Shadow Sister

By: Linday Marcott

NOTE – Special thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Haunted, haunted and more haunted. Deliciously so.

Ava and James grow up in a haunted house. It’s cool…until it’s not. Until it takes their mother and part of her childhood and somehow dumps a weird sister-in-law on her doorstep. Then, it’s just frightening.

I really enjoyed Lindsay Marcott’s last book, Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost. Her name is what drew me to reading this book. Then I read the synopsis and well, I’m a sucker for a good ghost story. This didn’t disappoint.

Shadow Sister has all the gothic horror feels. Creepy mansion with a dark history. Some strange characters, like Ava’s father and sister-in-law. Blackwood Mansion is written very much like a character on its own in this story. It lives and breathes and seems to move with the story with as much flesh and blood as the human people (and just as strange).

What worked well for me:

• Gothic ghost story
• Great atmosphere. Spooky and dark. It was hard to imagine the sun shining on this mansion at all. It always felt stormy.
• Good backstory for the characters. Nice bit of growth for Ava and James.
• Decent ending and nice wrap up.
• Loved the multiple points of view. It was woven nicely so I didn’t feel lost at all.

What didn’t work for me:

• It was a little predictable. I knew who “dun it” pretty quickly.
• The history of the mansion didn’t seem to really play into the events that happened in Ava’s family.

Overall, this was a nice read. It’s a fast read so the pace is really good and you’re not left lingering too long in one place which it good. If you like gothic ghost stories, I would recommend this one!

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: