The Shadow Sister follows two sisters and their attempts to rebuild their relationship after the older sister goes missing.
I went into this book expecting a spooky supernatural mystery but instead found a complicated family piece about acceptance, strengthening bonds and generational traumas.
One thing I enjoyed about this book is that a large part of the book dealt with Sutton and Casey both holding onto anger and resentments towards each other. The author did not have a clear bias towards either sister and they were both presented fairly. It was easy to empathize with both sisters and it didn’t feel skewered or manipulated into favoring one over the other
I was satisfied by the ending of the book although it wasn’t hard to figure out the mystery of who took Sutton, the older sister.
I would rate this book 3.5 stars and thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I liked this book overall. The writing style is very easy to read and engaging. It was a good mystery and I would recommend this to others.

I was going to give this 4 stars until the very end. I felt the ending was very unfinished. In my opinion, this book needed another 2-3 chapters to explain what the author describes in the author's note at the end. Or, Casey needed more conversations with her father throughout the book where he explained that. I missed that meaning and I think that's a very powerful message that would have been a really good addition to the book for anyone who might miss that. It would also have been good to see what happened after that final scene.

I was given an advanced reader copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

(Note to publisher: There are a few typos throughout the book.)

Casey's sister Sutton has gone missing. In order for anyone to care about a Black or even half Black girl, they need to make sure she seems like an angel. Casey knows better, but she can't tell anyone about their relationship and the fight they had before Sutton disappeared. Sutton suddenly reappears but has no memory of anyone except Casey or what happened to her. All Sutton does now is stare at her goldfish. Can Casey figure out what happened to her sister as well as two other missing Black girls?

First off, this cover is absolutely gorgeous. I really enjoyed this book, minus the fact that I figured out the villain pretty early on and it ended quite abruptly. I like learning about their family history and the hoodoo involved. I wish the author had expanded on the aftermath and what happened with Andrew a tiny bit more. I loved the themes of family and love.

If you love a fiction, mystery/thriller and intertwining of Black history this book will definitely be right up your alley. However, for me this was a little too ya’ish, now don’t get me wrong. My reading preference is young adult fantasy with some adult fantasy mixed in. I do feel like this was expertly written though! My niece who’s fixing to graduate high school is interested in this just after me describing it to her!

I will say I will be adding this to my home library for the young adults in my family!

I was in a HUGE book rut before reading this book. This book had a little bit of everything for me - I loved the family drama, the suspense, the unexpected twist, the teenage angst in a YA book, and more. However, I will say that the rivalry between the two sisters did get a little dense at times... it was sometimes uncomfortable for me to read about their tense relationship. All that to say, I really enjoyed how the book wrapped up, and the unexpected villain throughout. I'm so glad that I got to read this ARC from NetGalley. Thanks!

This story was full of mystery , suspense, and familial bonds.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review.

Our story centers on Casey and Sutton. They do not exactly see eye to eye and both believe they truly hate one another , however not everything is as it seems. When Sutton goes missing , everything Casey thought of her sister changes and when she mysteriously reappears , they must come together to find out what happened, and prevent more tragedies.

Overall I really loved the story. I am all for mystery /suspense / paranormal reads and this ticked all the boxes. It is definitely a slow build up with little tiny bits of information tucked in for you to find and come to conclusions with. Which made it an even more enjoyable to read. I loved the importance on family , heritage, and intergenerational trauma as well.

I liked the point of view changes between Casey and Sutton. I enjoyed that Sutton’s POV was prior to her going missing and her true feelings and thoughts as a person instead of what we are told by Casey. But it is just as important that we have Casey’s POV to see the development between her and Sutton’s relationship and how she might have been truly wrong about what her sister thought of her. It is an important lesson in misunderstandings and how we should not always just demonize someone before we have all the facts.

This is definitely a great read for anyone looking for their next YA mystery / suspense thriller !

Overall, I enjoyed this story, but I more enjoyed the characters. There were parts of the overall plot that I would not have picked up this book had I known that they included them. I got tired + bored of reading this book for that exact reason, but I feel like the characters' stories and developments were the driving point to keep me going.

Amazing, truly breath-taking story. It had me hooked immediately and moved at the perfect pace. Loved the history, loved the symbolism, love the mystery. The characters were realistic with likable and less likable traits. I liked how you got both sisters perspectives so that you could see how their perceptions were an off from reality and coloring what they believed.

The author writes very well. But she needed to pick a theme and stick with it.

First, we have a tale of two sisters and their antagonistic relationship with each other. This storyline was interesting but not particularly compelling.

Second narrative is about the history of the girls' ancestors. Grandma and Great Grandma were into the practice of hoo doo (African-American folk magic). This was a much more fascinating story than the sibling angst.

The third theme was the disappearance and reappearance of the older sister. She returns with no memory of what happened to her or who took her. This could have been a suspenseful thriller, but it was literally kept on the back burner in favor of the sibling rivalry story.

There weren't any real surprises, even the disappearance conclusion could be seen a mile away. If the author had just picked one of these themes and fleshed it out, this would have been a real page turner. The way it is, I had no trouble putting it down in the middle of a chapter and walking away.

⭐️3/5
This was my first ARC read, and it was pretty good! It's about the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of Sutton Cureton, told mostly in first person by her younger sister Casey with a few chapters told from Sutton's perspective pre-disappearance.

⬆️ I'm a sucker for a story about sisters, especially one told so well. Their squabbles, jealousies, sadness, distrust, and differences in identities are told so well. Lily Meade speaks from her own personal experience as a biracial woman (as she details in the back of the book), and it shows in the genuine confusion, questions, and differences in the Cureton sisters. Her social commentary in the book is also spot on in the fact that the Cureton family is extremely careful with the strokes the news uses to paint Sutton, the 3rd black girl to go missing in the town, so as to not give any reason why she might have brought it on herself (like how they treated the previous two black girls missing). Meade also touches the reality of being a Black American who is descended from slaves, and reconnecting with the legacy of their ancestors. I will say I read this pretty quick and almost nonstop, which was a fun ride.

⬇️ I will say the "twist" or perpetrator to me was super predictable almost from the beginning of the book. However that's not my main issue, because sometimes even when you see the twist the ride along is fun enough to still enjoy it even if it's not mind blowing. I have three main issues with the book:
1) There is no real reason for the Cureton sisters to hate each other to the extent that they do. When you are first introduced to Sutton, it's through Casey's eyes. And those eyes see Sutton as almost evil, potential a psychopath or just extremely manipulative and truly incapable of love. At first I thought that was the direction the book was going, until you reach Sutton's POV and realize that while slightly manipulative, she''s pretty normal. In fact she sees Casey as highly manipulative. To hate each other to the extent that they do, especially on Casey's part, as she truly seems to think Sutton is evil for a time, there has to be more than normal teenage sisterly beef.

2) Especially at the beginning the book is overly descriptive of the physical in a way that took me out of the book. ("Her thin lips twist into a frown. I scrunch my own full lips (thanks Dad) in response." "or I know," Ruth says. She pouts her full lips pout and give my hand a reassuring squeeze. "maybe someone else found something more useful". or "I could hug Ruth for that, but I wait until she's done with her hair before embracing her.") Especially when surrounded by dialogue it just seems to take me out instead of painting a picture. It felt like the author was trying to describe her characters without explicitly describing them and I would rather she just have described once and gone forward. That's why later in the book when she doesn't write in such a descriptive style it got better for me.

3) I wasn't sure of the scope of the book, in terms of what was on or off the table. Was it about a serial killer, a sister drama, or potentially the supernatural? The sister drama aspect was clear, but the other two weren't fully fleshed out, and while it doesn't have to be on the surface there wasn't really much background to the other two. It's not a huge deal, but it is nice when puzzling a mystery to know what may and may not be on the table in terms of scope.


All in all I'd say it was an ok book if you're a sucker for sister stories/stories featuring strong women of colour and like I said its very quick and you want to finish all the way to the end (the start is a bit slow though). The pain points of it signal the fact that it is her debut novel, but the genuine aspects and voices to it make me think I might read her next book, however I won't be re-reading this one.

The Shadow Sister is a gripping Young Adult mystery debut from author Lily Meade. It tells the story of two sisters, Casey and Sutton, who struggle to get along with one another in their teen years. When Sutton is the third black girl in the area to go missing, Casey, who continues to harbor deep resentments for her sister, must put on a loving act so the press and police will focus attention on finding a black girl. When Sutton returns home with no memory of what she endured, her new relationship with Casey will unsettle everything Casey has believed about her life and her family’s past.

The story is told through Casey’s first person point of view which allows for heart-breaking confessions about the complex nature of sisterhood. Sutton’s point of view punctuates Casey’s narrative in chapters which bring the reader back to the day she goes missing and to several days years before. Both girls struggle to understand their mixed heritage and take comfort in the love from their recently deceased grandmother Remy who left them a silver bracelet with a unique charm. Their father’s work includes personal and historical research into Hoodoo practices and herbal slave medicines that inform the modern spiritual practices of African Americans. This information greatly impacts the twist at the end of the story as the magic of family and sisterhood overcomes the ugliness and dangers of the world.

Although the end of the book was a twist that may confuse some readers, Meade justifies her ending by explaining that she wanted to reclaim the narrative of victimhood that haunts black characters in American fiction. The Shadow Sister effectively combines authentic young adult voices with important historical and spiritual information to address the effects of intergenerational trauma and the potential for healing. The prose moves quickly and the plot is engaging. This book will hold the interest of the adolescent reader while proving an adult audience with a deep look at how structural inequity impacts contemporary teenage life. This is a book I would consider using in my Young Adult Literature class because of its tight blend of personal confession, social commentary, and spiritual critique.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

I really enjoyed this mystery, what happened and who done it with a bit of history mixed in. Family history is so important to discovering what helps mold your family traditions and who you came from. Seeing a sibling bond be strong then break apart to only find their way back to each other in the end. Great story and I couldn’t put it down!

This book made me feel many things. I finished it so fast that i couldn't process it very well. At first, I was so mad at Sutton for her attitude about Casey, but when you read Sutton's chapters, oh my gosh, my heart dropped. I have brothers and the most important for me are them. their relationship was so real and it hurt so much. This book is perfect, it has a place in my heart because I really liked how the author shows us the history of this family and how the past helped them in the future. in the final arc i was shocked and crying i thought the worst could happen. I am grateful for a single minute that I spend reading this book. it was a need at the moment.

thanks to netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for a copy of this book

This book was quite beautifully sad and it kept me on my toes until the very end. The relationship between the two sisters is really at it's worst in the beginning and it is the center of the book. But their journey and the final plot twist makes it all worth it in the end. I think readers will love this thriller with a little smidge of supernatural and sisterly whodunnit.


Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for this e-arc.

The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade was an interesting story! I enjoyed the characters a lot and thought that they were well developed.

Oh, this could have been so good! It's got hoodoo and ancestor power and family artifacts and bargains with the universe. But the supernatural elements are not well integrated into the story. Despite the main protagonist's dad doing research on the family and thinking about hoodoo, there's nothing supernatural until we get to the very end, where there is definitely supernatural power at play. This feels like a book that could have used a big revision to strengthen what are very good but unrealized ideas, and as such, fell flat for me.

First of all, THIS COVER! Gorgeous! And I am always willing to try out a new fantasy series and this one grabbed me right from the beginning. While I typically steer away from YA, I don't mind it in fantasy and I am so excited to see where this series will take us!

I want to thank NetGalley for the ARC of the book. I really loved the storyline and the writing. I was fully engaged and couldn’t put the book down. However, I don’t know if I loved or disliked the ending. I’m still unsure of Sutton or what the reader is supposed to get from her at the end. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I’ll just say that there was a twist in the last 2 chapters, and I’ll have to think on whether or not I liked it. I would still recommend this book. I loved the way the story flowed and loved the family history storyline.

Holy moly, I loved this book! It was so genius and well written, and I adored Casey and Sutton! I loved that they were an interracial family and how it pulled in the Black experience in the US into everything. It’s so nice to see representation in books and especially one as fantastic as this one! This was incredibly good and I can’t wait for more from this incredible author!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of The Shadow Sister. Though I thought it was a little slow to start and kind of dwelled in the middle, the payoff was well worth it. I didn't expect the twists and turns that the Cureton family went through, and I have no doubt that my students will enjoy this one. It does defy genre a little bit, so it might take some hand selling at first. Word of mouth will take over, though, and I doubt I'll be able to keep it on the shelf.