When we last we left Garet James, she had finally made it back to the present time to find that she had not returned to the present with her love the 400 year old Will Hughes, but a younger and human version of him. Will justified this decision by suggesting that he was giving Garet the best of himself by sending his younger version rather than himself, and thus dedicated the next 400 years to erasing his mistakes so that he wold be worthy of Garet's love. Unfortunately for Garet, dealing with a man 400 years out of time is not her only issue. In the infamous John Dee as well as Marduk - an ancient
Babylonian deity have followed her back and have vowed to collapse the world's economy and bring and end to the world as they know it.

Of all three of the books thus far, The Shape Stealer is by far the most convoluted and over written. We know that Will fancies himself a poet; however, the amount of bad poetry gracing the pages The Shape Stealer, was absolutely painful. It was enough to make wonder if the authors decided to use poems they were unable to otherwise publish.

The dank and murk of these four walls appall,
No matter if a jail, or woe-soaked tomb:
Time’s dreadful to me as it
slowly crawls,

Just like mites on
blackened walls. This
womb

Belongs to Satan' corpus;
we must flee

Or we'll be born again
as something foul,

And Garet, suffer Marduck. I
can see

In mind's eye how that beast
without a soul

Craves vipering her blood to
make him whole.

a thing of such malevolence
that Dee,

Though sinister himself, will
shriek and flee

Yet now, if only Kepler might
awake,

And use his genius for poor
mankind's sake,

We might be saved. and
Marduck take a Fall.

Did you find that painful? Well, there's a lot more of that in the book. I found myself just skipping ahead each time I came across a poem, thankful that the poems were in italics, thus warning me of the torture up ahead. If I had wanted to read a book of poetry, I would have bought a book of poetry. Though poetry was used as a way for both Wills to declare their love of Garet, such an expression could surely have come in a less tedious form.

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