu, and Mary Shelley is terrified that she is sick as well. Against this backdrop, Mary Shelley is determined to expose Julius and Aloysius before she succumbs to the flu. And so she tricks the duo into performing a seance in Stephen's old room, during which she reenacts, to the best of her ability, the circumstances surrounding his death. Stephen's spirit materializes and the entire sordid truth about his brother's treachery is revealed.

Unfortunately, Mary Shelley does indeed come down with the flu shortly thereafter. She joins her Aunt Eva in the hospital where the two women, satisfied that Stephen's spirit is at peace, can focus on healing. Eventually, the two of them make a full recovery.