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.

2.5 stars rounded up.

The second half of this book was so much better than the first half. I honestly wonder if the author follows that novel writing advice where you start at the midpoint first. It was a helluva lot more exciting than the boring first half. Very thriller vibes with bits of horror thrown in.

Anyway.

I liked the author's debut, so I thought I'd like this too. But this felt like an early draft of a novel instead of something fully fleshed out. It was very light on the details and read like a bunch of scenes just happening sequentially, even with the flashbacks and some POV scenes from side characters.

Right at the beginning, the FMC, Mae, straight up goes on a road trip with her sister's neighbor that she just met. I get being young and stupid and desperate, but, umm, what. Throughout the entire road trip/investigation, there was no logical thought process where Mae was like, "Hmm... Maybe this is a dumb idea and I should ditch him."

I actually ended up liking the scenes that took place in 1891 >>> 2024 because the dynamic between Dev, Ravi, and Nik was really interesting. You've got brotherhood, friendship, and classism interplaying with each other. They were a lot more well-rounded than present day Mae and Dev.

But even then, the worldbuilding for the 1891 scenes was very light. The characters sounded and acted like modern day teens. Besides trains and horses, it didn't really feel all that authentic.

The ending feels like there might be a sequel, but honestly, after my experience with this one, I'm not that interested in picking it up.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) and NetGalley for this arc.

Portrait of a Shadow was the perfect length and well written. I enjoyed the mystery and not knowing what would happen next. I would recommend this book to my friends!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

this book had a really good concept but it wasn't executed well to me. i feel like there was something missing from this which really makes me sad, the characters were interesting but i wish we had more development with their arcs.

I really was excited for this book! I'm a fan of The Portrait of Dorain Gray, so this book caught my eye right away.

Overall, it was a decent read. I'm just personally not a fan of flashbacks being used for reveals and the characters didn't feel very fleshed out to me. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable story!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The cover of this is absolutely beautiful and is what drew me in first. I had such a high hopes. To be honest, 85% of this book was two stars from me. It was boring, the beauty of the concept and plot hidden behind flat words and dialogue. I didn't feel close to any of the characters, not that there were many. The last 15% of the book drew me in the way I wanted and bumped it up to three stars for me. I love a good ending, and even more so, a good twist ending. I want to post spoilers so bad but I will only say this: when you get to the twist, you realize the person is a piece of manure. Truly. Which hurt a small bit and would've hurt more had I truly connected with anyone. Dev and Mae's romance was too quick. I get attraction, and perhaps that is mainly what this was, but this isn't Disney. There are several points of views that we get here: mainly Mae's but with splashes of Dev's, Nik's, Ravi's, Delphine's, Inez's, and I believe even the portrait itself. They are not all necessary. Truly, the only ones we needed were Mae, Dev, Inez, and the flashback of Delphine. In case you were wondering, we do not get answers answered. This book is set up for a sequel, which I will be reading because I think it will be better than this one. I know it will. Though it took me awhile to read because I was bored and started skimming, I will recommend this because of where this will lead for a second book. Grammar is nearly perfect. My only true complaint is the slowness of the middle of the book.

"It is desire that draws her out, a want as staggering as her own imposing power."

A YA retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray where the main characters are of Tunisian and Indian descent. One part mystery, one part teenage yearning, one part messy broken families and the siblings that cling to one another.

I thought this was both an excellent retelling, but made some updates to the myth (loved) and character motivation (also an improvement over the original for me). It's easy to read and easy to recommend, especially to someone in the target age demographic.

My one complaint is just in the pacing. I found that certain aspects started to drag a little, while Part Three was overly stuffed with flashbacks to 1891 that provided much-needed answers but threw off the pacing.

This book was such a fun and wild ride. There's one central question mark from me, but I'll get to that later, because overall, this was a very thrilling and interesting read! Just the premise alone was already so attractive, add in a few twists and turns, then include well rounded characters. The author did a wonderful job of keeping the storyline interesting and this book definitely moved!

I mean, the synopsis pulled me in: a missing sister, a mysterious boy, and a wondrous painting that could be very sinister. I liked Mae a good deal. but. I was so so curious about Inez, the missing sister. But that's the joy of the book - Mae trying to figure out what happened to her. As much action as there was throughout the book with Dev (and also another few characters but I don't want to spoil. it), the mystery of the painting was ever present and looming throughout the chapters. I pretty much appreciated that. It was such an ominous presence that made this book such a joy to read.

But...a thing I didn't understand... perhaps it was me not putting some pieces together, but there was one thing I couldn't put my fingers on. Apparently Inez had been missing for five years. FIVE YEARS. But now Mae, walking on eggshells with her parents, is finally going to clean out Inez's apartment, partly because the parents were no longer able to pay for it. But then... the book said that Inez had only been in the apartment for a year. But she'd been missing five years, though. The entire book made more sense if Inez had been missing for a year, so that was confusing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ebook. All opinions are my own.