Review of “Diamonds in the Shadow,” by Caroline B. Cooney
“Diamonds in the Shadow,” by Caroline B. Cooney is a young adult novel about an American family who takes in a group of African refugees with a dangerous secret past.
Jared Finch is not in the least bit thrilled about his parent’s plan to sponsor four African refugees, a mother and father and two children. The way Jared sees it, if his parents and their church committee want to go to all that work they can do so, but he doesn’t have to help. To make matters worse, the apartment that the committee had planned to house the refugees in fell through, so now the refugees will be living with Jared and his family until they can find other accommodations.
Jared is very surprised and angry when he learns that he’ll have to share a room with another teenage boy who is a refugee. It doesn’t help matters when a representative from the Refugee Aid Society tells them, “In a civil war there are no good guys. They’re all guilty of something. You are probably not saving the innocent, because in a civil war, nobody is innocent.” Jared envisions sharing his bedroom with some child soldier who has probably killed hundreds of people, and he feels that his parents must be out of their minds to welcome the refugees into their home.
But when the Amabo family arrives they turn out to be quite different from what Jared and his family expected. Not only did the father loose both hands during the civil war, but the teenage daughter is mute and withdrawn. The Amabo family seems to be constantly amazed by simple things, such as running water, telephones in every home and pocket, and the fact that the Finch family leaves their door unlocked during the day. Having come from a war torn country the Amabo family fears anyone in uniform and marvels at the way Americans seem to go through their lives with no worries.
As Jared and his sister Mopsy teach and observe the Amabo family, though, they begin to notice that something is wrong. The Amabos are afraid of something, and they are harboring some dangerous secret that Jared is determined to discover. Little does the Finch family realize but there were five refugees on the plane to America. The fifth refugee was a rebel commander willing to do anything, even kill, to reach America. The Amabos have something that belongs to him, something that he made them carry into the United States, and now he wants it back.
“Diamonds in the Shadow” presents a well researched view of refugees and their often traumatic pasts. Caroline B. Cooney ties the theme of blood diamonds into the storyline very adroitly, mixing history and facts into the text without sacrificing the flow of the plot. “Diamonds in the Shadow” has a thrilling plot, with just the right amount of realistic suspense that Cooney has perfected so well. Compared with some of her other books, however, the characters are not as deep. This surface presentation is due in part to the very theme of the book. Cooney has to keep certain details hidden until they are ready to be presented. Overall, however, the writing quality in “Diamonds in the Shadow” lives up to the high level that readers can expect from Caroline B. Cooney.
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