On the morning of Gail's birthday, she watches her shadow slip under the kitchen door. She's not surprised it decided to leave. Her dad has gone for good. Her big sister Kay, once Gail's best friend, has disappeared into sadness – and now her shadow has left too.

I enjoyed this book. It has a very strong vibe to it and artfully uses magical realism in a middle grade story setting. It's wistful, sometimes sad, but also full of meaning, and it doesn't dawdle in its pace.

Gail is going through a tough patch in her life. Her sister Kay has always been her pillar, but now that Kay's holed up in her room and wouldn't leave, wouldn't even eat much, Gail doesn't know what to do. Torn between being angry at Kay and simply wanting her back - back to normal, she is in despair. To top it off, both Kay and Gail's shadows suddenly go missing.

When angrily roving the nearby beach caves while trying to find Kay's shadow, Gail meets a girl who tells her that only people who have lost themselves can lose their shadow. There is also a lot Gail feels this little girl isn't telling her - particularly about her brother's strange machines that he seems to be hiding in the mysterious, notorious and allegedly enchanted caves. So Gail and her new friend Mhirran set off on a quest to get the shadows back.

The book isn't just about that - there are actually a few plots coming along all together. I'm pretty surprised that this could be achieved in a relatively short book. It's not happening too fast, it's not too little info - everything is just right. I am usually not a fan of magical realism, unless it's done just right - so I have to say that's exactly how it is in this book. I really liked it. It wasn't too much, it was tasteful and it made sense.

The book delves into depression in kids, loss and trying to work tough situations out without being able to tell adults what's going on in your heart. It also uses magical realism nicely to illustrate all this - it's interchangeably a metaphor and the reality for what's going on in the book. It also subtly draws attention to some environmental problems and how we destabilize the climate, as well as disrespecting endangered species.

I really enjoyed this story.

I enjoyed this adventure tale set on an island. After falling out with her sister, Gail sets off on an adventure to find her sister’s shadow. It is a tale filled with messages about ecology, marine life and treating the land and animals with respect. It’s packed full of information about various creatures and would make an interesting study in the classroom.

I did not care for this one. I couldn't get into it and was skimming through the pages. I didn't understand the whole shadow part and was just confused throughout the whole book.

A touching story about children struggling with depression, using the metaphor of losing their shadow. This book was enjoyable to read through the poetic writing and I would both recommend it to my pupils and use extracts to teach figures of speech. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC egalley.

The writing style in The Girl Who Lost Her Shadow leaves much to be desired. Choppy sentence structure with excessive use of first names when pronouns would have done just as well is pervasive. Maybe there should have been more help at the editing stage. I couldn't get past the 1st chapter.

When storms come to the island, they kill people.

When one storm came, Francis' parents were out bird watching, and a tree fell on them.

But, since Francis knows that shadows, or souls, were taken by the storm, he feels that if he can find the missing shadows, and take them back, he can find his parents.

Meanwhile, Gail has lost both her and her sister's shadow, and is looking for them, and Francis just sees her as one more soul, or shadow to take. (At times it is not clear if they are one and the same thing).

And also, meanwhile, there are some boys who are trying to hunt for endangered shellfish.

Oh, and there is a boy, who is really a hurricane, who is hanging out on the island too.

If that all sounds confusing, it is, at times, but I believe it is meant to be for Gail. Too bad it is also confusing for the reader.

I really liked the idea of a storm carrying all the souls (or shadows) that it killed around with them. I also liked the idea that without a shadow, you were not all there, and you were a bit fuzzy around the edges.

So, while there were some good ideas in this book, and in the end, I was satisfied they had all been wrapped up, I had a bit of a problem with the execution .

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.