User:Jack Sebastian/Shadowland (Straub novel)

Shadowland is a novel by Peter Straub, first published in 1980 by Coward, McCann and Geohegen. It is a horror novel that has strong elements of fantasy. It was the first book Straub wrote following his highly successful Ghost Story.

1 Background 2 Plot summary 3 Characters 4 Style and story elements 5 Major themes 5.1 Pattern recognition 5.2 Memory of history 5.3 Originality and monoculture 5.4 Branding, identity, and globalization 6 Genre 7 Reception 8 Publication history 9 Adaptations 10 Footnotes 11 External links

Plot summary
The story concerns two young boys, Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale, who spend a summer with Del's uncle Coleman, who is one of the foremost magicians in the world. As time passes, however, Tom begins to suspect that what Coleman is teaching is not a series of harmless tricks, but is in fact real sorcery.

Setting
Parts of the novel involves a thinly disguised version of Milwaukee Country Day School, which Straub attended.