Title: When I Cast Your Shadow
Author: Sarah Porter
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication Date: September 12, 2017
Source: Publisher
Format: e-ARC
Dashiell Bohnacker was hell on his family while he was alive. But it's even worse now that he's dead....
After her troubled older brother, Dashiell, dies of an overdose, sixteen-year-old Ruby is overcome by grief and longing. What she doesn't know is that Dashiell's ghost is using her nightly dreams of him as a way to possess her body and to persuade her twin brother, Everett, to submit to possession as well.
Dashiell tells Everett that he's returned from the Land of the Dead to tie up loose ends, but he's actually on the run from forces crueler and more powerful than anything the Bohnacker twins have ever imagined....(goodreads).
That was confusing and weird.
Plot: I will admit that I had completely different expectations going into this book. I was expecting more of a paranormal haunting, but When I Cast Your Shadow was more of a fantastical read. Regardless of my prior expectations, When I Cast Your Shadow was a wash for me because it was confusing from chapter one. The writing was overly flowery given the subject matter and it was all just...weird. I don't know how to describe it or even find a positive thing to report.
Characters: Ruby and her brother Everett were twins who recently lost their older brother. Ruby was the most distraught over her brother's death and kept dreaming about him. The family dynamic intrigued me at first. There was some underlying hatred that was never realized or explored. I found that to be the most disappointing because this was a family with a lot of baggage to unpack. Although Everett and Ruby were high schoolers, I found them to be a lot younger, this was mostly because they kept referring to each other by their childhood nicknames. You can only take someone who calls their brother "Never Ever" seriously for so long before it becomes cringeworthy.
Worldbuilding: There were two worlds that played a major role in this novel: our realm and the Land of the Dead. None of the overlap made much sense and I didn't think that the author made the best use of the realm of the dead.
Short N Sweet: I, unfortunately, can't recommend this novel or even try to explain what it was about.
Labels: 1 star, book review, review, sarah porter, tor teen, when I cast your shadow
