Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**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!