An incredible story! A story about a girl that goes missing, but returns a week later with amnesia, only remembering her sister. Told from the pov of the missing girl and her sister, you get to see the story unfold.

Loved the characters, you get glimpses into the life of each sister and how different their worlds are. Their dad is researching their ancestry, how close the family was and their fight to always stay together.

The end literally gave me chills. So glad I had an opportunity to read the arc

What a compelling story! I was fascinated by the mystery of the missing sister who returns and can’t remember a thing. The suspense of working through what happened to Sutton through her sister Casey’s eyes kept me engaged in the story and wanting to learn more and find out exactly what happened.

And though I shouldn’t have been surprised by that final reveal, I was! I loved the twist and the ending to the story. The author did really well writing the entangled, bitter relationship between the sisters and their family, and about the Black experience. I think this book sheds an interesting light on what it means to be Black or biracial in this country, and I love how she wove the history of their family into the fabric of the story. It made for a really satisfying ending.

This book is a wonderfully written YA mystery that had me hooked from the first page.

Casey and Sutton are young Black girls and sisters who are constantly at each others’ throats. When Sutton goes missing, Casey has to juggle a dozen different emotions as everyone joins in to search for Sutton. When Sutton is found, she seems a bit… odd. Not only that but there are a few other missing Black girls from the other side of town that no one seems to be talking about.

I really had a great time with this book. The characters were darling and complicated and I always love books about the ups and downs of sisterhood. Lily Meade did a great job of weaving together family issues and intergenerational Black trauma into a readable, engaging mystery.

I do wish the ending wasn’t so abrupt. I had grown so attached to everyone that I wanted to spend more time with them, see the resolution explored a bit more and I wanted watch everything play out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for allowing me to enjoy this book early in exchange for my honest review.

I love the character of Casey. Her older sister, Sutton, was always manipulative and nasty to her, but portrayed a prefect persona for everyone else. Her sister disappears for a week, when they find her she has no memory of her past or what happened. Sutton only remembers Casey and clings to her. Casey struggles internally with her feeling towards Sutton, how her sister treated her in the past and how she clings to her now and only remembers Casey.

It wasn’t my favorite and took me awhile to get through but I don’t love fantasy books or books with a paranormal element. It took a little while for me to see where is was going and part of me felt disappointed when it was over because it left a lot of questions unanswered. I think there are definitely readers out there that will love it including students at my high school.

The Shadow Sister is truly an unputdownable book. I started it and was completely entranced. The hours slipped by unnoticed while this dark and twisty story unfurled. The story begins with the disappearance of Casey’s sister Sutton, who she loves and hates in equal measure. Casey is desperate for Sutton to return and when she finally does, Casey knows something has changed. Sutton has no memory of what happened when she went missing, but she does remember Casey. What happened to Sutton? Is the danger gone or does it still lurk in their community? Casey embarks in a race against time to find out before another girl goes missing.

The Shadow Sister is a sibling story that gets what it truly means to be a sibling- someone you love, fight with, and would do anything for. I did not see the twist coming and was shocked. Lily Meade’s writing is excellent, I found myself laughing out loud at the dialogue and highlighting descriptive passages. Casey and Sutton are not the perfect sisters that everyone thinks they are and I absolutely loved that! It’s realistic and created so much good tension as Casey dealt with her complicated feelings about her sister. The Shadow Sister covers important topics such as missing women (particularly POC), police negligence/racism, and family trauma.

The Shadow Sister is a spellbinding and intricate tale. Readers will be captivated by the race to find Sutton and then the ominous sense that something still isn’t right once she returns. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy twisted secrets, sisters with a complex relationship, and suspenseful writing. I’m excited to see what Lily Meade writes next!

Thank you to Lily Meade, Sourcebooks Fire, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

Rating: 4/5⭐️

The Shadow Sister tells the story of two sisters who have been at odds most of their life. When older sister Sutton goes missing, Casey is furious. To her, Sutton is anything but the sweet, kind, and perfect person that everyone is painting her to be. When Sutton finally returns with no memory of what happened, Casey doesn’t believe it for a minute. Surely Sutton is manipulating everyone and just pretending to not remember, right?

The composition of this book is really interesting. We’re getting a look at present day Casey, and pre-disappearance Sutton. I really enjoyed how different their perspectives on events were, and how my opinions of each character changed literally every chapter. I feel there was a lot of character development, even with how short this book was.

Lily Meade did a great job at keeping an air of mystery and suspense until the very end. I really wish the ending was more drawn out though. Very suddenly everything seemed to pick up, and then it was just as quickly over. I want more backstory, more history of their ancestors, and I want more on what happened after everything!

I really enjoyed this read, and the cover is absolutely gorgeous! I hope to read more from Lily Meade in the future!

Thank you to Lily Meade, Sourcebooks Fire, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of this book! I had a great time reading this. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

*May contain a spoiler*

Sutton and Casey are sisters who squabble and disagree like many sisters do. Everyone thinks Sutton is perfect but Casey knows differently.
One day Sutton goes missing after the two of them have had an argument.

When Sutton reappears not remembering anything that happened, Casey is bound and determined to figure out what did happen. Why IS Sutton acting so strangely?

This story had me intrigued as I really wanted to find out what did happen to Sutton. I thought the story was very plausible up until the very end and then the mystery of what happened to Sutton was told and it kinda of left me feeling like it was too magical for a mystery/suspense book.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC for my opinion.

When Sutton goes missing her sister Casey is furious. Casey and Sutton rarely got along and now their parents are painting Sutton as the perfect daughter, but Casey knows better.

The character development in this book is amazing. It was so refreshing to have a sibling relationship where they both loved and hated each other and with both girls point-of-view being highlighted you feel like you are living with them, or maybe you WERE them.

The black history genealogy project of the father’s was very interesting. However, like a few of the subplots, it did not feel finished at the end of the book.

A strong start for a new writer.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded down

I definitely have some mixed feelings about The Shadow Sister. On one hand, it was a quick read that kept my interest enough that I finished it in a single sitting. However, there was a LOT there that just fell flat and/or didn't add up.

Despite its compelling ideas, the book didn't quite live up to its full potential for me. For starters, the animosity between the sisters felt way too intense without sufficient explanation. Sibling rivalry is one thing, but this seemed to run much deeper, warranting some backstory that unfortunately never quite materialized. The details that we DO get just wouldn't ever have led us to the point where we find the girls at the beginning of the story.

The book promised an exciting blend of elements—hoodoo, ancestor power, and magical realism. However, the bits and pieces of the stories that we get are repetitive and only minimally fleshed out, and the integration of the supernatural elements felt tacked on towards the end, rather than being woven seamlessly into the narrative from the start. All of these things could have been SO good, but it really felt like these aspects needed another revision to truly shine and bring the story to life.

Another aspect I struggled with was the pacing of the plot. After slowly building tension for over 260 pages, everything was wrapped up rather too neatly in the last chapter, which didn't at all reflect the complexity of real-life missing-person cases. The recurring theme of multiple Black girls going missing needed MUCH more depth and resolution, and their identities and stories seemed completely glossed over and practically ignored in the grand reveal.

The villain was rather underdeveloped and all too easily identifiable early on due to the limited amount of secondary characters. Additionally, the motive behind Sutton's disappearance was completely lackluster and left me feeling like there were missing pieces to the puzzle.

Overall, The Shadow Sister had its fair share of captivating moments and held a lot of promise, but it stumbled a bit in the execution. There was a depth of potential that could have been better explored to create a much more cohesive and developed narrative.

Compelling from the start, the book centers around the relationship between two sisters, both of whom do awful things to each other in the backstory and flashbacks scattered throughout. Their relationship is depicted with uncompromising detail, it's not a 'teehee she's so mean sometimes but I love her anyway' relationship.

Meade seems to revel in that sort of complicated relationship, both sisters have issues with their parents in different ways and even their friendships and romantic relationships are painted in shades of gray. Which is what makes it extra disappointing that the villain of the piece is essentially a mustache twirling, monologuing cartoon character when the reveal comes.

As I was getting closer and closer to the end of the book, I couldn't see how Meade was going to wrap everything up in the space left and started to worry that it was all setting up for a sequel, but instead there's a sudden reveal and rapid wrap up. Other than the villain, I liked the ending as it was, I just wish there had been more time to let it breathe.

I'd definitely read whatever else Meade writes in the future.

“My sister is a bitch, but that doesn’t mean I want her dead.”

That’s how the author welcomes you to her story. The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade is an emotionally heavy book. The emotion is raw and real. Zero punches are pulled; no holds barred.

In this book, we meet two emotionally charged and headstrong sisters named Casey and Sutton. Cassandra (Casey) is the main character, and Sutton is her older and, from Casey’s view, vindictive sister. They hate-love each other. The sister relationship is the main focus of this book, and it is bolded throughout. Each sister has seemingly good teenage reasons to hate their sibling. Growing up with an older brother myself, I can relate. I look back on that now, however, and realize it was all petty. The issues that Casey and Sutton have are also petty. But, those emotions of anger and hate they show to each other are coated in the fires of hell. That hate was visceral! It was so deep-rooted, it left me wondering how the story of their relationship would progress from there. But, I guess a sister going missing and returning “different” would throw a wrench into any supposedly solid inner workings.

Speaking of inner workings, this family was one the most outwardly put-together and inwardly fractured families to grace my TBR in a while. On the outside, the family appears as a successful interracial family. Mom is white and a successful anchor for local news while dad is black and an extremely “well-educated” author and professor. (As black person in America, “well-educated” is in quotation marks for a reason. Ask me about it if you dare. *smiles*) Sutton was the athletic cheerleader and highly popular while Casey is the brooding teenager. On the inside though, mom is controlling and more focused on outward appearances. Dad is dealing with familial and racial trauma while trying to maintain his cool and educate about his culture. Sutton is shallow (as teenagers are), and Casey always feels like the odd one out and left-over, looked-over child. The problems! Everyone has family drama and trauma to handle while also dealing with Sutton’s disappearance and return.

The pace of the book was quick but appropriate. The small details about family, legacy, traditions, and genealogy were interesting and well placed to move the plot along. I enjoyed the journey Casey had to endure in order to figure out what was going on with her sister, the journey that led to healing for both Casey and Sutton’s relationship as well as the family as a whole.

There are only two things that I wish were a little different about this book. The first is the climax of the plot. It was a little too short. It could have used a little more fleshing out. I didn’t get the proper close out like I felt I needed after being bombarded with so many emotions during the previous pages of the book. I have read some reviews that wish the villain was more fleshed out. I don’t agree with this. He was not who the story was about. He does not deserve more time than he got in the book.

The second issue I have with this book is the magic in the book. Let me start by saying that I loved it. I just wished there was a little bit more explanation of it. Not enough where it took away the focus from Casey and Sutton, but enough so that it helped connect the plot and climax a little more.

Overall though, this book was an amazingly emotional rollercoaster. The raw emotion alone makes me recommend this book.

4.75/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review will post on my Instagram SpellsBooksandKrystals on Wednesday, May 31, 2023.

An enthralling thriller that dives into the murky depths of sibling rivalry with a beautifully spooky twist.

When Sutton disappears, Casey thinks it might be a manipulative trick. Their last fight, Sutton told her she wished Casey had never been born. Casey's trying to squash her guilt and hold it together. Her parents aren't helping, with her white TV reporter mom who's attempting to control the narrative to help bring Sutton home and her Black historian father, who struggles with how people treat the disappearance.

When Sutton's found a week later, Casey's relieved, even after they discover that most of Sutton's memories are gone. Casey studies her for glimpses of her old sister. But the Sutton who comes back is different, clinging to Casey as her only lifeline. Casey's determined to find out what's behind the changes in Sutton, as the two sisters grow close, despite Casey's unease.

This book dives into the racial dynamics around disappearances, with Sutton's treated differently because of her white mother. Through Casey's father and his family history project, the reader gets a glimpse of the struggles that generations of Casey and Sutton's family have gone through.

The secret behind what happened to Casey and why she's different was brilliant and shocking. This was a fast-paced, impossible to put down read.

This book had me hooked from the beginning and was so hard to put down! It was fast paced, easy to get into to, and kept me on my toes with the mystery of what happened to Sutton. Each chapter gave you just enough to think you knew what happened but never enough to really know until the end. This was a great mystery/thriller. Beyond the genre I also really liked the characters and this complicated family dynamic of the Cureton’s, mainly between Casey and Sutton. I liked the contrast between their relationship in the past and present and how’s it changed once Sutton returns. It’s definitely not perfect and is complicated but they still love each other as sibling do.

Overall this was a great ya mystery and I highly recommend you read it when it’s released!

Read if you like…
•Ya mystery/thriller
•complicated sister relationship
•dual pov and multiple timelines

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebook Fire for providing an eARC for review.

I really enjoyed this story. It is very much character driven, and I was never quite sure what I was supposed to think and feel about each character (in the best way). I loved the way the story is told through a combination of timelines and POVs. There were many questions, most of which were answered, but I would love to have a story about past family members. The family history was rich, and the characters were flawed and changed throughout the story.

I really enjoyed this story. I thought that Casey and Sutton were so well fleshed out and I enjoyed the nature of their relationship--the negative aspects were done so well. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of the perspective shifting in books, but this was an instance where I can see the utility of it and it was done really well. The POV shifting served as the perfect vehicle to get more family history and family development. I wish that the "villain" of the story had been fleshed out a bit more/we got more detail about that (I'm being purposefully vague so as not to give away too many spoilers). This was such a mysterious and atmospheric novel, with a great cast of well-done characters and a compelling plot--I highly recommend giving this one a shot!

The Shadow Sister is the first book by Lily Meade. It is a combination mystery/supernatural/young adult book with one of the most beautiful covers that I have ever seen and also one of the best opening lines: “My sister is a bitch, but that doesn’t mean I want her dead.” Meade immediately sucked me into the story of Casey and her missing sister, Sutton. The book’s strength lies in Meade’s ability to flesh out fully both Sutton and Casey and their antagonistic relationship. I enjoyed the perspective shift between the sisters and getting to know their family and a little bit of their family history. I do wish there was more development of the book’s “bad guy” (I am trying to not give away too much here).
I definitely feel that if that part of the story was more fully drawn out, this book would have been a home run. Nevertheless, I enjoyed The Shadow Sister and would recommend giving it a read.

3.5 🌟🌟🌟💫/5 stars

This book had me completely sucked in. There were so many details that were puzzling and mysterious. I was really enjoying the story until the final chapters - like what on earth was that? I have so many questions - how did any of that even work? What happens to Ruth and her siblings now? No one is going to question any of them? And isn't the most basic principle of magic that no one can bring back the dead? I ended up being so confused that I lost all enjoyment of the book.

Sutton has gone missing and the whole town is fearing the worst while searching for her - except her sister Casey. Casey and Sutton have had a fraught relationship, made worse by the fact that Sutton stole a bracelet from Casey that had belonged to their grandmother and been in their family for generations. When Sutton reappears seemingly out of nowhere Casey feels relieved to know her sister is safe - but Sutton isn’t Sutton at all. She can’t remember anything from before she was found except her sister. As Casey tries to unravel what happened to her sister she discovers a darker secret in their small town as well as her family’s past.

This was so so good. Did not put it down once. Gives off similar vibes to Sawkill Girls and Legendborn with the small town creepy vibe and the discussion on black history and spirituality. I think we could’ve had a bit more description on the magic by way of Isaiah and his info on family history or from flashbacks via Ma Remy. Additionally I think it could’ve helped if we’d seen a bit more of Ruth and her conflict with her father. Overall though very good read and didn’t see the ending coming.

First of all….the cover is beautiful! Now the book! The story was was to get to get into. Smooth writing style and good flow. I liked the opposing or different point of views. While I did enjoy the book, I felt at times things were left hanging/unexplained and needed more detail or background! I also felt that the book started feeling rushed or cut short! I needed at least 3 to 4 more chapters for a smoother ending! Overall I liked this book!