Review: Sarah Porter’s When I Cast Your Shadow
When I Cast Your Shadow is the kind of delightfully eerie book that is perfect for a gloomy fall afternoon that will quickly turn into evening.
About a year ago, yours truly read another Sarah Porter book, Vassa in the Night, and reviewed it for Culturess, so this is not my first rodeo. And like Vassa, When I Cast Your Shadow (sent to yours truly by Tor Teen) goes to New York City and injects a dose of weirdness; in When I Cast Your Shadow, it’s the idea of the dead getting the chance to walk again, albeit not in the way you think.
While I recall mildly enjoying Vassa conceptually speaking, Shadow is the kind of improvement I like to see. Whether it’s the willingness to explain things a little more, or keep the plot moving by introducing actual villains, or simply the characters being more compelling, it’s better than Vassa by a clear margin.
The three Bohnacker siblings at the heart of this tale all come into it differently, and only one of them is actually dead (that’d be Dashiell). But Porter’s take on the eldest sibling is fantastically complex and deeply layered; neither Ruby’s idolization of her brother nor their father’s demonization is quite correct, and though that might be expected, the way it plays out is rather fascinating to experience because we’re getting it from so many different sides, not just Dash himself.
At first glance, the final reveal is almost a touch unsatisfying, but on second thought, it does end up tying together everything well — Porter does lay that down quite well. She does drop a few other hints a little too obviously if you’re like me and effectively read the book straight through.
What’s better is that the book actually doesn’t shut off its satellite characters from getting wrapped up in the weirdness. Too often, it’s like the main characters are wrapped up in a bubble that keeps the strange events happening around them from seeping out to affect friends or family. Not so here, and it’s refreshing to see how the rest of her cast reacts to what goes on and how exactly it goes on.
Weirdly, the book almost reminds me of something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer at points in how it balances the interpersonal with the supernatural, and the more teenage-like narration of Ruby and Everett with how Dashiell thinks and speaks at a minimum. Unlike some YA novels, it also doesn’t shy away from some deeply complex subjects. Addiction and more all merit mentions or play roles in the novel, so you’ll want to go in prepared to tangle with all of them.
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But even looking past the few issues I have with it — it’s almost like the book gets too clever at points, although I suspect that could be waved away considering Dash’s very well-established character, and the use of nicknames among the three siblings starts to wear thin because they use them so often — this book gets gloriously creepy, and it’s the kind of creepy that suits the changing seasons.