Where No Shadow Stays by Sara Hashem

Title: Where No Shadow Stays
Author: Sara Hashem

Genre: Urban Fantasy, YA

Series: N/A

Publication: March 31, 2026, 324 pages

Source: Libby 

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Seventeen-year-old Mina is always focused on what comes next: exams, school dances, opportunities for a picnic by the lake. Filling up the future keeps her from lingering over how little she knows about her history or where she comes from. Anytime she asks her father questions about Egypt--or about her mother's mysterious death--he struggles to open up.

When Mina receives an invitation from an aunt she’s never met to visit the Haikal mansion, her mother’s childhood home in El Agamy, Mina accepts. She can’t resist the chance to learn more about her roots or what happened to her mother, even if it means lying to her loves ones for the first time in her life.

But when Mina returns from El Agamy, she doesn’t come back alone.

A sinister entity follows Mina from the Haikal mansion to her tiny California town. Mina is forced to abandon her friends, her father, and everything she loves in order to prevent the entity from violently possessing them. Isolated and fighting for her life, Mina must seek help from an unlikely ally: Jesse Talbot, the mortician’s hostile son and the only person who proves immune to possession. Jesse would rather floss with barbed wire than team up with social butterfly Mina, but he doesn’t exactly have a choice—after all, he’s running from family secrets of his own.

As Mina and Jesse dig deeper into Mina's family lore, they uncover a bloody debt that must be satisfied if Mina wants to finish senior year alive.

MY THOUGHTS

I love Hashem’s The Scorched Throne duology, so when she announced she’d written a horror-esque YA novel, I immediately added it to my TBR. I’ll read anything this author writes. But it saddens me to say that this book wasn’t on the same level as her first duology and left me mostly bored and disappointed.

I thought the book started off interesting enough. The first sentence immediately captured my attention, introducing the protagonist, Mina, and the shadows that seem to chase after her, possessing people whenever she’s alone with them. If she’s around a crowd, they temporarily stay away. We follow Mina as she researches what these shadows are, what they mean, and how they relate to her family and her mother’s passing. In between those searches, the local loner and neighbor, Jesse, joins her as they attempt to lift a possible curse.

I think the concept was intriguing at first, especially as we slowly learned about its connection to her family back in Egypt. However, when the truth about what her mother did and what the entire family had done was revealed, it felt a bit much. I don’t read many horror novels, but while this book had a mild creep factor, nothing about it was truly terrifying or goosebump-inducing. And yes, I know it’s YA, but I’ve read some YA horror novels that genuinely gave me chills. I also wasn’t a fan of the flashback scenes between Mina and her mother, Nadine. They added context to the story, but they felt choppy as heck and disruptive to the overall flow of the story.

I didn’t like Mina or Jesse very much, which is a shame because they’re the leads. What I found especially annoying was Mina’s constant reliance on sarcasm. Jesses, meanwhile, mostly just existed. He mentioned being cursed or soulless or whatever, but it ultimately added little to the story. Unless the only purpose was to make him immune so he could help Mina, it didn’t seem to matter much in the end. I also found their banter cringey and forced. It amplified Mina’s corny sarcasm, and Jesse’ nickname for her was also cringe. I just didn’t enjoy either character.

And man, what was that ending? It felt abrupt and slightly confusing. I think I understand how it ended, but the way it was written felt awkward and unclear. From what I’ve seen online, I’m assuming it ended the way I interpreted it since the book is a standalone. I’m honestly surprised by how underwhelming this book was because I fully expected to love it as much as the author’s other work. Still, this definitely won’t stop me from checking out her next book in 2027.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Title: Yellowface

Author: R.F. Kuang

Genre: Fiction

Series: N/A

Publication: May 16, 2023

Source: Libby Library

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Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

MY THOUGHTS

Yellowface had been on my list since last year, and this year, I decided it was finally time to dive into R.F. Kuang’s work. Since Yellowface is one of her shorter books, I thought it would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a poor choice, as I found the book extremely disappointing.

Marketed as a sharp, satirical novel tackling controversial topics like cultural appropriation, racism, and diversity, Yellowface certainly addressed these themes. However, I couldn’t get past the revolting and deeply unlikeable main character, June. While I understand she wasn’t meant to be likeable, I personally need to feel some kind of connection or sympathy for the characters I’m reading about, and with June, I felt neither. I simply despised her.

Despite its promise of humor, I didn’t find the book funny at all. I’m not even sure what its ultimate purpose was. While it does highlight important issues, these are conversations that are already happening—and for many readers, I suspect they’ll nod along in agreement while reading, only to forget about it shortly after finishing. The novel didn’t leave any lasting impact or profound impression on me.

I’ve heard great things about Kuang’s writing, which makes me wonder if she intentionally simplified her style for this book. It felt basic and unremarkable.

I didn’t enjoy a single aspect of Yellowface. That said, I’m still planning to explore Kuang’s other works, especially her fantasy novels, which I hope will resonate with me more. If you’re curious about Yellowface, I’d recommend borrowing it from the library as it’s definitely not worth the purchase. 

We Made It All Up by Margot Harrison

Title: We Made It All Up

Author: Margot Harrison 

Genre: Contemporary YA, Thriller

Series: N/A

Hardcover, 384 pages 

Publication: July 12, 2022 by Little Brown BFYR

Source: I received a review copy in exchange for honest review.
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Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s name and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fan fic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While their bond makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When they finally try, one drunken night on a dark mountainside, Celeste is the one who ends up kissing golden boy Joss. And Joss ends up dead.

Celeste doesn’t remember the end of that night and can’t be sure she didn’t deliver the killing blow. Could she still be that scared of getting close to a boy? Secrets are hard to keep in a small town, and even Vivvy seems to suspect her. Exploring the winding passages of the cave where Joss died, Celeste learns he had his own dark secrets, as does Vivvy. The town isn’t as innocent as it appears.

 

MY THOUGHTS

We Made It All Up is whodunit thriller mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat. The story focused on Celeste, who recently moved to a small town called Kray in Montana. She ended up befriending the eccentric Vivvy, the town’s heir. After witnessing and obsessing over a school incident, the girls turns their obsession into fanfic; penning a story that involved their classmates. But what started as a bonding guilty pleasure and fun experiment turns into a horror story when one of the subject of their story turns up dead…murdered! What ensues was endless questions, accusations and betrayals.

I absolutely love a good thriller mystery and We Made It All Up didn’t disappoint! The story took place over the course of about two and half months as it alternated from the present and the past leading up to a shocking finale. Each time the story alternated, readers were given more clues to how the events transpired and who the killer was. I must say Harrison kept me on my toes! Just when I thought I knew who the killer was I was thrown twists where everyone started looking suspicious!

 The plot was quite complex. It was more than just two girls obsessing over the most popular boy in school. And although at the center of it all is a murder there was so much more that went behind the scene in the small pious town of Kray. In trying to fit the puzzle pieces of her lost memory of the night of Joss’s supposed murder; Celeste uncovers Kray’s sinister secrets involving the town’s legacy heirs. I  thought the story/plot was very well- written and it kept me engaged from beginning to end. The characters were all distinct and well developed. And while I love flawed, morally gray characters I unfortunately didn’t quite connect with any of them.

Overall We Made It All up hits all the high notes for me. I enjoyed the small town murder mystery, secret society vibes. I definitely would recommend this book to those who enjoy thriller mystery more on the darker, mature YA side. Fair warning, there were a lot of sensitive subjects and triggers, so check that out before you give it a go!

 

 

In Her Boots by K.J. Dell'Antonia

Title: In Her Boots

Author: K.J. Dell'Antonia

Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Series: N/A

Trade Paperback, 384 pages 

Publication: July 5, 2022 by  G.P. Putnam's Sons

Source: I received a review copy in exchange for honest review.
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Filling these boots is harder than it looks.

Rhett Gallagher’s adventurous life is imploding. Just as she turns the big 4-0, her long-term relationship collapses, and news of a tragedy forces her to return to the family farm. The only silver lining is that Rhett’s inspirational book, The Modern Pioneer Girl—written under a pseudonym—has become a wild success, so much so that in a moment of panic, self-doubting Rhett persuades her best friend Jasmine to step into the limelight as the famed author.

But their prank turns into something more when the controlling mother Rhett hasn’t seen in two decades announces her intent to sell the farm Rhett loves and expected to make her own. To Rhett’s dismay, her mother is far more impressed by the fake author than she's ever been by Rhett. To save her inheritance—and her identity—Rhett must concoct a scheme that will save the farm, and prove to her mother, and to herself, that she can stand on her own two feet.

. . . she is not the hero.

 

MY THOUGHTS

In Her Boots tells the story of Rhett Gallagher, an independent almost forty-year-old living the nomad lifestyle. By day she’s your small town gal living out the dream of the farm life and by night she moonlights under the pseudonym of Maggie Strong, a social media influencer and Best-Selling Author of The Modern Pioneer Girl; a book teaching women how to live and embrace their best authentic self and life. Rhett’s two worlds collide when she return home and a one-time stunt spirals into an endless web of lies.

This is my first time reading a book by K.J. Dell'Antonia and it certainly didn’t disappoint. In Her Boots was filled with so many gems and touched on a wide range of topics. I was amazed at how much Dell’Antonia packed into the story. At the core, this is a story of self discovery and acceptance. It doesn’t matter if one is eighteen, twenty-five or in Rhett’s case at the cusp of forty; its a journey we’d all make in our life one time or another. I love that Dell’Antonia incorporated the social media aspect. In this day and age, people are caught between the person they present to the world and their personal life, and in most causes its always different…premeditated and groomed. And the consequences of that is many times people lose themselves along the way and don’t know what is real or not. That is the gist of Rhett’s dilemma.

Relationships, especially female relationships also played a key component in this book. Relationships between friends, family, and the community. But don’t fret, there’s a little romance but its a minor plot thread in comparison to the other themes and relationships in the story. I enjoyed seeing Rhett’s complex relationship with her best friend Jasmine and her mother Margaret. Jasmine hands down is the epitome of a ride or die friend and I loved that! Rhett and her mother’s relationship while complex, its also the clear case of miscommunication or lack thereof.

All in all In Her Boots was an unexpected funny and heartfelt read. There were a lot of tears shed while reading it! I enjoyed it very much. It kind of reminded me of those cozy feel-good Lifetime/Hallmark Channel special…minus the cheese! In Her Boots wasn’t just a great read but it had amazing messages…whether someone needs to hear it or be reminded. I highly recommend checking this book out!