Growing up, I was not afraid of wandering in the woods. We had an overgrown half-acre lot next to our house that was definitely a “forest” in little kid terms. Near my grandmother’s house, there was a park in the middle of what we called “the woods.” (They weren’t woods. 🤣)

I also spent quite a bit of time at Girl Scout Camp and church camp (This One Time at Summer Camp….). For Girl Scouts, we went to Camp Merrybrook (136 acres, now called Camp River Trails) in Sheridan, Illinois. Church camp was the 60 acres of Tower Hill Camp and Retreat Center in Sawyer, Michigan. Those camps were where I learned to not be afraid wandering alone in the woods.

Over time, I learned those camps and their trails like the back of my hand. I found it easier to walk them in the dark because a flashlight created shadows that made every trail harder to navigate. It wasn’t scary because I felt safe. I was comfortable, and I felt at peace.

After my husband Dennis passed away, I knew that Corinne and I needed to get away. I rented a cabin at Tower Hill, picked up my niece, and the three of us went for a weekend (Where’s Your Happy Place?). We arrived in the evening, so it was pretty dark, but I wanted to show them some of my favorite spots. The main one was the cross at the top of a hill where we normally had worship services during the camp week.

When I was younger, there was only a single bench near the cross. Today, there are benches all around it. Corinne and her cousin thought it looked “cult-ish” in the dark. So then I was going to take them down the path and show them the Valley, explaining that was where the oldest kids camped. The road is gravel, steep, and dark. Corinne pointed and said, “Down there?” They refused.

So then I figured I would take them up the road and show them the Pines. It was gravel, but at least there were lights along the road. They wouldn’t go there either. 😂 Chickens…I called them both chickens. And we went back to our cabin and explored when it was light out the next day.

I learned something about my child (and my niece) that day. There is no danger of them wandering into the woods and getting themselves into trouble. When I told Corinne about this particular Story for the Week, she said she will gladly own the fact that she is too chicken to wander anywhere by herself. It’s probably a good thing.

Because when I come across books like the one I reviewed below, I am extremely grateful that my daughter is a chicken. The world is a very different place than when I was her age. I wouldn’t want her wandering anywhere by herself either.

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Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade

336 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: June 27, 2023
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire.

Publisher’s Description

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?

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Main Characters:

• Casey – 16 years old, bi-racial, lives on the wealthy side of Willow Bend, Washington, has a contentious relationship with her older sister and feels overshadowed by her
• Sutton – Casey’s older sister, a senior in high school, cheerleader, in a bi-racial relationship her parents don’t really approve of, considered by Casey to be their parents’ perfect child
• Andrew – Casey’s boyfriend, lives on the poor side of Willow Bend in Bend’s End, works at the Willow Bend golf club to help support his family
• Ruth – Casey’s best friend, oldest of seven children, her mom died during childbirth, she is often left in charge of her younger siblings
• Isaiah – Casey and Sutton’s father, author, university professor, historian, writes and teaches about black history and writes about his family’s history in the South where his ancestors were slaves
• Madison – Casey and Sutton’s mother, a local television reporter, extremely sensitive about keeping up appearances and the family’s reputation
• Pastor David – Ruth’s father and pastor of Heights Above Church, his pet project is building and launching a camp in Bend’s End for lower-income youth

What an awesome debut young adult novel! I was drawn to the amazing cover art on this and got completely sucked into the story.

Typical teenage sisters, Casey and Sutton have drifted in recent years. Where once they doted on one another, their relationship has become more acrimonious than affectionate.

The book begins with Casey and Ruth participating in the search for Sutton, who went missing several days prior. Casey narrates the vast majority of the story in the present day moving forward. Sutton’s perspective in interspersed in a handful of chapters beginning three months prior to her disappearance and moving back all the way to five years prior before coming back to the day before.

Meade does a great job of giving the reader a slow build. We are able to see how the relationship changed between Sutton and Casey prior to Sutton’s disappearance, even though they don’t understand individually what caused the shift. When Sutton returns and remembers Casey and claims to love her, Casey second-guesses a lot. Is Sutton faking? Is she telling the truth about not remembering? If she remembers Casey, why does she remember loving Casey instead of how much they fought?

And then there’s Andrew, who Casey knows to be a really nice guy…but…but…but…a few things come up that make her question. Is he the nice guy he has always appeared to be? She feels sorry for him because he seems lost without Sutton, but he is squarely in Madison’s crosshairs even though he’s not really considered a suspect…yet.

Woven through the entire story is Casey and Sutton’s family history as their father works on his next book—their black ancestors’ trials as slaves, the mystical beliefs and practices of Hoodoo slave magic in past generations, spirituality. Casey helps her dad with his research, so he relays the stories of who their ancestors were and the experiences they went through. And that history comes into play as the story evolves.

I don’t want to give away the ending, so I don’t want to tell too much. I really enjoyed these characters and their development (especially Casey’s). Other reviewers mentioned that the ending seemed a bit rushed, and I agree. The book didn’t feel long to me, so I wish the author had spent more time working through the villain’s motive for taking the black girls who disappeared. You have to suspend disbelief a bit to embrace the “magical,” but the book really works.

I hope this author has more books in her because I’ll be looking for her again.

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