In Portrait of a Shadow Mae is searching for her missing sister, Inez, and comes across a white canvas painting with a beautiful gilt frame in her apartment with a mysterious past. With the help of the cute neighbor boy, Dev, they go in search of her sister through the clues that they find.

I was looking forward to a decent horror, but didn't find it here. More of a mystery with a very small bit of creepiness involved. I had a hard time liking the characters and the fact that Mae goes on a 6 hour road trip with the cute neighbor boy she just met and knows nothing about just because he claims to have known her sister well? That's just asking for trouble. He was evasive with the answers of so many questions that she asked him and she still didn't get suspicious enough to do anything about it.

There were a lot of shifts in narrator, as well as shifts in time. While the chapters did give you a date/time for each one, it did not list who the narrator would be until you started reading. Mae also made a comment about using the internet to search for the art dealer, but did not mention internet searches at any other time that it would have made sense. I guess I just didn't feel like the story flowed well or, really, in a way that I cared about what happened.

I had to DNF this book at the fifty percent mark. I don't usually make it that far without at least skimming the rest, but honestly, I just didn't care. Nothing happens in this book. Very boring. This is supposed to be a YA horror book but nothing even remotely creepy, scary, or atmospheric happens!!!

A missing sister, a boy with secrets, and a painting that is much more sinister than it seems. A touch of Dorian Gray and a modern day mystery, one girl will do anything to find her sister and her only lead is the mysterious neighbor who has keys to her sister's apartment and whose's smile is just as intriguing as his secrets. Yet when the secrets reveal themselves, Mae will find herself way in over her head and finding her sister might prove to be impossible. This modern day spin on Dorian Gray was definitely an interesting read and I think young adult readers will have fun with it. The twist was interesting enough and I do think it definitely is a fun read for anyone who loves the classic story but wants a new twist for a modern day.

Release Date: July 16,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

I enjoyed Meriam’s first book and I was excited about being able to read this one early since it took me FOREVER to read her last one.

What I liked: the time lapsing where we go back and forth to see different people with the painting. I also really enjoyed the parts with Dev, Ravi, & Nik. They were such an interesting trio and even though there was resentment on Ravi’s part but there was so much love it made my heart warm.


What I didn’t like:
Mae trusting Dev and going on a cross state road trip with him after an hour of knowing him when he was hanging out in her missing sister’s apartment. She had no proof he knew her sister. She had no proof he was there for the right reason. She let him drive her dad’s car which she made a point to say was so new and precious she shouldn’t even have been driving it. What if HE had kidnapped her sister?? Mae was such an unbelievable character. You can barely blame it on her age either was is 18. I was just flabbergasted with her whole thought process.

I thought I knew the twist at the end but the ending was the best part. It was multiple levels of messed up and I loved it. This had such potential to be a wild story and it just never went there enough. It didn’t even register as horror in any way to me.

I also see Meriam loves open endings and this one has so many questions that need to be answered. I would love to see more of this from the author so we can see what happens next. If not, I’m excited to see more of this author on all her future projects!

Short and Sweet Review
Mae’s sister Inez is missing, but she has a feeling that she can be found. It’s been awhile and her parents are moving on and even the police case has come to a halt. Mae drives down to Inez’s studio apartment to clean it out and finds a canvas with a peeling corner, not only that but a strange boy is also in the apartment. Dev was Inez’s neighbor and when Mae decides to trace Inez’s lasts steps he comes along for the ride.
Portrait of a Shadow is a retelling of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” which I haven’t read which is probably why I found the synopsis so interesting. When Mae finds the canvas she also finds Inez’s notes about it and also shows that she became somewhat obsessed with it. We have chapters that are interludes which shows people getting enticed by the canvas and eventually sucked into it. We also see chapters from the past which include Dev, his brother, and a friend. I did like that the chapters from the past show how big a role classism played between the three boys and how it ended up influencing some of the decisions that were made. This is a relatively short book and we learn about the characters along the way, I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters so there was a big disconnect there for me. This book is described as horror but there wasn’t anything like that, at least in my eyes, if there was anything scary it was pretty mild. The ending was pretty surprising, I wasn’t expecting what happened so that was a plus to me.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book the way I thought I would. Portrait of a Shadow has all of the elements to make a great story but it just fell short and I think it may have something to do with the length, there wasn’t enough time to really do a deep dive into these characters. The ending makes it seem like there could be a sequel and I would be interested to see what could happen next.

Portrait of a Shadow by Meriam Metoui promises an intriguing blend of mystery and art, but ultimately falls short of its potential. The premise is captivating: a missing sister, a mysterious painting, and the clues that unravel a centuries-old secret. However, the execution leaves much to be desired. Mae's journey to uncover the truth about her sister Inez is marred by a slow and meandering plot that fails to maintain suspense. The narrative often gets bogged down in unnecessary details, making it difficult for readers to stay engaged. Despite the promising setup, the pacing issues and lack of a cohesive storyline detract significantly from the overall reading experience.

The characters, while initially intriguing, lack depth and development. Mae's desperation to find her sister is palpable, but her interactions with the enigmatic boy who claims to have known Inez feel forced and lack genuine chemistry. Their dynamic, which should have added layers to the story, instead comes off as clichéd and predictable. The book's climax, hinging on the mysterious painting, is disappointingly underwhelming, with revelations that feel more contrived than shocking. While the novel attempts to weave together themes of loss, art, and hidden truths, it ultimately struggles to deliver a satisfying conclusion, leaving readers with more questions than answers. Portrait of a Shadow is a novel with an intriguing concept that, unfortunately, fails to live up to its promise.

DNF at 46%

⭐️ | Didn’t Finish, Predictable Ending

Portrait of a Shadow failed to keep my interest. I found it quite boring and ended up skipping to the end, only to find it played out exactly as I had predicted. The plot lacked excitement and the characters didn’t engage me enough to continue. Not a book I’d recommend.

I am still trying to decide how I feel about this book. Mea’s sister has gone missing. Seven months have passed since anyone saw her, and yet Mea feels like her sister will still come home. So, when she is asked to go clean out her old apartment, Mea jumps at the chance to see if there are any clues to what happened to her sister. What she finds is a strange man, a journal, and a painting that is white. Something feels off but Mea will do anything to find her sister even ask the strange man to go along for the journey.
This book is written within the past and the present. I think that I enjoyed the second half of the book a bit more where the past unravels a bit more, giving the reader a better idea of what is happening in the present. Yet overall, I don’t know that I truly loved the story. Mae is an okay character. She neither jumps off of the page nor does she really endure herself to the reader. Her biggest issue outside of finding her sister is being worried about upsetting her parents by doing what she wants with her life. Which is understandable. Dev also doesn’t jump off of the page, so together they make a pretty mediocre team trying to solve a mystery. I didn’t love this book but I also didn’t dislike this book, I think overall it was just kind of a filler something I could have skipped and really probably won’t jump to my mind if someone is looking for a recommendation.
Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. While I had a fun time reading Portrait of a Shadow, I feel like something about it just wasn't meant for me. I think that the book was written well, and had a great premise, I just think it wasn't something that I would want to reread necessarily. I do have friends that I think I could recommend this to that would appreciate it more than I.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read Portrait of a Shadow! This story was a page turner and kept me from page 1 til the very end! I love this authors writing as it is very easy to read and is captivating and eloquent. I look forward to Meriam's next book!!! I hope this does well come July 16th because it is such a great story.

2.5 rounded up to 3. I was expecting a bit more I think from the story. I was excited to read it based off the summary but I feel as if I was let down a bit.

I think this premise is so captivating and I really loved the story. I think the pacing undercuts the momentum for me a little bit and I think that’s where I struggled most. However, I found this to be well written with engaging, COMPLICATED characters. GOD I loved the characters!!!

Meriam Metoui simply delivers stunning, incredible work with each new book, and she only gets more and more talented. She writes such compelling characters that you really root for, I can't wait for this to get into more and more people's hands on release day. Great job Meriam!

Thank you NETGALLEY and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the free ARC. This had a great premise and a few instances of some great revelations. But unfortunately never delivered overall. Throughout most of the book the writing came off juvenile but not in a way that you can clearly see that the author was trying to engage that particular audience (not YA, think more along the lines of a bad preteen soap opera) the story came off all over the place and not really fleshed out. I would’ve thought this a a beginners first draft in a writing course. For instance the FMC came off young and immature, her thoughts and motivations were not consistent. More often than not I found myself getting annoyed by her 😂. Was meh overall definitely could have been a great story, just didn’t work. I do appreciate the cultural and ethnic diversity in the this story. Just wish there would have been more central part of the story without the obvious representation and repetition of the customs or beliefs.

The potential of this book was squandered so significantly.

Not only is the first two-thirds of this book extremely boring, with Mae, and eventually Dev, looking/driving around, but the horror aspect wasn't much of anything? There were interludes between chapters showing the portrait's history (i.e., people disappearing), but that alone wasn't enough to give me the creeps. If anything, it got repetitive whenever we got another scene of people disappearing via ~spooky circumstances~.

Mae and Dev were also pretty weak characters. Mae's personality wasn't anything but her want to find her sister and the flimsy, surface-level attraction she has for Dev, who's just the mysterious weirdo until he's revealed to be the real big bad in the last chapter. So much time was spent towards exposition and traveling, but I could care less whenever a little character moment came along.

I think what solidified my disappointment was the mystery behind portrait. We were told what it is before the main character, which completely destroyed the surprise twist when Mae finally caught up to what the reader learned literally the chapter before. Despite that, we also don't learn anything that should have been essential about the portrait. My questions: Who was the original artist of the portrait? How was it cursed? Why was it cursed? Who was that shadow woman, and how did she come upon Dev? How did Inez learn about the portrait and find Ravi? How does that connect to her essentially cutting off her sister? I dunno, there's being open-ended, and then there's plot holes that could've been solved so easily.

Overall, this book just feels under baked. All the ingredients are there, but Metoui should have let it bake far longer. A shame, really, because her debut was one of my top reads last year. I hope her next work will grab me better.

I really love it, engaging at all times. Very intresting story it reminded me of the picture of Dorian Gray so you know it was great in his own unique way

The concept of this book was very interesting and I think the execution did a pretty good job of telling an engaging story. My only issue with the book was that it spent a lot of time in the past trying to establish the background. Now the background was necessary to understand the full issue surrounding the painting, but I think the amount of information that was conveyed could have been condensed. There are some scenes in the past that weren't necessary, especially in the parts that focused on past owners of the painting. I did not see the focus on them lending anything to the story itself. But the ending was very shocking and came way out of left field, and it would not have had such a big build up without the background and past timeline being revealed. I was pleasantly surprised by the twist, and it made the book that much better. I just don't think the blurb for the description should focus so much on Mae and her journey, when a good 30-40% of the book focuses on Dev and his past getting him to this point. Other than that, it was genuinely very good and a pleasure to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt for the pre-release copy of Portrait of a Shadow. Below is my honest review.

I really enjoyed the concept of this novel - magic painting, mysterious disappearances, road trip with cute stranger boy next door. It reminded me of an episode of Charmed that revolved around a similar painting.

Alas, the execution felt a little lacking. The twist was predictable, as was the real situation surrounding the disappearances, and the ending was not satisfying. But I didn't hate it, and I was entertained still.

I liked the author's writing style, so maybe I'll try a future novel and see if there has been some growth.

Recommended with caveats mentioned above.

I never quite got into the story, I'm not sure what it was. I think the latter half of this book is a lot more compelling pace-wise and plot-wise, but the first half left me wanting a lot. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the spooky thriller bits, I just didn't really have it in me to connect with this story anymore. I also really wish that the story had more of the 1890s bits--even though they setting wasn't particularly fleshed out, I just ended up liking them a lot more overall. I think if there is a sequel, I may pick it up as this at least sets the tone for a potentially interesting follow-up.

I unfortunately did not connect with this story. I am not a huge fan of this particular genre but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Thank you to NetGalley for gifting me this arc.