But when a new neighbor moves in down the road, Riley’s overwhelming need for human contact makes her throw caution to the wind. Somehow, in this world where other people can mean a gruesome, bloody death, Ellis makes her feel safe. As they grow closer, Riley’s grip on reality begins to slip and she can no longer fight her deepest desires.
All Riley wants to do is look.
I’m pretty much always going to be in the mood for a post-apocalyptic kind of story. Not sure what it says about me, but there it is anyhow.
YOUR SHADOW HALF REMAINS is the debut novella by Sunny Moraine, and like pretty much everything Nightfire publishes, this book fucking rips.
In its own publicity material, YOUR SHADOW HALF REMAINS gets comped to The Last of Us (if we are talking the show, it’s one of my favorite things ever) and BIRD BOX (absolutely love the movie, while the book is one of my least favorite things I’ve ever read). There’s definitely a slight bit of similarity to BIRD BOX happening here, but I wouldn’t get too hung up on the comparison.
YOUR SHADOW HALF REMAINS takes place during my favorite part of a post-apocalyptic story; not the very beginning, but pretty early on. This, as opposed to like…an apocalyptic wasteland/Fury Road kinda vibe.
People are still trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. Life is carrying on, but…in increasingly diminished ways. It’s taking longer & longer to get things delivered to the house. The power comes and goes. Information is sparse. What we learn from our main character, Riley, is that if two people make eye contact with one another, they’ll explode into a violent, homicidal, and possibly even cannibalistic rage.
Fucking yikes.
Riley is living in a lakefront cabin (previously owned by her grandparents) and just…getting by. It’s a quiet life, but she’s surviving. But the lack of human interaction is…getting to her. So when Ellis, a new resident to the area shows up, things begin to take some strange & interesting turns for Riley.
This is a book that relies so heavily on tension, and Sunny Moraine really knows how to keep ratcheting it up over the course of this novella. And different kinds of tension, too. At the same time that Riley is becoming increasingly paranoid & unstable, there’s also a decent amount of romantic tension between her & Ellis.
Which of course, given the fact that they cannot actually look at one another, creates even more tension.
The sense of Riley’s isolation in this book is hugely impactful…it’s like she is drowning. Completely desperate for human interaction, and yet profoundly unable to handle it when presented with the opportunity.
YOUR SHADOW HALF REMAINS is unsettling in so many ways. The loneliness. The uncertainty. The slow erosion of technology we rely on. It all just gets under your skin in a big way. The book also gets explosively violent in snippets, too. Just something to be aware of going in.
I loved this one a lot! Massive thanks to Nightfire for sending the ARC my way! YOUR SHADOW HALF REMAINS releases February 6th!
Grimdark Dad 