A gripping, speculative thriller from a dazzling new voice about a teen who disappears…and returns, changed in ways that trauma alone can’t explain.

THE SHADOW SISTER
by Lily Meade
Sourcebooks Fire, June 2023
(via Laura Dail Literary)

Sometimes people are lost from you, no matter how much you wish they weren’t and before you can even begin to know how big of a hole they’ll leave behind.
Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She’s trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. She knows Sutton is manipulative, meanwhile everyone paints a picture of her perfection. People don’t look for missing Black girls—or half-Black girls—without believing there is an angel to be saved.
When Sutton reappears, Casey knows she should be relieved. Except Sutton isn’t the same. She remembers nothing about while she was gone―or anything from her old life, including how she made Casey miserable. There’s something unsettling about the way she wants to spend time with Casey and watch her goldfish swim for hours.
What happened to Sutton? The more Casey starts uncovering her sister’s secrets, the more questions she has. Did she really know her sister? Why is no one talking about the other girls who have gone missing in their area? And what will it take to uncover the truth?

Lily Meade is a biracial Black woman living outside of Seattle, Washington. Her work has been published in Bustle and Teen Vogue, and she has been featured in Romper, Buzzfeed, and Rolling Stone. This is her debut novel, which was a finalist for the Eleanor Taylor Bland award for emerging writers by Sisters in Crime.