The Shadow
#5813.88 adjusted 3.89 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 4 books Status Complete 2015–2018 Reading commitment Medium Lila Bowen Last reviewed 2026-08-26
Overview
The Shadow (2015-2018) is Lila Bowen's completed four-book weird-western dark fantasy series, following Nettie Lonesome (later Rhett Walker), a mixed-race, gender-fluid monster hunter, across an alternate 1870s Texas populated by vampires, shifters, and figures drawn from indigenous and frontier folklore. Wake of Vultures (2015) opens with Nettie's escape from an abusive adoptive family on a failing homestead into a wider frontier where monsters are real and the U.S. Cavalry recruits hunters to fight them, while Conspiracy of Ravens (2016), Malice of Crows (2017) and Treason of Hawks (2018) follow Rhett's growing command of a ragtag band of monster-hunting outsiders across the wider Southwest. Bowen, a pen name of Delilah S. Dawson, built the series explicitly around marginalized frontier figures, including Black, Indigenous and queer characters, rarely centered in traditional Western fiction.
Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (4 works) counts toward ranking
The Shadow Lila Bowen
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Wake of Vultures | 2015 | 1 | core | 3.88 (5,208 ratings) |
 | Conspiracy of Ravens | 2016 | 2 | core | 3.86 (1,781 ratings) |
 | Malice of Crows | 2017 | 3 | core | 3.91 (882 ratings) |
 | Treason of Hawks | 2018 | 4 | core | 3.93 (552 ratings) |
A completed four-book weird-western dark fantasy following Nettie Lonesome/Rhett Walker, a mixed-race, gender-fluid monster hunter in an alternate 1870s Texas populated by vampires, shifters, and figures from indigenous and frontier folklore.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Shadow? The Shadow's Core Canon is 4 books.
- What is the reading order for The Shadow? Publication order, starting with Wake of Vultures. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Shadow finished? Complete (2015–2018).
- How much reading does The Shadow take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 4 Core Canon books · ~1,439 pages).
- How is The Shadow ranked? #581 in this site's official ranking, based on 8,423 reader ratings across 4 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #581?
Ranked #581 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.88 across 4 core books.
- A smaller readership (8,423 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 4 rated core books rate within 0.07 of each other.
- 0.01 behind #580, The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 4 books · Complete · 8k ratings · Ranks #581 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (4 Core Canon books)
- Wake of Vultures (2015)
- Conspiracy of Ravens (2016)
- Malice of Crows (2017)
- Treason of Hawks (2018)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.88 across 8,423 ratings on 4 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit The Shadow (Lila Bowen) accepted 2026-08-26
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26
Rule: Core Canon is the completed four-novel main sequence.