Overall the concept and magic system is unique and I adore the strong sister relationship that's highlighted in the story. Edie-who has the ability to travel between the Veil of life and death, Violet who can call spirits on the land of living. Both twins flees from home after the unfortunate death of their mother, they joined a group of women, who has the gift to assess to the spirits of death.

There are parts when things started to get slow and boring, that's what's left me lost all the interest and zoned out. I wished that the author can add more spice and flavor that can create more tension in the book

The author, Amanda Glaze, has used her own great-grandmother and her sister as inspiration for this story, as apparently the sisters were “avid Spiritualists”.

Edith “Edie” and Violet Bond are part of a travelling group of mediums and spiritualists who conduct séances on a tour. It would seem like the sister have some sort of paranormal powers and have the ability to contact/manifest the dead. It takes place in, I think, 1910s Sacramento.

I thought that the overall frame of the story was nice: it concerns the sisters (mostly Edie) trying to find out who killed their mother with the help of the mother’s spirit on the other side, but another storyline is pushed in about halfway through the book which threw me off quite drastically as it involved a string of murders and a mental asylum-storyline. There was also a sort of love story thrown in for some reason which I did not enjoy.

I loved the idea of The Second Death of Edi and Violet Bond, and I was hooked from the beginning! The characters, cover art and storyline are great. Such a perfect book for October release, but wish it were sooner!

According to the other reviews, I guess I’m the odd one out because I went into this book with high expectations (I mean, just look at that cover!) and left bored out of my mind. I don’t know what it is, but this book just isn’t very engaging. I went in motivated and with high hopes but realized quickly how bored I was.

It’s a shame I couldn’t get into this one because the premise is great. Two twin mediums traveling with a spiritualist show and battling a mysterious shadow that was also behind their mother’s death. The concept of the veil was interesting and the other members of the show also have abilities beyond the veil. Interesting premise and great characters. This should’ve worked. For some reason it just didn’t.

The writing just didn’t grab me or suck me in like I thought it would. I ended up getting super bored around 20% in and just wanted it to be over. I don’t know if it’s because it wasn’t written with enough urgency or what, but I was never spooked or super invested. To be honest I just kind of wanted to get it over with. If this weren’t an arc it would’ve been a dnf most likely. Honestly, I was just kind of bored the whole time. This wasn’t for me but I tried!

3 stars, because while I didn’t exactly enjoy this read, giving it a 2 star review just didn’t feel right. After all, it wasn’t badly written, just boring.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sterling for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity to read this book. The plot for this book was very original, I've never read anything that ties a twin bond and mediums together. The setting as well was perfect for the era of this book. All the characters are strong and didn't feel at any moment that I was lacking background or even what drives them. A read that hand me captured from the start, and had me rushing to get to the end of the book just to see what would happen. Overall and amazing read! Enjoyed every moment of this book!

3.5 rounded up.
This was a pretty solid debut that delivered the entertainment a YA paranormal book promises. The book flows seamlessly, the pacing is steady, the plot, the characters and the feminist take on the story's themes keep you engaged.
I particularly loved the cover and getting a glimpse of the real Edie and Violet (the author's great-grandmother/aunt who inspired the book!)

Seventeen-year-old twins Edie and Violet Bond have run off to join a traveling Spiritualist show in late nineteenth-century Sacramento. Like their mother, the twins are powerful mediums with the ability to pierce the Veil between life and death; in fact, they seamlessly pass back and forth between it. But the journey is not without risks. Their mother failed to return from one such spiritual sojourn, and her death is a mystery the girls are still trying to solve.

When we first meet them, the connection between Edie and Violet is strained: Violet has dreams of becoming an actress while Edie simply wants them to do their jobs and get paid. As Violet begins auditioning for the theater in San Francisco, Edie takes an interest in the nascent feminist movement happening around her and becomes an activist for the women being held captive at a nearby asylum, where men can indiscriminately commit women — and their father nearly had her and Violet locked up!

While conducting a private reading for a wealthy client, Edie encounters a strange and menacing shadow spirit. Shortly thereafter, two of her fellow mediums turn up dead! She and a nosy — but very charming — reporter begin to investigate the murder and uncover a shocking scandal that encompasses the asylum and their mother’s mysterious final client, who may well be the killer. Edie and Violet must move past all of their differences — and the lingering trauma surrounding their mother’s death — to save themselves and bring the killer to justice.

Amanda Glaze has crafted an absolutely captivating, impeccably researched young adult novel that is, at turns, chilling, thrilling, and swooningly romantic. She captures the Gilded Age gloriously in a setting that is (finally!) not New York. Her rendering of the Veil between life and death is hauntingly beautiful, with a completely believable mechanism for transversing the two. Edie and Violet are winning, capable main characters and the themes of grief, loss, and self-determination resonate throughout the book.

In her author’s note, Glaze mentions that the book is based on her real-life great-grandmother and her twin sister. They are surely looking down on her with tremendous pride. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to receive an arc in exchange for my honest review- all thoughts and opinions are my own!


This was a fun one. A bit of ironic/dry humor, mixed with true genuine love from sisters- I loved it. I’m impressed with the voices and story Amanda Glaze gave Edie and Violet, and I hope they somehow in the spirit realm were able to read it- I think they’d get a kick out of this story.

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this one! There were definitely moments I had trouble putting the book down

Throughout this book you saw how women were treated in society in the 1800’s. It gave you snippets of how men were always above women in many many ways. These moments definitely made me angry. Especially everything to do with the Asylum featured in this story.
Speaking of the Asylum, this was written so so well. It definitely gave me the chills whenever it was featured. A lot of parts in the book actually gave me the chills, it definitely had those creepy aspects.

Even though I don’t have any siblings myself, I feel like the way Edie and Violets relationship is shown as twins, is so realistic as to what it’s like to have a sister. Yes they have their moments and they clash, but overall that special sister bond filled with love is what will always win. I definitely loved the characters of Edie and Violet

Amanda Glaze captured the Gilded Age setting absolutely fantastically. But what really stood out to me was the way she created the setting of the Veil between life and death, it was just so haunting and beautiful.

One thing that lowered this to a 4 ⭐️ for me was the romance. To me it just wasn’t all there. I found the romance very lacking and mild. This is the one thing I wish was done a bit better!

Overall this book was still fantastic and I highly recommend it! 💗

Engaging sisterly historical ghost adventure story. Highly recommended for Y/A readers or adults who love the paranormal or historical fiction about mediums. The backstory of the author's actual family with a photo of her great-grandmother and her sister was haunting. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

First of all thank you NetGalley for an advanced e-arc of this book in exchange of an honest review!
I absolutely adored this book! The first thing that attracted me was the georgous cover and the spooky title, those are my favorite types of book. Then the beginning couldnt have pulled me in faster, with the author's explanation behing writing this book and the beautiful photo!

This book is really fast paced and well written for what I believe is a debut novel. I almost read it in one sitting because its such a page turner. The main character was very interesting and I loved all the feminist aspect of this book and how smart she was.
The relationship between the two sisters was adorable and I loved how close they were.
The aesthetic and the eerie vibes of this book was what I loved the most, I had never read anything like that!
I loved the twist at the end which I didnt see coming too! I would definitely reccomend this book to people that want a quick fun read and love paranormal romance with strong friendship and sisterhood!

i really enjoyed this one and definitely will recommend it to fans of addie larue because it gave me the same vibe

Thank you NetGalley and Union Square & Co for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All the views and opinions in this review are purely my own and not affiliated with any brand.

This book had me hooked from the very beginning! Amanda Glaze tells such a great story. Her writing is easy to follow and the story flows flawlessly! Edie and Violet are such compelling characters and I wanted to hear their story. I wanted to help try and solve the mystery. Most mystery type books leave me wanting more in the end, but this book was excellent! I would recommend this book to a friend or anyone looking for a good read.

Riveting is not a strong enough word for this book. This is a debut author and she hit it out of the park!

I don’t know if I could be anymore obsessed with this story. As an only-child, novels about sisters and their bonds are so beautiful to me. The author did a spectacular job of weaving a paranormal mystery that had me literally FLYING through the pages to see what could possibly come next. I’m an absolute sucker for the paranormal and ghost stories, and this book felt like it was written for me. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & co for sending me an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
So to be totally honest, this was right up my alley. I love anything paranormal and historical fiction. ALSO Sisterly bond always gets me as my sister and I are really close.

Teenage runaways Edie and Violet are twins, save for Edie's blond almost white hair. This is due to her ability to pull back the Veil (threshold between life and death) and step into death. Violet acts as a true medium, a conduit for spirits to interact with the living through Violet. Makes sense they would join a traveling spiritualist act. Of course they have to deal with a reporter sniffing around and Edie does everything she can to deter him from the truth. All of that is forgotten when Violet's act goes terribly wrong, and Edie goes into death to investigate. Only then does she realize that the spirtualists who are going missing are in more danger than they realized. Getting help from an unlikely and (mostly) unwanted source (see what I did there? Because he's a reporter 🥁), Edie must trust him and her sister to uncover the truth about an unsolved mystery from their past that's come back to haunt them.

I think what I liked the most was that I could really tell how much research went into it. I also thought the backstory about the author's great-grandmother and her sister, the real Edie and Violet Bond was super interesting and there is definitely something haunting about that photograph. Also, as a theater professional myself, I can always tell when a book is written by a theater professional (idk what it is! But I can always tell!) so I was excited to read that Amanda Glaze has done it all. I think anyone who read and loved Charlie N Holmberg's "Spellbreaker" will love this! I loved this book so so much and I cannot wait for spooky season this year for it to officially come out! October cannot come fast enough *grabby hands*

Loved this story of the bonds of sisterhood by Amanda Glaze!

Edie and Violet are twins with spiritual abilities, though they mostly pretend for their customers. The paranormal aspect messed well with the historical setting of this story, The twist of the villain and their dark deeds was tough to read, but addressed a terrible trend that actually happened in history, so it was interesting to read.

Overall a compelling mystery story grounded by the deep love between sisters.

This is a delightful historical fantasy debut by Amanda Glaze. Set in the late 1800s, when women were sent to asylums for little more than liking to read, Edie and Violet Bond are part of a traveling spiritualism show. Most of the so-called mediums on the circuit are frauds, but Violet and Edie are the real deal, being able to call spirits out of the veil or enter into it with the right burned herb. When a shadow nearly breaks free from the veil during one of their performances, Edie finds herself drawn into spiritualism intrigue--a spirit is possessing someone, leaving behind a shadow in the veil that's angry and, if it gets out, could wreak havoc. Edit must find the spirit, leading her down a twisted path of nineteenth century misogyny and keeping secrets that threatens her life and that of her sister.

All together, I really liked this book. Its themes were well drawn and the romance between Edie and Laws was well done. If there are any criticisms, I wish there had been more for Violet to do--she seems to get ferried out of the story too frequently up until the stakes include her in the last act. I also wasn't quite sure on the magic system, how the herbs seemed to be doing all the work so why is it important that the girls have abilities others don't? That was never quite explained, but whatever. It's a strong debut and I loved the spiritualism vibes.

Thank you NetGalley. I needed this book.
I was having a really stressful week and Edie and Violet really took me to the other side to breath
The book follows the twins as they struggle to live in a society made for men. After running for an unfair fate they use their h abilities to act as mediums, wishing for freedom and stability. Each of the sisters holds a strong sense of identity, making them incredible characters. The book keeps you at the edge of your seat from the very begging. A great mixture of spiritualism, knowledge, woman’s rights and justice for the ones wrongly taken into asylums. Nothing like a great story ton have. A great day/week. A book with an historical setting, strong characters and hints to the beyond.

The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond takes place between twin sisters with a gift that allow them to open the Veil between life and death, with one of them is able to travel to the spirit world. Due to the death of their mother and a choice their father supposed to take on them, both Edie and Violet escaped home and now they were a part of the Spiritualist show where women used their skills of pretense as mediums; people who can assess the spirits of dead people. Nightmares begun when mediums were taken by unknown entity and this sparked concerns for Edie. With her terrible secrets, her wavering bond with Violet, and the encounter with a skeptic guy who doesn't believe in spirit world, Edie must find a way to figure out what was happening while trying to keep Violet in the dark. While solving this puzzle of mysterious disappearance, Edie must fought to make the right choices even if her heart aches against it. But she might soon discover that solving the mystery around her is not a one person job. After all, two works better than one.

I cannot describe how I totally enjoyed the whole thing. It was astounding, thrilling, but horrifyingly mysterious! The fact that the author wrote the characters and based it on real individuals made the stort more thrilling to read. The plot flows neatly while not being an info-dump, pieces of necessary clues are given in consequential that keeps me on the edge. No matter how hard things are, Edie and Violet will always make it through. Yes, they fought a lot, they clashed each other frequently, but the bond between soul sisters is tough to crack. I love how their relationship was written in this book, how both of them want the best for each other but too afraid to tell the truth. Despite their arguments, I am satisfied with how they reconciled.

I should also mentioned about the romance which somehow does not disappoint me. Usually, romantic notion in paranormal books doesnt work in my view, but the author of this book clearly knew how to build up the chemistrt between the love interest and one of the twin. I personally love the small part of love story. It brightens the plot and necessary to the character development and growth. Next, this book also potrayed the treatments of society towards women in the 1800s, and how it was described gave me a brief snippets on how women were always treated as below men even though women work hard but never got the earnings they deserve. Instead, they were always assumed the worst and when they showed resistance or some sort of rebellion, they would be thrown into an asylum by men. Reading those scenes made me so damn angry.

Overall, this book has it all; the tense, the mysterious puzzle, the tension between Edie and Laws, it all fits into this book and it would be a disgrace to give this book lower than 5 stars.

My advice, you NEED this book. Just get it.