"It hits me hard how every single one of us—everyone in the whole wide world—is walking around with missing pieces."
Between the
cozy yet eerie setting of the bayou of
La Cachette, Louisiana, and the promise of both a
slow burn and a town dubbed the
Psychic Capital of the World, it was
100% impossible for me not to download Ginny Myers Sain's
Dark and Shallow Lies when I spotted it on sale - and I don't regret it.
At all. Y'all, this book was
unputdownable. Like, I literally spent my
entire weekend reading it. NGL, there was something about the
overall story that left me feeling unfulfilled by the time I turned the last page; but the
lyrical writing itself {reminiscent of Tucholke's
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and Garcia and Stohl's
Beautiful Creatures} is simply stunning, and a reason to read from beginning to end.
Despite only residing in
La Cachette during the summer, sixteen-year-old
Grey {Greycie} has always been considered a
full-fledged member of the
Summer Children - a group of
twin flames born within days or months of one another, many of whom harbor
paranormal abilities running the gamut from
empathic talents to psychic foresight. Though Grey has never
come into abilities of her own, she has always had a twin flame in the form of
Elora Pellerin.
Inseparable since birth, Grey and Elora shared the type of bond that made it nearly impossible to be far from one another for too long. Six months ago, however, that changed.
Elora went missing without a trace. No suspects, no arrests, no sightings...
no body. Somehow, in a
sea of psychics, no one in La Cachette has a clue as to where Elora has gone -
or why she disappeared to begin with. The one thing Grey
is sure of, is that Elora, with no rhyme or reason, started
pulling away from her the summer before she vanished. The other?
Life hasn't been the same since she disappeared.
With her seventeenth birthday on the horizon, Grey,
lost since Elora's disappearance, makes the decision to return to La Cachette for the summer. Surrounded by the rest of the
Summer Children, including longtime crush {and Elora's stepbrother},
Hart, as well as her grandmother,
Honey, Grey is hoping to find the strength to
pick up the pieces of her once intact world; but things are different. While Grey finds the
charmed community grieving for Elora, it's evident that
something is being hidden. Grey is convinced that there is more to
Elora's story, and resolves to uncover the truth -
only to learn that it's not that simple. Though her abilities have always remained
dormant, upon returning to La Cachette, Grey is convinced that she hears Elora
whispering to her through the wind and trees - brief murmurings that connect her disappearance to the
decade-old horrific murder of two Summer Children; as well as the untimely death of her own mother. Then there's the
mysterious stranger with icy blue eyes who claims to have known Elora, and may possibly be Grey's key to unlocking her abilities once and for all.
When I say that this book
surprised me, I am
not lying. I absolutely
could not tear my eyes away from the pages. The
slow burn created by the
descriptors was just
incredible, and still come to mind at the most
impromptu moments. That said, I can't say that I loved the characters - any of them {
including Grey}; I was more
mesmerized by the setting, and the overwhelming sadness found within the lyrical writing that was both
haunting yet masterful. This is a story that is wrapped in such incredible
atmosphere, that you feel transported directly into the pages. Truth be told, there was a
bit more romance than I prefer; but it didn't make me love the story as a whole any less. Though not a sequel to this
standalone, I am eager to experience Ginny Myers Sain's writing again, and am excited to get my hands on her latest,
Secrets So Deep.
Star Rating: ***
xx
