When I Cast Your Shadow is the kind of delightfully eerie book that is perfect for a gloomy fall afternoon that will quickly turn into evening.
About a year ago, yours truly read another Sarah Porter book, Vassa in the Night, and reviewed it for Culturess, so this is not my first rodeo. And like Vassa, When I Cast Your Shadow (sent to yours truly by Tor Teen) goes to New York City and injects a dose of weirdness; in When I Cast Your Shadow, it's the idea of the dead getting the chance to walk again, albeit not in the way you think.
While I recall mildly enjoying Vassa conceptually speaking, Shadow is the kind of improvement I like to see. Whether it's the willingness to explain things a little more, or keep the plot moving by introducing …show more content…
Too often, it's like the main characters are wrapped up in a bubble that keeps the strange events happening around them from seeping out to affect friends or family. Not so here, and it's refreshing to see how the rest of her cast reacts to what goes on and how exactly it goes on.
Weirdly, the book almost reminds me of something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer at points in how it balances the interpersonal with the supernatural, and the more teenage-like narration of Ruby and Everett with how Dashiell thinks and speaks at minimum. Unlike some YA novels, it also doesn't shy away from some deeply complex subjects. Addiction and more all merit mentions or play roles in the novel, so you'll want to go in prepared to tangle with all of them.
But even looking past the few issues I have with it — it's almost like the book gets too clever at points, although I suspect that could be waved away considering Dash's very well-established character, and the use of nicknames among the three siblings starts to wear thin because they use them so often — this book gets gloriously creepy, and it's the kind of creepy that suits the changing
About a year ago, yours truly read another Sarah Porter book, Vassa in the Night, and reviewed it for Culturess, so this is not my first rodeo. And like Vassa, When I Cast Your Shadow (sent to yours truly by Tor Teen) goes to New York City and injects a dose of weirdness; in When I Cast Your Shadow, it's the idea of the dead getting the chance to walk again, albeit not in the way you think.
While I recall mildly enjoying Vassa conceptually speaking, Shadow is the kind of improvement I like to see. Whether it's the willingness to explain things a little more, or keep the plot moving by introducing …show more content…
Too often, it's like the main characters are wrapped up in a bubble that keeps the strange events happening around them from seeping out to affect friends or family. Not so here, and it's refreshing to see how the rest of her cast reacts to what goes on and how exactly it goes on.
Weirdly, the book almost reminds me of something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer at points in how it balances the interpersonal with the supernatural, and the more teenage-like narration of Ruby and Everett with how Dashiell thinks and speaks at minimum. Unlike some YA novels, it also doesn't shy away from some deeply complex subjects. Addiction and more all merit mentions or play roles in the novel, so you'll want to go in prepared to tangle with all of them.
But even looking past the few issues I have with it — it's almost like the book gets too clever at points, although I suspect that could be waved away considering Dash's very well-established character, and the use of nicknames among the three siblings starts to wear thin because they use them so often — this book gets gloriously creepy, and it's the kind of creepy that suits the changing