Book Review: "Out of the Shadows" delivers a delightful, character-focused mystery

After launching back in January to much acclaim, and sweeping the New York Times bestseller lists in the process, the Star Wars High Republic publishing initiative returns this summer with the latest wave of stories set during the golden age of the Republic.

One thing that makes a truly good Young Adult novel stand out from the crowd is strong character work, and Out of the Shadows meets and exceeds this expectation in a big way.

Set a few months after the events of The Rising Storm and Race to Crashpoint Tower, this books follows a group of characters all dealing with the emotional and logistical fallout of the disaster at the Republic Fair. Some, like Sylvestri Yarrow, are characters we are meeting for the first time. But we also get to catch up with some of our favourites from the last wave of books, like Jedi Knight Vernestra, her padawan Imri, and fellow master/student combo Cohmac and Reath. The Nihil are building some mysterious weapon in a disputed corner of the galaxy. 

With two families - the San Tekkas, and their rivals the Graf’s -  believing they each have a claim to the space, they appeal to the government for assistance, only to find our crew of Jedi sent along as impartial witnesses to the dispute. Our protagonists are swept up in a mission at the intersection of Republic, Jedi and corporate interests, all revolving around the ever increasing threat of the Nihil.

The narrative points of view alternate between four characters: Sylvestri (who goes by Syl), Vernestra (who does not go by Vern), Reath, and Nan, who each offer a different perspective on events.

It was great to see teenage Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh make the jump from Middle Grade to YA. Not that A Test of Courage wasn’t fantastic, but in YA there is the additional space - not to mention the page count - to really dive into who Vernestra is as a person. When she first made her appearance, she was the oldest of the protagonists. But now that her story has taken her to the wider galaxy, and we see her interact with others, it really becomes clear just how young she is, and how much she’s in over her head with a Padawan who is almost the same age as her. Her own former Master, Stellan Gios is a frequent background presence in the novel, and what little we do see of their dynamic is fascinating. It’s clear there is a lot of mutual respect, but I’m interested to see how this develops as Vernestra gets older and gains the experience she didn’t have when she passed her trial for knighthood. There are some potential avenues for tension, and I hope they’re explored in later stories.

Syl is this novel’s “everyday citizen”, the one who adds the non-Jedi perspective to the mission, who is every bit as lost as her Jedi peers when it comes to finding her place in the world, but unlike them, Syl doesn’t have an entire Order to fall back on. Recently left on her own after losing her mother in a Nihil attack, Syl is looking for a way to get her ship back, reunite her crew, and find a way to heal her broken heart.

Speaking of broken hearts, we have sweet baby boy Reath Silas, there to provide a padawan’s point of view. As they become more and more entangled with the Nihil, Reath finds his thoughts drifting back to the last major crush he had - a Nihil girl named Nan that he met the year before on the Amaxine station in Claudia Gray’s YA predecessor Into the Dark. 

The fourth point of view comes from Nan herself, now fully in the service of Eye of the Nihil himself, Marchion Ro. She’s also harbouring something of a crush on him, which honestly, I cannot blame her for in the slightest. Though we’ve had older Nihil - Tempest Runners, and Marchion Ro specifically as point of view characters before, this is the first time a “lesser” Nihil is given a full narrative arc, and I found myself wishing, if anything, that we could spend just a little more time with Nan, but I’m looking forward to seeing where her story goes.

Though on the surface the book is about larger than life conflict, it’s worth noting that Justina Ireland manages to thread in a clever commentary about colonization and capitalism that goes a long way to explaining why the characters behave in the way that they do. It’s hard to pick out a single instance of this - and I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the joy of discovery anyway - because it is so layered in every facet of the story, and the characters. Not a single character at any point believes that they’re in the wrong, as much as they might believe the others are wrong for acting as they do. It’s a rare novel that can make you root for everyone, but Out of the Shadows does exactly that.

If this review sounds vague, that’s because it is. I wouldn’t dare spoil the plot for you, and the narrative is so intricately woven that to explain part of it would be to give the whole game away. Out of the Shadows managed to do what all good mysteries do, which is get you comfortable in thinking you know where the story is going, only to pull the rug out again and again, in the best, most thrilling kind of way.

This wave as a whole has astounded me in the way it links so neatly to each book that has come before. There are points from every book in wave one that are touched on and addressed here, but as the creatives behind the initiative have stated, the book does a fine job of catching you up in context. You’re told all you need to know within the confines of the page, though naturally, reading everything provides added context.

As with the first High Republic YA book, Out of the Shadows latest entry in the High Republic era lays the groundwork for the future wave (or possibly future phase?) of High Republic storytelling. There are so many questions and mysteries presented in this book, and the majority of them have far larger implications than can be settled in just over 400 pages. Which just goes to show, yet again, that if you aren’t reading all these books, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. 

Not to mention, this book is simply delightful. So why wouldn’t you pick it up anyway?

Star Wars The High Republic: Out of the Shadows is out July 27, 2021, and is available for pre-order now!

Special thank you to Lucasfilm and Disney Publishing for an advance copy of this book for review purposes.