One look can kill. First of all, I love the premise. I found myself almost immediately invested in the story.

This perfectly encapsulated the horror and quiet dread that so many experienced during the pandemic. How life became so strange, and yet we somehow adapted and got so used to our bizzare new existence. How the horrors happening became just part of everyday life.

This wasn't about our pandemic. It was about people not being able to look at each other. In this world, once you look at someone, you'll lose your mind and kill anyone around you then yourself. The way people had to isolate and weren't able to connect was reminiscent of real life.

This kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. It was dripping with dread, anxiety, uncertainty, and madness. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while.

I'd recommend this to anyone. Especially if you liked Come Closer by Sara Gran. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC.

This was an edgy, queer dystopian horror novella, and it was just the kind of book I love to read! This story was fast-paced and engaging the whole way through, and I consumed it in one sitting. So if you like something you can finish in one day this one is it. If you don't mind a little gore and you like zombie-type infection-spreading stories you will definitely like this. It reminded me so much of when the pandemic and quarantines first started happening. Not the ripping each other to shreds in the streets but the loneliness and isolation from each other. The wanting and needing human contact but knowing it could come with a price. Be forewarned though if you still suffer from PTSD from the pandemic then tread carefully. I really struggled with my mental health during that period of time and this just brought it all back for me. It gave me a sense of dread and brought back a lot of those memories. I will be thinking about this book for many days to come it will more than likely be what my nightmares consist of!

I received an arc for this story in exchange for my honest opinion so thank you, NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and to the author Sunny Moraine.

3.5/5!

Your Shadow Half Remains is a dystopian novella that features a society where humans can no longer look into each other’s eyes. To do so is to risk madness. To risk death.

How would you react if you couldn’t be around anyone? Moraine takes this question and examines the psychological effects and how they manifest within individuals throughout this story. It was equally fascinating and relatable. Imagine a more isolating situation than quarantining during our own pandemic times. The raw emotions, the irrational reactions, the heartbreak are all here in this brief story. Experiencing Riley’s reactions felt incredibly realistic and at times were very hard to watch.

I love psychological horror stories and that’s exactly what this was. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of good old fashioned horror story gore in this one, but at times I felt like the tension of the unknown was more powerful for me. What would Riley do? What was happening in the woods surrounding her home? Who could be trusted? I loved a lot of this story, but ultimately, I wanted just a little more bang at the end. Regardless of my personal preference for the ending, this is definitely one I’ll be recommending people check out.

There is an irresistibly captivating quality to a well-executed dystopian pandemic novel. In the wake of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes unnervingly easy to immerse oneself in such a narrative. "Your Shadow Half Remains" explores a violent pandemic that engulfs the nation, but the contagion is far from conventional. Rather than a virus or bacteria, the menace thrives through human connection. Through mere eye contact, individuals succumb to a murderous impulse, tearing apart others and themselves with abrupt brutality, devoid of warning, remorse, or discernible cause.

Sunny Moraine skillfully delves into the disturbing yet undeniably truthful cyclic nature of pandemics. The initial terror and disbelief gradually give way to a sickening apathy, a theme exemplified by Riley, the novella's protagonist. Riley, portrayed as peculiar, unreliable, and somewhat suspicious, seeks refuge in her grandparents' lakeside home. As isolation ensues, she undergoes a gradual descent into unreality. The arrival of an unsuspecting neighbor accelerates this disintegration.

When a dystopian pandemic work is done well it is my FAVORITE type of book and Your Shadow Half Remains fits the bill. Through beautifully written and entirely engrossing passages, Sunny draws us into a world not so far off. We can sympathize...we've been there, asked ourselves the same questions, felt the same despair.

"And then again, as with so much else, it's increasingly difficult to gauge the degree to which any given thing matters very much."

This is definitely a book I requested for its cover. Look at it! Can you blame me? Unfortunately, the story inside didn’t quite meet the mark. Your Shadow Half Remains is a psychological horror in an isolated small town. Some time ago, a new phenomenon has emerged, where humans who make eye contact with each other have a chance of going mad and killing everything around them, and then themselves. To combat this, humanity has isolated themselves further and further from each other, until society has begun to fray at the edges. The Covid vibes are extremely strong in this one and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the author’s Covid coping mechanism. Our main character, Riley, has sent herself into an isolated small neighborhood after what’s implied to be the death of her immediate family, with no long-term plan beyond survival. There, she comes upon her neighbor Ellis and weird things start happening around her that she has no memory of. I’m usually a fan of these types of descent-into-madness stories, but there was something about Riley’s narration that made her sound distant to me, something about the story that just didn’t connect. Still, the atmosphere was indeed delightfully creepy. Overall, I rate this book a 3/5.

Much shorter than I expected, but a fast paced horror I read in one sitting
Loved the set up, but it lost me at the end. Wish it had more world building and was a bit more clearer

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Your Shadow Half Remains is a difficult book to talk about. Frankly, I'm not sure I really understood it. At least not in the way the author intended. Nevertheless, I shall try...Regardless of how much I actually comprehended though, I still enjoyed the reading experience. It's a puzzler.

This is presented as a sort of post-apocalyptic world, where a virus has caused those infected to go into a violent, murderous rage if they look into another person's eyes. Our main character, Riley, hasn't looked at, or interacted with any other humans in at least two years, maybe more. In fact, Riley hasn't even dared look in a mirror, just in case.

She's done a great job at keeping herself shut off from the rest of the world, if there's even a rest of the world left. That is until she stumbles across a new neighbor. Ellis, the newcomer, throws a kink in Riley's routine and causes her to feel things she hasn't in a long, long time. Unfortunately, this new swell of emotions causes her to question reality in the most extreme ways.

How much does Riley really know about the world around her? Can we trust her perspective at all, or is it all just the jaded creation of a diseased mind?

We are give the story entirely through Riley's perspective. Initially, she seems confident in what she is relaying to the Reader. She seems to have a good handle on her situation, even though some details are hazy. Once her interactions with Ellis begin though, Riley's grip seems to slip. Before you know it, you are hurtling along through a fever dream of Riley's own making. It's unsettling to say the least.

For the most part, I enjoyed trying to decipher what exactly was real in this world. It was confusing, but not in a way that I found to be grating, or annoying.

I was surprised how much the author was able to pack into so few pages; it felt complete. I think it's a great example of their skill as a writer, because this makes quite an impact in under 200-pages. That's hard to do.
Overall, I found this to be eerie, disturbing, confusing and compelling. I was initially drawn to this because of the cover. It was giving me serious The Dark Half vibes and I was totally down for that. While it's a completely different kind of story than that, I feel like the unsettling cover still matches this story perfectly. I'm glad I picked this one up.

Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review.
I'm really looking forward to reading more from this author!

I loved this! This story kept me entertained til the last page. The only critique I have is that I wish it was longer. The concept is so interesting and well thought out, but there is so much more to explore in my opinion!

One of the things I always feel like is missing in zombie or post apocalyptic stories is the human side of things. Especially after COVID, I think it’s clear that the biggest threat and danger is always ourselves. So this really worked for me as it was more about the internal struggle when the world goes mad.

I thought it was very well-written and the first half especially reminded me of the loneliness, fear, and existential dread that came with the early days of the pandemic.

Overall, very good. A bit short and I feel like I wanted more, although it wasn’t necessarily that anything was missing. I just wanted to explore the world a bit more, I suppose.

I was lucky to receive an ARC of @sunnymoraine 's Your Shadow Half Remains through NetGalley. This is not Moraine's first rodeo, although her focus seems to like mainly in short fiction. That explains the expertly tight prose and the efficient pacing.

There was no fat on the sentences. You only get the strong bones and juicy meat, so to speak. The entire novella was a FEAST for any horror fan. (I could have said connoisseur, but I'll leave the metaphor rest now).

Moraine explores the psyche of Riley, a woman who lives alone after a violent epidemic. Once you look into a person's eyes, you go insane. The craze to kill the other person and then yourself will overtake you. As such, the most basic human interaction suddenly becomes impossible if you seek to survive. That alone allows for an interesting character portrayal and Moraine takes her time to set the stage.

Riley has been alone for a long time. Until suddenly, she has a neighbour. Ellis does not seem to be afraid of being near Riley. Having almost normal conversations, they get to know each other better, until all Riley wants is to get ONE look at Ellis. How bad can that be?

Besides the beautiful horror twist on sapphic pining that I will savour forever, Moraine provides a brilliant portrayal of intrusive thoughts haunting Riley, until she can no longer tell what is real and what is not.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this relatively short read. To savour Riley's descent into chaos and panic, I have split it over a few days, but you can read it within a well-spent afternoon, if you want to. The flow is perfect for it.

I like how smart this book was. Really. Within those almost 200 pages, the story made a whole circle. 360 degrees with no remorse toward a confused reader. I like its psychedelic vibe with the underlying tone of doubtful realism.
I like my good post-apo. This time around, there is a pandemic of certain behavior rather than a typical virus. Trigger seem to be reflection or looking at one's eyes. When infected and triggered, a person experiences a manic aggressive state, of murderous proportions. So we also have some gore. Our main character survives and separates herself, living happily alone until one day someone moves a couple miles down the road. The whole plot thickens and our protagonist has a hard time connecting what is real to what is imagination. I mean, we all get it. 2020 says hi. There are moments, that were overly descriptive, hence redundant and repetitive. So that would cut happy 50 pages without losing anything. Sitting in one's head might be tiresome, but after a couple of zoning out sessions, I am happy with the time I spent reading this novella.

The cover and title of this book immediately grabbed my attention and after reading the description, I knew I had to read this. The plot is similar to Josh Malerman’s <i>Bird Box</i>. Whereas that was a big apocalyptic thriller, <i>Your Shadow Half Remains</i> is a more intimate character study.

The lead character, Riley is completely cut off from the world save for the drones that deliver her groceries. Riley’s isolation and fear of contagion feels very relevant post 2020. Then a mysterious neighbor, Ellis, shows up. Riley’s reaction is a mix of fear and facination. I liked the ambiguity of not knowing whether these two were going to fall in love or kill each other or both.

Unfortunately, the conflict is underutilized. Ellis is redecorating their house while Riley is wondering if there is someone stalking her. She never questions whether the stalker is Ellis. Then she discovers that someone cut her computer cord and she assumes that she did this herself in her sleep. The tension is uneven. It starts off strong, then dissipates for the entire second act only to explode seemingly out of nowhere in the third.

I also struggled to connect with the writing style. The language used is very repetitive– particularly the word “normal.” Here are some examples:

<blockquote>“You make things normal by being normal in the midst of them. That’s a lesson everyone had to learn on a whole new level. You make things normal by sheer force of will. You make things normal and then you don’t have to be freaked out all the fucking time. And after a while, you could be amazed by how many things become normal, how many things you simply learn to accept and fold into what passes for your life.” (Chapter 14)

How easy it was to make it normal to herself. She’s gotten very good at making things normal to herself, and that was true before the world broke apart and changed. (Chapter 21 </blockquote>

The second quote is also an example of redundant descriptions. The novel is written in deep third-person POV so it can be argued that the redundancy is used to illustrate Riley’s personality and emotional state though for me, these were tiring to read. Here are a few examples:

<blockquote>”Riley noted the feeling and was disturbed by it and never mentioned it to anyone.
Increasingly, she wasn’t mentioning anything to anyone.”

“No memory whatsoever of how she got there. No memory of anything whatsoever”

“She’s fascinated. It’s fascinating.”</blockquote>

I was also tripped up by the long sentences that were so wordy that I struggled to follow along:

<blockquote>She had time to come up with an explanation and she didn’t, and she suspects that only part of that is that the truth is impossible to really explain in any way that doesn’t make it sound at least a little bit insane. </blockquote>

Hopefully, the quotes from the book will help other readers to determine whether or not this style works for them. While this style did not work for me, I do appreciate the unique storytelling approach.

I also enjoyed the last few pages. Here the descriptions worked well. I like how humor was used to undercut the tension without taking away from the beauty of the scene.

Ultimately, this is a short book (less than 200 pages) so if the writing style works for you and you like the premise, check it out. Keep in mind that this is more of a psychological thriller than a post apocalyptic one. While the premise is similar to <i>Bird Box</i>, I would recommend this to fans of CJ Leed's fantastic 2023 novel <i>Maeve Fly</i>.

I loved the premise of this, and I read it pretty quickly since it was less than 200 pages. However, I didn't enjoy the story all that much in the character department. I didn't enjoy our main character, or reading from her, so that really dulled my experience of the story overall. I can see where people who are super extroverted and snappy/edgier will enjoy this, but I just had such a hard time with the main character. I am also realizing that I'm not a huge fan of pandemic horror. I think living through 2020 (as a 22-year old) means that the horror doesn't really...horror for me. Because I was literally there as the world fell apart, and I apparently don't really enjoy going back to that time. It's definitely a me thing.

I requested an ARC of this title because it sounded like everything I love. Isolation horror, dystopian, potentially an unreliable narrator and its short! Unfortunately I did not like it, but that doesn't mean you wont!

It did deliver on everything I wanted, unfortunately I didn't like the narrative voice. The main character had to have been her in mid 20s early 30s based on the timeline we were presented in the book. She was a full adult when this epidemic broke out and its now years later but she read like a edgy teenager. I was annoyed by page 1 and my annoyance never went away.

I also had a hard time relating to her responses because I'm good with isolation. I think this book would be better for someone who is an extrovert.

Don't let me talk you out of picking this up if it still sounds interesting but please know that this is a very short novella from the perspective of random woman. You're not going to get answers.

First and foremost, I want to say that I am often critical of “pandemic” horror—horror narratives written during or around the time of the lock-down that thematically centre around social and psychological mimesis of that time. This isn’t because I do not think they are valid, they are. However, I did find myself caught up in a state of oversaturation due to just how many authors were inspired to write about it. That being said, Your Shadow Half Remains, despite being very much what I would term “pandemic” horror, dealt with enough unique ideas and themes that I wasn’t turned off. In fact, I really liked the general concept and story.
Horror-wise, I liked how insular this was. Yes, there are terrible and grotesque things occurring. Yet, because Riley can’t actually look at anyone, most of her interpretation of events, both gorey and not, is dependent on what she hears and her emotional responses. Overall, this then translates to a book that is intensely psychological and builds tension slowly, but without the standard use of gaslighting and a heavier focus on Riley’s unreliable accounts and attempts to reconcile past trauma and fear with loneliness and isolation.
While I enjoyed Your Shadow Half Remains, I wish it had been written in a first-person perspective. I think with the amount of time the reader spends in Riley’s head, it would have made the writing seem less passive and lent itself better to getting the reader emotionally engaged sooner. As is, the novel is still good, but it does feel like a bit of a slow-burn into caring about Riley and Ellis.
Ultimately, I would still recommend this, especially if you are a fan of apocalypse or zombie-infection literature.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book going in, but I found it to be very atmospheric and creepy and I enjoyed it a lot. I don't find myself getting scared or grossed out by a lot of books, but messing with eyes is one way to really get to me quick. Between some of the great imagery (no pun intended) Moraine writes and some of the tense scenes with Riley in her home, I got pretty freaked out at times. I always love when that happens. I liked the doubt and unreliability that was injected into the characters and the narrative, and I was always eager to keep reading.

The ending wasn't my favorite thing ever, sometimes the narrative got a little repetitive, and there were a couple confusing moments. The plot and crux of the story reminded me a lot of Bird Box, but that book was so good it's hard to meet those expectations. Overall, this was a fun, creepy little tale that brought me out of a reading slump, but it wasn't anything overly memorable.

Your Shadow Half Remains is a tense and claustrophobic post-apocalyptic novella about trauma, fear and isolation, and how it all subtly affects your mind and perception over time. It's about the loneliness and intense need for a human connection even if that connection might be the end of you and others. It's also about not knowing whether the madness has consumed you whole, if it's been with you this whole time, waiting, or if this is how it was always meant to be.

It's a lot of things. It's also an extremely intense, sitting at the edge of your seat and can't put it down, kind of read that's impossible to not read in one sitting. I love the portrayal of this intense need to be known to others, to be seen and to see, but not being able to because it could mean the end of you. That despite of that, small risks are taken, bringing the madness closer.

The way this was written was claustrophobic and terrifying, and it feels like a post-apocalyptic zombie film without the zombies. It's giving 28 days later with its vibe with London being replaced with a house in the middle of nowhere and Cillian Murphy was a queer woman intrigued by an unknown new neighbour. I loved the zombie-not-zombie vibes, the fact this was AFTER the virus and it shows a world semi working in a way, and that it's a potentially unreliable narrator and a queer relationship - it's also so much more than a romantic relationship as well with so much depth (and again, did I say it was queer! I think Ellis is genderqueer or at least their gender isn't known? That's really cool).

The ending of this was absolutely amazing. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it did make me feel some kind of intense emotions. It's definitely a highlight of 2024!!

// ARC courtesy of Tor Nightfire and NetGalley.

When reading a novella I usually assume that limited number of pages means it's going to be action and content packed. Not necessarily as it seems. This one was extremely slow for me and while it corresponds with the theme of unreliable narrator and developing paranoia, I contemplated DNF-ing it a couple times.
I liked the general concept of horrendous virus that makes people go on murderous rampage once they look someone in the eyes. It's uncomfortable and terrifying, especially when living in this new society, with people isolated from each other for their own safety, definitely brings back memories of COVID pandemic. The virus idea itself gave me chills as it immediately makes me think of what it meant for families and children - it's not mentioned in the book (thank god, although it doesn't shun gory scenes and various triggers), but sheer thought was awful.
The whole plot resolves around a character who's not sure if she's going mad in an already mad world. Since people in this story cannot be sure how exactly the virus works and whether it mutates, we also don't know if main characters is seeing things because of mental breakdown or developing infection. The growing paranoia is interesting, but it seemed repetitive and because of that the execution fell somehow flat.
All in all it was just ok, but there were no surprises and the pace was disappointing.

3.75 stars

Release date: Feb 6, 2024
**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Pros
+ post-apocalyptic Isolated house in the woods setting
+ undefined "happening"/mutation/virus where meeting eyes can drive you to extreme violence
+ massively unreliable fMC (time slips away from her, which is one of my fav "unreliable MC" tropes)
+ slow descent into chaos
+ sapphic vibes
+ bloodthirsty corvids
+ The last third was unputdownable. The pace was slow, halting, picked up speed, then just went straight off the rails like a vertical roller-coaster. Totally a "oh sh*t, she's really doing this" type of moment.

Neutral
/ Check triggers because this does have many, especially intense questioning of personal sanity.

Cons
- The beginning was slow and monotonous (I see the repetition being true to Riley's everyday life, but was bored)
- A bit too much tell instead of show to set up the world Riley is in now. Would have much preferred to see her still at her mom's house, witness everything that goes down, then a time jump to where she is now. The "tell" method really distanced me from that action, which is a shame because the beginning could've really hooked me better that way.

Here is my feedback for your shadow half remains .. I really enjoyed it! 4.25 stars ,. So honored to get an arc