I love introducing y’all to debut authors. If you like YA and you like mysteries, Lily Meade’s debut might just be the one for you. The Shadow Sister flips what is often perceived as the happy ending for the general public and takes us through some drama on the inside.

The Shadow Sister [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] is told through Casey’s perspective, starting while her sister is missing. They’ve had a rough relationship, so she’s kinda grumpy about the whole thing and being paraded around, lying about what Sutton is really like…. aka telling the world she’s a sweet girl when she’s really a brat to Casey. It’s a sibling struggle I’m sure many of you understand, and that first line encompasses their relationship in such a perfect way.

However, once Sutton is found, things get really weird. Sutton only seems to remember and want to be around Casey. Sutton’s dog even senses that something isn’t right and doesn’t want to be around her., leaving Casey with yet one more thing to take care of. While officials think Sutton’s memory will come back as she processes the trauma of whatever happened while she was gone, Casey knows something is up and starts investigating.

This story weaves in touches of slavery history and hoodoo along with the mystery and the sibling relationship. There’s a lot of not-so-subtle social commentary along the way as well, including conversations about race, religion, wealth, family dynamics, coach/student dynamics, and perceptions in missing persons cases. It gives the story a lot of depth and broadens the reach of ways it can connect with readers.

The mystery is pretty compelling and pulls you along easily. It’s a pretty quick read that’s a bit predictable, but not so much so that it ruins the book. It does require some suspension of reality to buy into parts of the story, including the end. The end felt a little too rushed and didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but again, it didn’t stop it from being an enjoyable read.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what Lily comes up with next.

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