School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-Upon the death of a neighborhood recluse, Max, Theo, and Noah meet the man's adopted granddaughter, Bec. In her grandfather's effects, they find the means to travel to another world that's filled with strange plants and peoples and deadly shadow creatures. Unable to return the way they came, they must fight their way to other gateways. The three volumes comprise one story arc, introducing the characters and the world, and ending with the dangling promise of future adventures. And while there are fun and beautiful moments, the primary story objective is survival, and there is a continual sense of peril. The action sequences are clear and suspenseful, providing an interesting contrast to the charming figure work. There are frequent cute touches, which occasionally prevent the young heroes from expressing some of the tension and depth required in the more intense sequences, but overall the books effectively grab readers and create a compelling emotional landscape to complement the alien one. It's therefore a pity that the third volume feels rushed as it arrives at its conclusion. Due to the open-ended final panel, it makes sense to retain some dangling threads, but the key antagonist is never fully realized, and the sacrifice of a major character happens without sufficient explanation.-Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Four friends discover a passage to a dangerous new world (Book One). Rebecca and Max are stranded there; back on Earth, Noah and Theo work to rescue them (Book Two). Book Three finds the four together and in trouble again. Readers who aren't sticklers for logic will find this dramatically illustrated graphic novel series a diverting vision of a dark and magical world. [Review covers these Graphic Universe: The Elsewhere Chronicles titles: The Master of Shadows, The Shadow Door, and The Shadow Spies.] (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
The plot in this first book in the Elsewhere Chronicles a French-import graphic-novel trilogy is simple enough: the four friends discover a door to another world in a spooky house (which is architecturally quite modern, in a nice twist), and then two of them get stuck there while the other two try to figure out how to get them back. A few of the details along the way are introduced with little explanation, such as light guns and a projector that somehow opens up the Shadow Door, and readers will have to wait until the next volume to truly get a handle on what's going on in this other world of menacing shadows and monsters. That said, this is an undeniably attractive offering, as the artwork, with deep darks and effervescent lights splayed across large, glossy pages, is strikingly rendered. Indeed, there are times when the textual interference on the story is rendered unnecessary by the action occurring in the panels. A cryptic, light-horror opening that should have no problem gaining an appreciative readership.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2009 Booklist
