The Shadower
There is a city, divided by civil war. The name of the city is unimportant, as is the name of the country. It could be any city or nation, at 
any time. It may be the past. It may be the future. It could be right now.
Regardless, in this city, there is a quiet drama student named Nadia. Her mother was a great stage actress. Her father was a playwright and director, whose book on how to capture the essence of a character and become someone else is still used by theatre teachers all over the world. They were both active in politics, until an attack by the Opposition killed her father and horribly burned her mother.
Nadia has not thought much about this, beyond navigating the checkpoints and random violence in her hometown. Instead, she has focused on her studies and her crush on a fellow actor. However, after her performance in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, she is approached by man with The Party. A man who knew her father, who has an opportunity for her to serve the cause with her unique talents.
It seems that Nadia looks a lot like a waitress named Miriam, who lives in the part of the city controlled by the Opposition. Miriam is something of a recluse, with no friends or family. She is only of interest to the Party because an Opposition leader named O’Brien spends several hours a day at her café. The Party will take care of making Mariam disappear and, for seven days, Nadia will take her place. She will place a bug that will record O’Brien’s conversations. She will then hide it in a trash can on the way to work the next morning.
Nadia is assured it will be an easy mission. She is assured that there is no real risk to her. She agrees it will be the ultimate test of her talents. However, things suddenly change, requiring an alteration to the plan. And suddenly the only thing Nadia is certain of is that this mission will be far from easy…
The Shadower is unlike any espionage thriller I’ve ever read. Indeed, I’m not sure it can properly be called an espionage thriller, despite that being the main thrust of the story. The actual plot, however, is a Kafkaesque psychodrama built around issues of identity. The ambiguity of the setting reflects this, as it is uncertain precisely when or where the story takes place. It is reminiscent of 1984 in that respect. (Indeed, the villain using the alias O’Brien is an in-universe shout out to the story, as he ironically chose his alias in reference to Orwell.)
The artwork by Marie and Peter Hoey flows along with the script. The overall style reminds me of various Daniel Clowes works. The general vibe is more surreal, with a bit of body horror as Nadia gets more and more in tune with her role. The colors are muted, adding to the dull and drab feeling of the mundane world. Even the moments of excitement are rendered with a certain sense of ennui that suits the story.
Top Shelf Productions voluntarily rated The Shadower as a book for Mature Readers. I think that’s a fair assessment, though there is little in the way of offensive content. There is no sex, as such, and only a brief bit of bared buttock as Nadia gets dressed in the morning. There is a threat of violence, but little of it takes place on the page. The consequences are shown, but the actual scenes of violence are left up to the imagination. However, there is one tense scene involving a traitor who is executed by the Opposition in the street and their body is left to rot on the sidewalk. I think the Mature Readers rating is appropriate, however, given that younger audiences may not be able to appreciate the historical significance of the story or the existential horror that is the core of the book.
The Shadower
By Maria Hoey, Peter Hoey
Top Shelf, 2026
ISBN: 9781603095853
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
