The Shadow Sister

by Lily Meade

Overview

Boston Globe Best Books for Summer 2023

*Featuring an exclusive case only available on the first print run!

"From its glorious first line to the final page, The Shadow Sister heralds an exciting and exquisite new voice. Lily Meade has arrived!" —Angeline Boulley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter

Sometimes people are lost from you, no matter how much you wish they weren't and before you can even begin to know how big of a hole they'll leave behind.

Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She's trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. She knows Sutton is manipulative, meanwhile everyone paints a picture of her perfection. People don't look for missing Black girls—or half-Black girls—without believing there is an angel to be saved. 

When Sutton reappears, Casey knows she should be relieved. Except Sutton isn't the same. She remembers nothing about while she was gone—or anything from her old life, including how she made Casey miserable. There's something unsettling about the way she wants to spend time with Casey and watch her goldfish swim for hours.

What happened to Sutton? The more Casey starts uncovering her sister's secrets, the more questions she has. Did she really know her sister? Why is no one talking about the other girls who have gone missing in their area? And what will it take to uncover the truth?

Perfect for fans of:

• Ace of Spades and House of Hollow
• Emotional suspense
• Speculative fiction, including Hoodoo
• Diverse books featuring strong female leads
• Sister stories with complex family dynamics

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728264479
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	22,242
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.09(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Lily Meade is a biracial Black woman living outside of Seattle, Washington. Her work has been published in Bustle and Teen Vogue, and she has been featured in Romper, Buzzfeed, and Rolling Stone. This is her debut novel, which was a finalist for the Eleanor Taylor Bland award for emerging writers by Sisters in Crime. Learn more at lilymeade.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2023

Biracial (Black and white) teenager Casey attempts to unearth the mysterious circumstances behind her lighter-skinned older sister Sutton’s disappearance and sudden return in Meade’s pulse-pounding supernatural debut. Though Casey and Sutton have never gotten along, she’s devastated when Sutton vanishes. But as her parents and their affluent Seattle community initiate a search and rescue, Casey can’t help but feel that there’s something off. Casey grows even more suspicious when Sutton miraculously returns seeming like a ghost of her former self and claiming no memory of her life beyond Casey. Her investigation into Sutton’s situation brings up two other Black girls in Seattle who have disappeared in recent months. And when Casey’s Black best friend goes missing, Casey and Sutton must work together to save her. Dual POVs alternate between Casey’s present-day voice and Sutton’s, whose chapters chronicle wide-ranging years before her disappearance. Through their developing perspectives, Meade unveils the past between two feuding sisters and how the social politics within their community affected their relationship, weaving a speculative mystery and an ode to sisterhood that confronts systemic injustice alongside issues of colorism and individual and communal identity. Ages 14–up. Agent: Elana Roth Parker, Laura Dail Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"From its glorious first line to the final page, The Shadow Sister heralds an exciting and exquisite new voice. Lily Meade has arrived!" — Angeline Boulley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter 

"Subtle and eerie" — Youth Services Book Review

"A gripping portrait of fractured sisterhood, reverberating traumas, and the triumphs of omniscient ancestors." — Kirkus Reviews

"Unsettling to an excellent, haunting effect, The Shadow Sister makes the most of tone and atmosphere with prose that seems straightforward at first glance but buzzes with tension." — Booklist, STARRED Review

"A speculative mystery and an ode to sisterhood that confronts systemic injustice alongside issues of colorism and individual and communal identity." — Publisher's Weekly

"The Shadow Sister is a thrilling novel that centers a complicated sisterhood in a mystery about what it takes to uncover the truth from the shadows." — Foreword Reviews, STARRED review

From the Publisher

2023-04-12
A biracial high school student questions the truth surrounding her sister’s disappearance and unexplained return.

Sixteen-year-old Cassandra “Casey” Cureton despises her older sister, Sutton. The girls have a White mom and Black dad, and unlike her sister, Casey keeps her hair natural. She prefers the company of best friend Ruth, who is Black, and her online music fandom community. Dedicated cheer captain, flat-iron enthusiast, and rising senior Sutton is a mean girl with a convincingly sweet public persona. When Sutton goes missing on their last day of classes, their parents rally their affluent suburban Seattle-area community to band together and bring Sutton home. Weeks later, she is found physically unharmed but unable to remember anything. While her parents adjust to Sutton’s bittersweet homecoming, Casey realizes there’s something deeply unnerving about the sister who has returned—and it has nothing to do with her amnesia. As Casey races to unmask Sutton’s secrets, she discovers how her paternal family legacy protected Sutton, shedding new light on the powerful bonds of blood. Debut author Meade offers an intriguing, emotionally resonant novel wrapped in supernatural realism. Guided by layered themes of generational inheritance, Black identity, and the reclamation of history, the first-person narrative is told through Casey’s point of view with flashbacks from Sutton. Twists abound, but readers may crave a fuller ending than the action-packed but quick resolution.

A gripping portrait of fractured sisterhood, reverberating traumas, and the triumphs of omniscient ancestors. (author’s note) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

Tamika Katon-Donegal narrates a contemporary YA audiobook with a twist. Sisters Casey and Sutton have a contentious relationship that is fraught with arguments and mutual ill will. After Sutton disappears for weeks, Casey notices that when she returns, her mean-girl personality has changed. Casey soon realizes it isn't an act. Trying to figure out what happened to her sister, Casey discovers connections to others who've recently disappeared. Katon-Donegal's expressive delivery engages listeners as they view the past from one sister's eyes and the present through the other's. Using a dramatic delivery, Katon-Donegal portrays Casey's despair over Sutton's disappearance. She captures the sisters' personalities and maintains interest in the mystery. An entertaining production that will appeal to teens who like a little magic in their realism. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2023 - AudioFile