The Shadow Sister
Lily Meade’s captivating thriller The Shadow Sister is about sisterhood, race, and generational trauma.
Casey and her older sister Sutton don’t get along—a challenge for Casey after Sutton goes missing. While the town rallies to find Sutton, Casey struggles to feel sympathy. When Sutton reappears, she seems unscathed, though her demeanor and personality have shifted. She has no memory of her life before or of her missing time; she’s formed a new, unsettling obsession with Casey. Casey reckons with their new relationship as she digs to uncover the secrets that the detectives won’t reveal, realizing that Sutton isn’t the only Black girl to have gone missing in their town over the last few months. Thrilling twists lead toward a disturbing revelation about Sutton’s disappearance too.
The Shadow Sister is an enthralling novel with attention-grabbing cliffhangers. Narrated mainly from Casey’s perspective, with some alternating chapters led by Sutton before she goes missing, it reveals its clues bit by bit, building tension. With the slow reveal of answers, the final disclosure packs a powerful punch—one sprinkled with elements of magical realism.
Meade’s characterizations are clear, intentional, and complex. Sutton and Casey’s sibling relationship is gripping; though the two sisters grate each other at first, their eventual bond after Sutton’s reappearance conveys authentic growth. Their entire family’s relationships are just as complex, and their father’s work with Black ancestry, coupled with their mother’s position as a successful white woman, results in fascinating intersectional conversations throughout the book.
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.
Reviewed by
Allison Janicki
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