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Where No Shadow Stays
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Expected 31 Mar 26Win a free print copy of this book!
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10 copies available
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A homecoming queen and a bad-boy loner team up to break a generational curse in this YA supernatural horror from a talented American Egyptian voice.
Seventeen-year-old Mina is always focused on what comes exams, school dances, opportunities for a picnic by the lake. Filling up the future keeps her from lingering over how little she knows about her history or where she comes from. Anytime she asks her father questions about Egypt—or about her mother's mysterious death—he struggles to open up.
When Mina receives an invitation from an aunt she’s never met to visit the Haikal mansion, her mother’s childhood home in El Agamy, Mina accepts. She can’t resist the chance to learn more about her roots or what happened to her mother, even if it means lying to her loves ones for the first time in her life.
But when Mina returns from El Agamy, she doesn’t come back alone.
A sinister entity follows Mina from the Haikal mansion to her tiny California town. Mina is forced to abandon her friends, her father, and everything she loves in order to prevent the entity from violently possessing them. Isolated and fighting for her life, Mina must seek help from an unlikely Jesse Talbot, the mortician’s hostile son and the only person who proves immune to possession. Jesse would rather floss with barbed wire than team up with social butterfly Mina, but he doesn’t exactly have a choice—after all, he’s running from family secrets of his own.
As Mina and Jesse dig deeper into Mina's family lore, they uncover a bloody debt that must be satisfied if Mina wants to finish senior year alive.
Seventeen-year-old Mina is always focused on what comes exams, school dances, opportunities for a picnic by the lake. Filling up the future keeps her from lingering over how little she knows about her history or where she comes from. Anytime she asks her father questions about Egypt—or about her mother's mysterious death—he struggles to open up.
When Mina receives an invitation from an aunt she’s never met to visit the Haikal mansion, her mother’s childhood home in El Agamy, Mina accepts. She can’t resist the chance to learn more about her roots or what happened to her mother, even if it means lying to her loves ones for the first time in her life.
But when Mina returns from El Agamy, she doesn’t come back alone.
A sinister entity follows Mina from the Haikal mansion to her tiny California town. Mina is forced to abandon her friends, her father, and everything she loves in order to prevent the entity from violently possessing them. Isolated and fighting for her life, Mina must seek help from an unlikely Jesse Talbot, the mortician’s hostile son and the only person who proves immune to possession. Jesse would rather floss with barbed wire than team up with social butterfly Mina, but he doesn’t exactly have a choice—after all, he’s running from family secrets of his own.
As Mina and Jesse dig deeper into Mina's family lore, they uncover a bloody debt that must be satisfied if Mina wants to finish senior year alive.
8 pages, Audible Audio
Expected publication March 31, 2026
27 people are currently reading
5207 people want to read
About the author
Sara Hashem
4 books2,768 followersSara Hashem is the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Jasad Heir and The Jasad Crown. An American-Egyptian author from Southern California, she spent many sunny days holed up indoors with a book. Sara’s love for fantasy and magical realms emerged during the two years her family lived in Egypt. When she isn’t busy naming stray cats in her neighborhood after her favorite authors, Sara can be found buried under coffee-ringed notebooks.
You can find Sara on Instagram and TikTok under @shashemwrites!
You can find Sara on Instagram and TikTok under @shashemwrites!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
Want to read
July 23, 2025i'm reading anything this woman puts out
priority-tbr
February 21, 2026i wanttt😔🫴🏻
sara, you know that i love you. and i'll read anything by you. but ma'am, what about a jasad heir novella now?? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻
sara, you know that i love you. and i'll read anything by you. but ma'am, what about a jasad heir novella now?? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻
Want to read
August 1, 2025A new book by Sara! Consider me sat…
Also I wouldn’t mind a novella (or two) after that epilogue in The Jasad Crown… Like Sara we need more of the precious children!
Also I wouldn’t mind a novella (or two) after that epilogue in The Jasad Crown… Like Sara we need more of the precious children!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
4.5 ★— Sara Hashem has a reader for life with me after her Scorched Throne duology, so picking up this YA horror novel, even though I’m not typically a horror reader, was a no-brainer for me!
The story follows Mina, a senior in high school who has lived the epitome of a model teenage life until that life begins to unravel when she becomes plagued by a mysterious entity that endangers both her and the people around her.
Split across different POVs and timelines, the novel explores Mina’s family back in Egypt and the circumstances of a trip to her ancestral hometown that led to her becoming tied to this entity. I’m usually someone who struggles when a book jumps too much between timelines and perspectives, but here it worked incredibly well and beautifully wove the past and present together without ever making the present-day plot feel stalled.
Mina also fits an archetype I really enjoy seeing explored. Instead of the often depicted awkward teenage loner in YA, she’s a popular girl at school, a dance captain with a star-athlete boyfriend and a supportive group of friends. Watching the decimation of that carefully built life as the entity encroaches on it was captivating, and I loved seeing the unraveling of the “perfect girl” archetype she embodies.
The horror itself was also very effective! Even as someone who’s admittedly a bit of a horror baby when it comes to books, I found the tension genuinely unsettling without ever feeling overwhelming. The depiction of the entity gave me It Follows (2014) vibes, with that constant creeping sense that something is always lurking and waiting for a chance to approach.
The romance is a subplot that develops through a growing friendship between Jesse and Mina and serves as an important emotional anchor, as Jesse is the one person who truly sees what Mina is going through. I ended up really loving their banter and playful dynamic amid the darkness of the story and also enjoyed how Jesse, who initially appears to be the classic bad boy type, has that image quietly deconstructed as the two open up to each other.
When it comes to themes in this book, I don't even know where to begin, because so much of this resonated while simultaneously flooring me.
Mina is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants who grew up in the United States, and she carries that familiar first-generation sense of feeling removed from a cultural identity that should feel like home. The story repeatedly returns to the idea that there are versions of ourselves that never got to exist. That, as the child of immigrants, there is a person you might have been if you had grown up in your parents’ homeland instead of the country they immigrated to.
There are also ever-present themes of generational trauma and the lingering consequences of the past that are tied to the horror Mina faces, which made it all feel even more visceral.
The ending left me a little speechless and had me pondering it for quite a while after I finished. It was definitely fitting, while poignant in the exact type of way I enjoy.
Really, I am so glad to see an author branch out so successfully from their debut work, and now I’m even more convinced I need to read everything Sara Hashem writes!
🎧 Audiobook Notes
🎙️ Narration Style: Solo
⭐ Listener Rating: 5/5
I seriously loved the narrator and how well she could switch from the young-sounding voice of a teenage Mina to embody the adult characters, as well as the entity when it possessed people, capturing its inhumanity perfectly! Just... gah, so much talent! I cannot recommend this audiobook enough for anyone that's even remotely interested in getting the audiobook version of this book!
____________________
Thank you to Holiday House for the ARC and to RBmedia for the ALC.
The story follows Mina, a senior in high school who has lived the epitome of a model teenage life until that life begins to unravel when she becomes plagued by a mysterious entity that endangers both her and the people around her.
Split across different POVs and timelines, the novel explores Mina’s family back in Egypt and the circumstances of a trip to her ancestral hometown that led to her becoming tied to this entity. I’m usually someone who struggles when a book jumps too much between timelines and perspectives, but here it worked incredibly well and beautifully wove the past and present together without ever making the present-day plot feel stalled.
Mina also fits an archetype I really enjoy seeing explored. Instead of the often depicted awkward teenage loner in YA, she’s a popular girl at school, a dance captain with a star-athlete boyfriend and a supportive group of friends. Watching the decimation of that carefully built life as the entity encroaches on it was captivating, and I loved seeing the unraveling of the “perfect girl” archetype she embodies.
The horror itself was also very effective! Even as someone who’s admittedly a bit of a horror baby when it comes to books, I found the tension genuinely unsettling without ever feeling overwhelming. The depiction of the entity gave me It Follows (2014) vibes, with that constant creeping sense that something is always lurking and waiting for a chance to approach.
The romance is a subplot that develops through a growing friendship between Jesse and Mina and serves as an important emotional anchor, as Jesse is the one person who truly sees what Mina is going through. I ended up really loving their banter and playful dynamic amid the darkness of the story and also enjoyed how Jesse, who initially appears to be the classic bad boy type, has that image quietly deconstructed as the two open up to each other.
When it comes to themes in this book, I don't even know where to begin, because so much of this resonated while simultaneously flooring me.
Mina is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants who grew up in the United States, and she carries that familiar first-generation sense of feeling removed from a cultural identity that should feel like home. The story repeatedly returns to the idea that there are versions of ourselves that never got to exist. That, as the child of immigrants, there is a person you might have been if you had grown up in your parents’ homeland instead of the country they immigrated to.
There are also ever-present themes of generational trauma and the lingering consequences of the past that are tied to the horror Mina faces, which made it all feel even more visceral.
The ending left me a little speechless and had me pondering it for quite a while after I finished. It was definitely fitting, while poignant in the exact type of way I enjoy.
Really, I am so glad to see an author branch out so successfully from their debut work, and now I’m even more convinced I need to read everything Sara Hashem writes!
🎧 Audiobook Notes
🎙️ Narration Style: Solo
⭐ Listener Rating: 5/5
I seriously loved the narrator and how well she could switch from the young-sounding voice of a teenage Mina to embody the adult characters, as well as the entity when it possessed people, capturing its inhumanity perfectly! Just... gah, so much talent! I cannot recommend this audiobook enough for anyone that's even remotely interested in getting the audiobook version of this book!
____________________
Thank you to Holiday House for the ARC and to RBmedia for the ALC.
Read
July 29, 2025Me omw to raise a Sara Hashem Altar from the ground- just like a certain curly haired Qayida
August 21, 2025
Okay but how about a novella for Arin and Essiya
March 24, 2026
4.25 stars // leave it to Sara to write such a gripping, devastating story in less than 300 pages 🥲🥲 honestly very sinister and foreboding yet romantic, with characters that feel like friends and gorgeous writing. the ending 🥲 ouch!!!
March 27, 2026
wowowowow
this is a love letter to Egypt and finally finding Egyptian representation is so precious to me. The main character having my mom's last name, the dad and I having the same favorite actors, reading the nursery rhymes I sang growing up, half of this book taking place in the cities my parents were born, I could CRY. I don't think I can ever fully explain what finally seeing your culture and your lives in the media you're consuming does to you. It's validating yes but it's also a sense of community and safety? it's everything
Onto the rest of this book, I don't read the thriller/horror genre often because I get scared very very easily but I am so glad I braved this book because it is GENIUS. Sara's mind??? The curse, the characters (jesse!!!), the way we cut between past and present was all brilliant. AND THE END??? While devastating, it was truly such a fitting ending for this book and I'm still blown away
this is a love letter to Egypt and finally finding Egyptian representation is so precious to me. The main character having my mom's last name, the dad and I having the same favorite actors, reading the nursery rhymes I sang growing up, half of this book taking place in the cities my parents were born, I could CRY. I don't think I can ever fully explain what finally seeing your culture and your lives in the media you're consuming does to you. It's validating yes but it's also a sense of community and safety? it's everything
Onto the rest of this book, I don't read the thriller/horror genre often because I get scared very very easily but I am so glad I braved this book because it is GENIUS. Sara's mind??? The curse, the characters (jesse!!!), the way we cut between past and present was all brilliant. AND THE END??? While devastating, it was truly such a fitting ending for this book and I'm still blown away
Want to read
March 19, 2026~Pre-read~ YESSSSS! I received an ARC copy of this book! I am such a Sara Hashem fan.. I cannot wait to start this.
Want to read
August 22, 2025i don’t fw this genre but i will be turning up for this ✋🏻 in sara hashem i trust 😋
December 3, 2025
WHAT WAS THAT ENDING
I am convinced Sara Hashem just loves to write the most heartbreaking, devastating endings to crush us readers. Just when I think the characters could be happy, I then have to pick up a box of tissues. This is why I love her writing, she knows how to pull a reader in, root for the characters, and catch us off caught with the plot twists and emotions.
Where No Shadow Stays follows Mina, the "golden girl" who begins experiencing haunting scenarios after a secret trip to Egypt, causing her to isolate from her friends and family. The only one who can seem to help her is the town's loner, Jesse, due to mysteries of his own. The two form an undeniable bond as they uncover secrets that date back generations. Blending history and horror together, Where No Shadow Stays will keep you on your toes throughout.
I loved the relationship between Mina and Jesse. Seeing Mina find parts of herself she never knew existed as the pair spend more time together, to then seeing their connection grow with tension and yearning is exactly why Sara Hashem is a master at crafting an unforgettable romance.
Honestly, I would read this woman's grocery list.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!
I am convinced Sara Hashem just loves to write the most heartbreaking, devastating endings to crush us readers. Just when I think the characters could be happy, I then have to pick up a box of tissues. This is why I love her writing, she knows how to pull a reader in, root for the characters, and catch us off caught with the plot twists and emotions.
Where No Shadow Stays follows Mina, the "golden girl" who begins experiencing haunting scenarios after a secret trip to Egypt, causing her to isolate from her friends and family. The only one who can seem to help her is the town's loner, Jesse, due to mysteries of his own. The two form an undeniable bond as they uncover secrets that date back generations. Blending history and horror together, Where No Shadow Stays will keep you on your toes throughout.
I loved the relationship between Mina and Jesse. Seeing Mina find parts of herself she never knew existed as the pair spend more time together, to then seeing their connection grow with tension and yearning is exactly why Sara Hashem is a master at crafting an unforgettable romance.
Honestly, I would read this woman's grocery list.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!
March 3, 2026
Sara Hashem, you are on both my favorite author and shit list (the latter for emotional damage)! Review to come later because I’m so mad to be once again happily misled like a stupid puppy into pain. 🥲
(FINAL REVIEW:)
If Hashem wasn’t already an auto-buy author for me thanks to her devastating Scorched Throne duology (I still think about Arin and Sylvia and it’s been MONTHS since I left that series), this book probably would have solidified her already high ranking on my loved authors list. And that ending??? . . . . Ooo man, Hashem really knows how to drag a reader through the mud with her characters. It should also be a testament to her writing that I happily picked up a contemporary horror book that has no folklore/mythology (to my knowledge) and still loved it. ☺️
The story follows 17-year-old Mina after she returns from her secret spring break in Egypt and has her life completely turned upside down. I loved how genuinely nice she was even with the fact that she’s said to be the former it girl of the school. Mina really shows how children of migrant parents are in that liminal space between the place they grew up in and the place where their family is from, and how it can both be rewarding to have that connection as well as detrimental due to the loss of connection and perception that comes with being from some place foreign. I also love the father-daughter relationship between Mina and her father who is trying his best to move on in life after loosing his wife, as well as desperately missing the place he comes from. 🇪🇬
Jesse Talbot as a love interest/begrudging ally for Mina screamed a much healthier Arin and Sylvia to me. I loved their banter and jabs at each other, and found his growing affection for Mina quite sweet. But like an idiot, I had assumed Hashem would be kind to her readers this time, and let’s just say go get this book now because you need to know what kind of pain I’m in right now after finishing this. 🥲
There was just one little detail about a sketch book that I felt was not utilized in the end, but this is the only thing I will say because anything else will be a MASSIVE spoiler for the book. 🤐
Now, I will need to say that this is the kind of horror that I was expecting in some of the other horror books I’ve read lately. It’s DARK, CREEPY, and down right HORRIFYING in the best possible ways without going overboard for an upper YA horror novel. I would really recommend future readers of this book to think about how much they are okay with scenes of off-page deaths of children, graphic depictions of gore, and violence before going into this. If you previously read The Scorched Throne duology, you might enjoy this since Mina and Jesse reminded me of Arin and Sylvia, but that will be your decision if you choose to pick up this YA horror. ‼️
HUGE thank you goes out to Holiday House and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review, and to Hashem for once again emotionally damaging me in the best way possible. I am STOKED for your upcoming duology and can’t wait to be pummeled yet again with Tala and Selim’s upcoming tension. 😍
Publication date: March 31!
Overall: 5/5 ⭐️
(FINAL REVIEW:)
If Hashem wasn’t already an auto-buy author for me thanks to her devastating Scorched Throne duology (I still think about Arin and Sylvia and it’s been MONTHS since I left that series), this book probably would have solidified her already high ranking on my loved authors list. And that ending??? . . . . Ooo man, Hashem really knows how to drag a reader through the mud with her characters. It should also be a testament to her writing that I happily picked up a contemporary horror book that has no folklore/mythology (to my knowledge) and still loved it. ☺️
The story follows 17-year-old Mina after she returns from her secret spring break in Egypt and has her life completely turned upside down. I loved how genuinely nice she was even with the fact that she’s said to be the former it girl of the school. Mina really shows how children of migrant parents are in that liminal space between the place they grew up in and the place where their family is from, and how it can both be rewarding to have that connection as well as detrimental due to the loss of connection and perception that comes with being from some place foreign. I also love the father-daughter relationship between Mina and her father who is trying his best to move on in life after loosing his wife, as well as desperately missing the place he comes from. 🇪🇬
Jesse Talbot as a love interest/begrudging ally for Mina screamed a much healthier Arin and Sylvia to me. I loved their banter and jabs at each other, and found his growing affection for Mina quite sweet. But like an idiot, I had assumed Hashem would be kind to her readers this time, and let’s just say go get this book now because you need to know what kind of pain I’m in right now after finishing this. 🥲
There was just one little detail about a sketch book that I felt was not utilized in the end, but this is the only thing I will say because anything else will be a MASSIVE spoiler for the book. 🤐
Now, I will need to say that this is the kind of horror that I was expecting in some of the other horror books I’ve read lately. It’s DARK, CREEPY, and down right HORRIFYING in the best possible ways without going overboard for an upper YA horror novel. I would really recommend future readers of this book to think about how much they are okay with scenes of off-page deaths of children, graphic depictions of gore, and violence before going into this. If you previously read The Scorched Throne duology, you might enjoy this since Mina and Jesse reminded me of Arin and Sylvia, but that will be your decision if you choose to pick up this YA horror. ‼️
HUGE thank you goes out to Holiday House and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review, and to Hashem for once again emotionally damaging me in the best way possible. I am STOKED for your upcoming duology and can’t wait to be pummeled yet again with Tala and Selim’s upcoming tension. 😍
Publication date: March 31!
Overall: 5/5 ⭐️
March 5, 2026
Booksta Link✨
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Where No Shadows Stay is a devastating exploration of generational curses, inherited guilt, and the unbearable weight of family legacy. Our main character Mina visits Egypt after a mysterious call from an Aunt she’s never met and returns home from her Summer break with a curse.
At its core the curse is a chillingly simple but brutally effective: Banba’s bloodline (Mina’s family) must sacrifice children to an ancient entity within their sprawling estate to maintain their wealth and status in society. If they fail to meet their quota for even one year, every member of the bloodline dies. The simplicity of it makes it all the more horrifying.
The story unfolds through multiple perspectives — the women of Mina’s bloodline — interwoven with flashbacks that reveal how the curse first began. Watching the past unravel alongside Mina’s present-day investigation into her mother’s mysterious and sudden death, as well as the truth of their legacy is endlessly compelling.
The distinction between the shadows and the possessed is also fascinating. The shadows seem to pull Mina out of reality, showing her fragments of the past which help her piece her family’s history together, while the possessed are something far more immediate and violent. That layered horror keeps the tension razor sharp from beginning to end.
Sara Hashem’s Egyptian descriptions and lore are rich, immersive, and atmospheric. The setting feels alive — steeped in history, mythology, and something ancient and watchful. I could vividly imagine every scene as I read; it felt cinematic in my head. This is a large part of the world building, even while Mina is home in America. The sprawling family estate Mina visits in Egypt feels almost like a character in itself — grand, oppressive, and hungry. I wanted to read about it endlessly.
The horror elements are intensely descriptive in the best way. The suffocating dread, the decay, the looming presence of something inhuman — it’s all rendered so clearly that you don’t just read it, you experience it.
Mina absolutely shattered me. She is a painfully real, tangible character who will stay with me for the rest of my days. Written as a teenager on the edge of adulthood — about to graduate high school, with her entire future stretched out ahead of her — she is suddenly thrust into a curse she never could have imagined. That loss of normalcy is devastating. What broke my heart most were the few, fleeting moments where she fully grasps just how unfair it all is. She doesn’t get to be young. She doesn’t get to be carefree. She inherits horror instead.
Her fear is written so authentically — not exaggerated or melodramatic, but bone-deep and consuming. The idea that an earthbound entity can inhabit any body she’s alone with is terrifying. She hasn’t even seen her father in four weeks since returning from Egypt, terrified that the entity will possess him and that he might try to kill her. The loneliness of that reality is suffocating.
The quiet emotional details destroyed me. Mina describing how her father once threw away an entire loaf of bread he burned trying to make her perfect French toast with her favourite syrup? Devastating. The distance between them feels wider than the curse itself. Her guilt about stepping away from him to keep him safe is heartbreaking. Her separation from her friends is equally painful. She deliberately keeps them at a distance to protect them, knowing it harms those relationships. That self-imposed isolation adds another layer to her suffering.
And then there’s Jesse. He’s exactly what Mina needs throughout all of this; a surprising ally, friend and perhaps some a little more. The son of a Mortician who keeps to himself, despite being Mina’s neighbour and her attempts at friendship in the past. Jesse also has secrets and revelations of his own.
Valedictorian and dance team captain x mortician’s son who keeps to himself? An impeccable pairing. The banter between them is unmatched. I’m not sorry — Sara Hashem writes some of the best banter I have ever read between love interests. It’s sharp, intelligent, emotionally loaded. It feels like a lost language brought back to life. Jesse brings out a version of Mina she barely recognises:
There is a moment in the book where Jesse fully inhabits the “to be loved is to be known” gestures and it stole my breath away.
The writing is honestly immaculate. The pacing is expert — fast without ever feeling rushed — diving straight into the plot while still giving space for emotional weight. Mina’s terror feels real. Her grief feels real. The devastation feels real.
I cried for thirty minutes after finishing this book. I was not prepared for the emotional response it pulled out of me. Sara Hashem truly writes an ending, bittersweet ones, that have you reeling for days in the aftermath. As a fan of these endings, I don’t think there’s anyone that does it better.
This is atmospheric, emotionally brutal, and beautifully crafted. One of my favourite reads of the year and a testament to how incredible YA Thriller and Horror can be!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Where No Shadows Stay is a devastating exploration of generational curses, inherited guilt, and the unbearable weight of family legacy. Our main character Mina visits Egypt after a mysterious call from an Aunt she’s never met and returns home from her Summer break with a curse.
At its core the curse is a chillingly simple but brutally effective: Banba’s bloodline (Mina’s family) must sacrifice children to an ancient entity within their sprawling estate to maintain their wealth and status in society. If they fail to meet their quota for even one year, every member of the bloodline dies. The simplicity of it makes it all the more horrifying.
The story unfolds through multiple perspectives — the women of Mina’s bloodline — interwoven with flashbacks that reveal how the curse first began. Watching the past unravel alongside Mina’s present-day investigation into her mother’s mysterious and sudden death, as well as the truth of their legacy is endlessly compelling.
The distinction between the shadows and the possessed is also fascinating. The shadows seem to pull Mina out of reality, showing her fragments of the past which help her piece her family’s history together, while the possessed are something far more immediate and violent. That layered horror keeps the tension razor sharp from beginning to end.
Sara Hashem’s Egyptian descriptions and lore are rich, immersive, and atmospheric. The setting feels alive — steeped in history, mythology, and something ancient and watchful. I could vividly imagine every scene as I read; it felt cinematic in my head. This is a large part of the world building, even while Mina is home in America. The sprawling family estate Mina visits in Egypt feels almost like a character in itself — grand, oppressive, and hungry. I wanted to read about it endlessly.
The horror elements are intensely descriptive in the best way. The suffocating dread, the decay, the looming presence of something inhuman — it’s all rendered so clearly that you don’t just read it, you experience it.
Mina absolutely shattered me. She is a painfully real, tangible character who will stay with me for the rest of my days. Written as a teenager on the edge of adulthood — about to graduate high school, with her entire future stretched out ahead of her — she is suddenly thrust into a curse she never could have imagined. That loss of normalcy is devastating. What broke my heart most were the few, fleeting moments where she fully grasps just how unfair it all is. She doesn’t get to be young. She doesn’t get to be carefree. She inherits horror instead.
Her fear is written so authentically — not exaggerated or melodramatic, but bone-deep and consuming. The idea that an earthbound entity can inhabit any body she’s alone with is terrifying. She hasn’t even seen her father in four weeks since returning from Egypt, terrified that the entity will possess him and that he might try to kill her. The loneliness of that reality is suffocating.
The quiet emotional details destroyed me. Mina describing how her father once threw away an entire loaf of bread he burned trying to make her perfect French toast with her favourite syrup? Devastating. The distance between them feels wider than the curse itself. Her guilt about stepping away from him to keep him safe is heartbreaking. Her separation from her friends is equally painful. She deliberately keeps them at a distance to protect them, knowing it harms those relationships. That self-imposed isolation adds another layer to her suffering.
And then there’s Jesse. He’s exactly what Mina needs throughout all of this; a surprising ally, friend and perhaps some a little more. The son of a Mortician who keeps to himself, despite being Mina’s neighbour and her attempts at friendship in the past. Jesse also has secrets and revelations of his own.
Valedictorian and dance team captain x mortician’s son who keeps to himself? An impeccable pairing. The banter between them is unmatched. I’m not sorry — Sara Hashem writes some of the best banter I have ever read between love interests. It’s sharp, intelligent, emotionally loaded. It feels like a lost language brought back to life. Jesse brings out a version of Mina she barely recognises:
“He brings out the side of me that I don’t recognise — someone who doesn’t think through her words ten times before she speaks, or constantly shift her presence to accommodate someone else. Someone who can be bright and irritable and snide … The worst part is that I think she might be the version of me I like best.” (p.146)
There is a moment in the book where Jesse fully inhabits the “to be loved is to be known” gestures and it stole my breath away.
The writing is honestly immaculate. The pacing is expert — fast without ever feeling rushed — diving straight into the plot while still giving space for emotional weight. Mina’s terror feels real. Her grief feels real. The devastation feels real.
I cried for thirty minutes after finishing this book. I was not prepared for the emotional response it pulled out of me. Sara Hashem truly writes an ending, bittersweet ones, that have you reeling for days in the aftermath. As a fan of these endings, I don’t think there’s anyone that does it better.
This is atmospheric, emotionally brutal, and beautifully crafted. One of my favourite reads of the year and a testament to how incredible YA Thriller and Horror can be!
Read
November 11, 2025yes, but um....I'm still waiting for the novella after that epilogue...
December 28, 2025
I can’t believe Sara did this to me again 😫💔 full rtc
January 20, 2026
4.25⭐️
a sinister family curse and a tall, dark, and handsome bad boy MMC? SIGN 👏🏼 ME 👏🏼 UP
Sara’s writing is poetic with a sarcastic edge, and I absolutely love it! she quickly became one of my all time favourite authors after reading her Scorched Throne duology, and this YA horror of hers does NOT disappoint!
Mina and Jesse are such loveable characters, you can’t help but root for them from beginning to end. two characters who could not be more different, come together in a time of need to try and end a centuries old curse. the spine tingling horror, the hope, the friendship, the Egyptian elements l…I adored all of it.
I think my only piece of critical feedback on this story is that I was hoping for Jesse’s backstory to be flushed out a bit more. I would have loved more information on WHY he was able to help Mina. I felt it lacked clarity and I would have really loved more information to really understand Jesse’s character.
if you’re looking to dip your toe in YA horror then seriously look no further! Sara Hashem is an amazing author and I will read absolutely ANYTHING she writes!!
a sinister family curse and a tall, dark, and handsome bad boy MMC? SIGN 👏🏼 ME 👏🏼 UP
Sara’s writing is poetic with a sarcastic edge, and I absolutely love it! she quickly became one of my all time favourite authors after reading her Scorched Throne duology, and this YA horror of hers does NOT disappoint!
Mina and Jesse are such loveable characters, you can’t help but root for them from beginning to end. two characters who could not be more different, come together in a time of need to try and end a centuries old curse. the spine tingling horror, the hope, the friendship, the Egyptian elements l…I adored all of it.
I think my only piece of critical feedback on this story is that I was hoping for Jesse’s backstory to be flushed out a bit more. I would have loved more information on WHY he was able to help Mina. I felt it lacked clarity and I would have really loved more information to really understand Jesse’s character.
if you’re looking to dip your toe in YA horror then seriously look no further! Sara Hashem is an amazing author and I will read absolutely ANYTHING she writes!!
March 23, 2026
Sara Hashem’s writing always leaves me with the urge to highlight everything and write it on my brain. Her YA Horror novel, Where No Shadow Stays, is no exception. This story had so many little details that made it so excellent: Egyptian cultural influence, creep factor, budding romance, multiple POVs to show the progression of the curse, and a relatable main character who just wants to survive her senior year of high school without becoming the victim of a curse that followed her back from her haunted family home in Egypt.
Mina’s POV is exactly whose head I want to be in for this type of story. She’s able to portray the right amount of fear, while still trying to understand the situation that she finds herself in. There’s a scene where Mina experiences something creepy in her room, and I would highly recommend not listening to it alone in the dark while laying in bed. Thoroughly creeped me out, and I enjoy being scared.
Then there’s Jesse Talbot: the mortician’s eyeliner wearing, edgy loner of a son, who is the embodiment of Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls. He also happens to be the only one unaffected by Mina’s curse. This provides the perfect opportunity for endless quips and banter, with a doomed romance in the mix.
The audiobook is narrated by Victoria Nassif, who did an absolutely phenomenal job. From inflection for different characters, to adding spook factor: this audiobook was performed flawlessly. I highly recommend picking this book up (especially in audiobook) when it releases on March 31, 2026. Thank you Recorded Books/ RB Media (via Netgalley) for gifting me with an ALC, all thoughts expressed are my own.
As a bonus to convince you to read this book- here are some of my favorite quotes about Jesse:
“Steel, spite, and sarcasm: the ingredients responsible for Jesse Talbot’s chemical composition.”
“I wish we could split the difference: my heart a little steelier, his a little softer.”
“He flashes a smile so wicked, it would make the devil flinch.”
Mina’s POV is exactly whose head I want to be in for this type of story. She’s able to portray the right amount of fear, while still trying to understand the situation that she finds herself in. There’s a scene where Mina experiences something creepy in her room, and I would highly recommend not listening to it alone in the dark while laying in bed. Thoroughly creeped me out, and I enjoy being scared.
Then there’s Jesse Talbot: the mortician’s eyeliner wearing, edgy loner of a son, who is the embodiment of Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls. He also happens to be the only one unaffected by Mina’s curse. This provides the perfect opportunity for endless quips and banter, with a doomed romance in the mix.
The audiobook is narrated by Victoria Nassif, who did an absolutely phenomenal job. From inflection for different characters, to adding spook factor: this audiobook was performed flawlessly. I highly recommend picking this book up (especially in audiobook) when it releases on March 31, 2026. Thank you Recorded Books/ RB Media (via Netgalley) for gifting me with an ALC, all thoughts expressed are my own.
As a bonus to convince you to read this book- here are some of my favorite quotes about Jesse:
“Steel, spite, and sarcasm: the ingredients responsible for Jesse Talbot’s chemical composition.”
“I wish we could split the difference: my heart a little steelier, his a little softer.”
“He flashes a smile so wicked, it would make the devil flinch.”
Read
February 28, 2026Current rating: ~4.5 stars!
Am I perhaps biased and will love anything Sara Hashem writes? Yes!
I love horror, and I have been craving a YA book like this. I did read this paired with a video game playthrough in the bg also involving a creepy house 😌
The premise immediately intrigued me, and I found myself wanting to know more with every page I turned. The flashback chapters only added to that, and I was never bored. I was practically cheering at the creepiest scenes; it's been way too long since a book has actually made me feel unnerved!! I just love Sara Hashem's prose :) ++ the balance between the horror, serious themes, and lighter moments was done so well.
I really loved Mina's character. There's so much I want to say but I don't feel cohesive enough rn to properly put it into words. The romance was also great and Jesse was such a great love interest and ughh it was all just so good.
As for the ending, I did expect it but I was still ___________ (no spoilers). But I NEED more, esp considering another character's knowledge of ____. It was still a wonderful standalone though!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Am I perhaps biased and will love anything Sara Hashem writes? Yes!
I love horror, and I have been craving a YA book like this. I did read this paired with a video game playthrough in the bg also involving a creepy house 😌
The premise immediately intrigued me, and I found myself wanting to know more with every page I turned. The flashback chapters only added to that, and I was never bored. I was practically cheering at the creepiest scenes; it's been way too long since a book has actually made me feel unnerved!! I just love Sara Hashem's prose :) ++ the balance between the horror, serious themes, and lighter moments was done so well.
I really loved Mina's character. There's so much I want to say but I don't feel cohesive enough rn to properly put it into words. The romance was also great and Jesse was such a great love interest and ughh it was all just so good.
As for the ending, I did expect it but I was still ___________ (no spoilers). But I NEED more, esp considering another character's knowledge of ____. It was still a wonderful standalone though!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
December 5, 2025
WOW… I am truly struggling to find the words, which seems to be a common occurrence when I finish a book by Sara Hashem. However, I’m going to try because this book is wonderful, heart wrenching, & beautifully written (as usual).
Her writing has a way of sucking you in from the very first page. She writes characters in a way that is so complex yet so genuine, they seem to jump off the page. I could hardly put this book down once I started it, I finished in two sittings. It is incredibly fast paced and I just needed to know where the story was going and how it would end… and the ending… wow.
Three for three with the five star books for me, I do believe this year has made her one of my new favorite authors. She’s absolutely brilliant.
& now, some of my favorite quotes-
Thank you to NetGalley & Holiday House for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
Her writing has a way of sucking you in from the very first page. She writes characters in a way that is so complex yet so genuine, they seem to jump off the page. I could hardly put this book down once I started it, I finished in two sittings. It is incredibly fast paced and I just needed to know where the story was going and how it would end… and the ending… wow.
Three for three with the five star books for me, I do believe this year has made her one of my new favorite authors. She’s absolutely brilliant.
& now, some of my favorite quotes-
Thank you to NetGalley & Holiday House for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
February 5, 2026
RTC
Her allergy to joy isn’t funny anymore
Thank you Holiday House for the proof x
Her allergy to joy isn’t funny anymore
Thank you Holiday House for the proof x
Currently reading
August 22, 2025HELLO??????? HOLLY FCKAIRBALL
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
4.5🌟
This Dark Upper YA supernatural horror standalone had me in a chokehold all afternoon. I binged it in one sitting. That ending....damn did not expect it.
I really enjoyed the time jumping and flashback and the concept of this generational curse really had me hooked. This is a dark novel with some pretty intense scences and even scared me a bit! The mystery had me hooked and I loved the dynamic between Jesse and Mina. Sour patch has to be one of the cutest nicknames ever.
Hasam packs a punch in a short story, her writing and pacing were on point and I enjoyed the moral ambiguity and distress this story portrays as Mina uncovers more and more.
Definitely an autobuy author for me!
This Dark Upper YA supernatural horror standalone had me in a chokehold all afternoon. I binged it in one sitting. That ending....damn did not expect it.
I really enjoyed the time jumping and flashback and the concept of this generational curse really had me hooked. This is a dark novel with some pretty intense scences and even scared me a bit! The mystery had me hooked and I loved the dynamic between Jesse and Mina. Sour patch has to be one of the cutest nicknames ever.
Hasam packs a punch in a short story, her writing and pacing were on point and I enjoyed the moral ambiguity and distress this story portrays as Mina uncovers more and more.
Definitely an autobuy author for me!
September 8, 2025
IM SEATEDDDDDDD
March 27, 2026
4.5 ⭐️
I could not put this down. This was such a fun reading experience. Sara Hashem has definitely become a favorite author of mine. Loved this!
I could not put this down. This was such a fun reading experience. Sara Hashem has definitely become a favorite author of mine. Loved this!
November 9, 2025
I KNOW I WILL LOVE WHATEVER SARA HASHEM WRITES.
Want to read
September 4, 2025Ma’am. This date is so far away. 😭
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Where No Shadow Stays
Overall review - MIGHT contain spoilers.
I love Sarah Hashem, she’s the person who made me fall in love with reading and writing books again with The Jasad Heir so I was EXUBERANT when I found out that she would be publishing a new book and immediately saved it on my goodreads/fable reading list. So when I saw my favourite author post on instagram that the ALC’s were out on NetGalley, I KILLED people in my haste to grab my phone and request it. I wasn’t expecting to get it, but I did, and here I am.
I knew I was going to love this book, but I didn’t know just how much I would love it. I will be the happiest person when the actual books come out and I can read it physically instead of simply listening to it.
The writing style was beautiful, the characters are amazing and I loved their personalities. I loved Mina and her weird family history, Jesse was also a very strong character with a humourous personality (albeit, slightly dark and cold) that I fell in love with. It wasn’t a light story though, and I went into it expecting that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to stomach it and I would be forced to stop reading and mark as DNF. I don’t read/watch horrors or paranormal stuff; because I tend to be scared very easily and I don’t like stories that are like that. I really loved this one and I thought it was very well done. The story had me hooked from the very start, I was intrigued and I wanted to eat up everything that was in this new adventure/world that Ms. Hashem was taking me through.
I must say that was slightly taken aback by the occasional sweary words, but as an older teenager, I wasn’t bothered AT ALL and it was funny, they were used tastefully.
As I’m writing this review, I haven’t yet finished the book so I’m unsure of the ending and if I will continue to love the story and the characters, the only thing I’m scared of is that the ending will either be completely heartbreaking or open-ended heartbreaking (I don’t know which is worse).
I literally cannot wait until I get the book copy and can go through it to annotate and bookmark and dog ear the book to no end. I haven’t stopped smiling since this morning, which is when I started reading it.
There is one thing that could make this book not 5 full stars, I hate how there are so many scenes that are simply skipped over, we don’t get to find out what happened during that part of the story.
I’m 70% of the way through the book and my heart just dropped: I’ve had the feeling that the book doesn’t end in a nice way but now I’m terrified. Are Mina or Jesse going to die? Because it says that the curse kills everyone when it ends, so is that going to happen here? Is there no nice way for this story to end? Or is Jesse going to give her his soul perhaps?
I didn’t like the weird thing that was between Alex and Jesse, I understand that it created a distance between her current life and her old life. But I really would have preferred it if Jesse was there in his own right and there wasn’t a weird competition between the two.
HER AUNT? WHAT A DARK TURN!! This book is creeping me outtt! Is her dad really dead? That is horrible and leaves me with absolutely no hope.
I have one note is that Yasmina is a DAMN idiot! Why on earth would she go to this place, that she’s never been to, without warning anyone!!
What if Yasmina actually has been killing children and that we, as the readers, are being told something different?
Chapter 37: This chapter is scaring me, it really makes me feel like she isn’t going to survive.
Chapter 38: this happiness and beautiful scene doesn’t make me feel confident; I don’t trust Sara Hashem 😂😂. This feels like the facade before the storm coming. This isn’t real at all. No way. Where did her aunt just mysteriously disappear to? Is Jessie going to be the thing that the magic uses to harm her?
Maybe the book does end on a sweet note, without the hurt/angst and plain?
Chapter 39: SOMETHING is wrong with Jesse, something must have happened to him.
Her mother is perfectly horrible. She loved her but she hated everyone else. This chapter actually made me cry. What a book, what a story!! The only reason why I would give this book less than 5 stars is because it hurts. Why was I allowed to love her over the last two days of my life, only to have her ripped away from my soul.
Jesse Talbot finally set down roots in the town. Only to have his one and only true love be ripped away from him.
THAT ENDING SUCKED!! It was horrible. Still, five stars!
FAVOURITE QUOTES
- “Lose the head injury, and I’ll let you touch whatever you want.”
- “I would have gone anywhere with you.”
- “I would have stayed.”
Final star rating:
- 4.25/5
Overall review - MIGHT contain spoilers.
I love Sarah Hashem, she’s the person who made me fall in love with reading and writing books again with The Jasad Heir so I was EXUBERANT when I found out that she would be publishing a new book and immediately saved it on my goodreads/fable reading list. So when I saw my favourite author post on instagram that the ALC’s were out on NetGalley, I KILLED people in my haste to grab my phone and request it. I wasn’t expecting to get it, but I did, and here I am.
I knew I was going to love this book, but I didn’t know just how much I would love it. I will be the happiest person when the actual books come out and I can read it physically instead of simply listening to it.
The writing style was beautiful, the characters are amazing and I loved their personalities. I loved Mina and her weird family history, Jesse was also a very strong character with a humourous personality (albeit, slightly dark and cold) that I fell in love with. It wasn’t a light story though, and I went into it expecting that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to stomach it and I would be forced to stop reading and mark as DNF. I don’t read/watch horrors or paranormal stuff; because I tend to be scared very easily and I don’t like stories that are like that. I really loved this one and I thought it was very well done. The story had me hooked from the very start, I was intrigued and I wanted to eat up everything that was in this new adventure/world that Ms. Hashem was taking me through.
I must say that was slightly taken aback by the occasional sweary words, but as an older teenager, I wasn’t bothered AT ALL and it was funny, they were used tastefully.
As I’m writing this review, I haven’t yet finished the book so I’m unsure of the ending and if I will continue to love the story and the characters, the only thing I’m scared of is that the ending will either be completely heartbreaking or open-ended heartbreaking (I don’t know which is worse).
I literally cannot wait until I get the book copy and can go through it to annotate and bookmark and dog ear the book to no end. I haven’t stopped smiling since this morning, which is when I started reading it.
There is one thing that could make this book not 5 full stars, I hate how there are so many scenes that are simply skipped over, we don’t get to find out what happened during that part of the story.
I’m 70% of the way through the book and my heart just dropped: I’ve had the feeling that the book doesn’t end in a nice way but now I’m terrified. Are Mina or Jesse going to die? Because it says that the curse kills everyone when it ends, so is that going to happen here? Is there no nice way for this story to end? Or is Jesse going to give her his soul perhaps?
I didn’t like the weird thing that was between Alex and Jesse, I understand that it created a distance between her current life and her old life. But I really would have preferred it if Jesse was there in his own right and there wasn’t a weird competition between the two.
HER AUNT? WHAT A DARK TURN!! This book is creeping me outtt! Is her dad really dead? That is horrible and leaves me with absolutely no hope.
I have one note is that Yasmina is a DAMN idiot! Why on earth would she go to this place, that she’s never been to, without warning anyone!!
What if Yasmina actually has been killing children and that we, as the readers, are being told something different?
Chapter 37: This chapter is scaring me, it really makes me feel like she isn’t going to survive.
Chapter 38: this happiness and beautiful scene doesn’t make me feel confident; I don’t trust Sara Hashem 😂😂. This feels like the facade before the storm coming. This isn’t real at all. No way. Where did her aunt just mysteriously disappear to? Is Jessie going to be the thing that the magic uses to harm her?
Maybe the book does end on a sweet note, without the hurt/angst and plain?
Chapter 39: SOMETHING is wrong with Jesse, something must have happened to him.
Her mother is perfectly horrible. She loved her but she hated everyone else. This chapter actually made me cry. What a book, what a story!! The only reason why I would give this book less than 5 stars is because it hurts. Why was I allowed to love her over the last two days of my life, only to have her ripped away from my soul.
Jesse Talbot finally set down roots in the town. Only to have his one and only true love be ripped away from him.
THAT ENDING SUCKED!! It was horrible. Still, five stars!
FAVOURITE QUOTES
- “Lose the head injury, and I’ll let you touch whatever you want.”
- “I would have gone anywhere with you.”
- “I would have stayed.”
Final star rating:
- 4.25/5
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD!!!
Although I DID forget how diabolical Sara Hashem's endings were and what she did to us in The Jasad Crown...DIABOLICAL. I reread the last few pages a couple of times and then stared at my ceiling for a few minutes. UNbelievable.
If you knew me, a high school romance horror book is not something I would have picked up BUT because it was Sara Hashem I did, and I'm SO glad I did. To say that I loved this book means a lot. I would read anything written by this author and she is top of the auto-buy author list.
Bullet points for those short on time:
YA Supernatural Horror
Main First-Person POV, Minor Third-Person POV
High school seniors
Egyptian family lore and history
Slow burn cis het romance (low on the chili pepper scale)
Generational curses
Summary:
The story centers around Mina, a 17-year-old small-town Southern-Californian homecoming queen that is being haunted/hunted by something that followed her home after a visit to her aunt in Egypt/Masr. If she is left alone with someone, the THING possesses them and then tries to kill her...so you can imagine she loses her friends and current boyfriend pretty quickly, becoming a loner. Finding that fellow school loner, Jesse, is immune to the possession, she enlists his help to figure out what's happening. Even as Mina discovers Jesse has plenty of secrets of his own, the two try to find more about Mina's family history (including her mother's mysterious death) and how she might stay alive and get rid of the haunt before senior year is over.
Thoughts:
The order and layering of timelines in this book is fantastic. Each chapter uncovers more secrets and family lore until everything is completely unravelling and there's nothing we can do about it except face the truth...face what the ancestors have done and how we pay for it now.
Where No Shadow Stays asks a deeper question than what happens when a homecoming queen and bad boy loner come together to solve a mystery and fight a dangerous entity. It asks, if you could thrive at the expense of others, would you willingly choose to? Would you knowingly throw others under the bus so you could survive another day? Would you feed them to the beast so that you may live and live well? And how that trancends and builds over generations so that an entire group of people is reliant on sacrificing another group of people for gains...and also sometimes how desperate things must be in certain cases for people to make that choice in the first place. Or that shadows often seek out the easiest prey...and is there really a choice after all?
"They make us mortal so they could be everlasting"
It's timely and brilliant. Subtle in some ways and not in others.
There's also a poignant discussion around straddling two identities or worlds or heritages/histories, how racism and xenophobia shows up in many places including schools. Students being treated differently by teachers for example. There's a beautiful quote I can't not share here from this book:
"We aren't spare parts of an identity or uneven pieces struggling to fit everywhere they're placed. We will never be fully one or the other, but we can be something third. Something new and special and just as whole as those who came before us."
Another part of this book I adored was seeing Mina grow, even in the short time this book covers, into a version of herself that she thinks she might like better than a previous identity she grieved.
On the YA category:
Keep in mind this book is YA about seniors in high school. They are going to be a bit immature or not as mature as you would expect to find in books marketed to the adult category. That being said, I would read more YA if more YA books were written like this. There is a level of maturity to the writing style that doesn't annoy me at all. When I have read YA in the past, often authors write kids who are incredibly immature and childish in a really annoying way. This isn't that. So, if you have been put off YA in the past, I would encourage you to give this book a chance!
Last words:
This is one of those books that will haunt my heart for a long time to come. I HIGHLY recommend it but don't say I didn't warn you...
Thank you to Holiday House for the ARC copy for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Release date: March 31, 2026
Content Warnings
Child death, death of parent, murder, hauntings, possession, violence, mild sexual content
This is Sara's YA debut. If you like fantasy, check out her duology, The Scorched Throne for another amazing read!!
Although I DID forget how diabolical Sara Hashem's endings were and what she did to us in The Jasad Crown...DIABOLICAL. I reread the last few pages a couple of times and then stared at my ceiling for a few minutes. UNbelievable.
If you knew me, a high school romance horror book is not something I would have picked up BUT because it was Sara Hashem I did, and I'm SO glad I did. To say that I loved this book means a lot. I would read anything written by this author and she is top of the auto-buy author list.
Bullet points for those short on time:
YA Supernatural Horror
Main First-Person POV, Minor Third-Person POV
High school seniors
Egyptian family lore and history
Slow burn cis het romance (low on the chili pepper scale)
Generational curses
Summary:
The story centers around Mina, a 17-year-old small-town Southern-Californian homecoming queen that is being haunted/hunted by something that followed her home after a visit to her aunt in Egypt/Masr. If she is left alone with someone, the THING possesses them and then tries to kill her...so you can imagine she loses her friends and current boyfriend pretty quickly, becoming a loner. Finding that fellow school loner, Jesse, is immune to the possession, she enlists his help to figure out what's happening. Even as Mina discovers Jesse has plenty of secrets of his own, the two try to find more about Mina's family history (including her mother's mysterious death) and how she might stay alive and get rid of the haunt before senior year is over.
Thoughts:
The order and layering of timelines in this book is fantastic. Each chapter uncovers more secrets and family lore until everything is completely unravelling and there's nothing we can do about it except face the truth...face what the ancestors have done and how we pay for it now.
Where No Shadow Stays asks a deeper question than what happens when a homecoming queen and bad boy loner come together to solve a mystery and fight a dangerous entity. It asks, if you could thrive at the expense of others, would you willingly choose to? Would you knowingly throw others under the bus so you could survive another day? Would you feed them to the beast so that you may live and live well? And how that trancends and builds over generations so that an entire group of people is reliant on sacrificing another group of people for gains...and also sometimes how desperate things must be in certain cases for people to make that choice in the first place. Or that shadows often seek out the easiest prey...and is there really a choice after all?
"They make us mortal so they could be everlasting"
It's timely and brilliant. Subtle in some ways and not in others.
There's also a poignant discussion around straddling two identities or worlds or heritages/histories, how racism and xenophobia shows up in many places including schools. Students being treated differently by teachers for example. There's a beautiful quote I can't not share here from this book:
"We aren't spare parts of an identity or uneven pieces struggling to fit everywhere they're placed. We will never be fully one or the other, but we can be something third. Something new and special and just as whole as those who came before us."
Another part of this book I adored was seeing Mina grow, even in the short time this book covers, into a version of herself that she thinks she might like better than a previous identity she grieved.
On the YA category:
Keep in mind this book is YA about seniors in high school. They are going to be a bit immature or not as mature as you would expect to find in books marketed to the adult category. That being said, I would read more YA if more YA books were written like this. There is a level of maturity to the writing style that doesn't annoy me at all. When I have read YA in the past, often authors write kids who are incredibly immature and childish in a really annoying way. This isn't that. So, if you have been put off YA in the past, I would encourage you to give this book a chance!
Last words:
This is one of those books that will haunt my heart for a long time to come. I HIGHLY recommend it but don't say I didn't warn you...
Thank you to Holiday House for the ARC copy for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Release date: March 31, 2026
Content Warnings
Child death, death of parent, murder, hauntings, possession, violence, mild sexual content
This is Sara's YA debut. If you like fantasy, check out her duology, The Scorched Throne for another amazing read!!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
(Audio courtesy of RBmedia, Sara Hashem, and NetGalley.)
4 “I-fucking-hated-the-ending”⭐s
I spent 99.7% of this book absolutely SWOONING over the prose, the pacing, the characters, the setting, the horror. I talked about it ad nauseam with everyone in my life, singing its praises. I stayed up late to read despite being an old person with an old person’s bedtime, and I got genuinely annoyed every time I was interrupted. This book was set to go down as one of my all-time favorites.
Then I got to the ending.
And don’t worry, we will be discussing it, but let me talk about every other aspect of the story before my hurt, anger, and disappointment calcify and make it impossible for me to remember why I loved the story so much.
This is my first Sara Hashem book, and my GOD, but she’s an incredible writer! The story snared my attention from the very first sentence and never let me off the hook. I loved the way we started right in the thick of things. Curse? Active. We skipped all the “this can’t possibly be happening!” shock and confusion in favor of immediate, visceral horror.
And about that? THE. HORROR. Genuinely terrifying. The mortuary scene? I’m in my forties and it STILL had me side-eyeing my lamp like I was an eight-year-old afraid of the dark. I can leave the light on just a little bit longer … right?
Mina might be my very favorite YA character of ever. She is so genuinely good. And while she had carefully cultivated a persona, once that started falling away, that goodness remained. because it was core to her identity. She never stopped caring about people. Maybe even more than her fear of dying, she was afraid of making someone into a murderer. She was selfless in a lot of ways, but never felt fake or forced. And her struggles to connect with her Egyptian heritage? Her deep desire for family? It's all so real and raw and aching. Plus her romance with Jesse? Possibly the best one I've ever seen in YA. Worthy of ALL the swoons. I was so utterly done in by that first kiss.
That’s why…
Yeah. Alright. It’s time. Let’s do it. Let’s talk about the ending.
I wrote this quote down early in my read-through: “Hope is its own violence.” I didn’t realize that it was a warning to the reader, and I blithely, blindly went about hoping with my whole heart. The ending of this book took that hope and did every unfair, unjust, cruel thing to it. How dare
I hate it. I hate it so much. It’s awful and infuriating, but… beautifully written and well-earned.
But the REAL heartbreak is that it doesn’t feel like that was the ONLY meaningful ending that could have been. Often, a book is destined for one specific ending and if an author tries to force another one, it feels, well, forced.
But with this story, I genuinely feel like Sara Hashem could have ended That ending could have been just as beautifully written and just as well-earned.
I’m having trouble accepting what we got. I guess this is the kind of thing that makes a book discussable.
(Just an aside, but… why did we never see what was in the sketchbook? It was so weird that Mina didn't open it. I was left wondering… could something in there have helped?)
Audio-Specific 🎧: 9 hours 23 minutes. Victoria Nassif does a fantastic job capturing Mina’s voice: excited, in love, dreaming, and in endless torment and fear, she brought Mina to life in every situation. She also created distinct voices for the full cast (though I wasn't sold on the one she gave Jesse’s father) and did especially strong work with the dark things lurking in the narrative. The voices for the possessed, the ghosts, the shadows — never cheesy, never overdone. She kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved her Arabic pronunciation woven throughout. I ran the book at 1.25x just because that's my preference, but it works beautifully at 1x!
📌 TL;DR: The author wrote one of the most incredible books I’ve ever read and then chose to kabob my heart. I did not appreciate it.
4 “I-fucking-hated-the-ending”⭐s
I spent 99.7% of this book absolutely SWOONING over the prose, the pacing, the characters, the setting, the horror. I talked about it ad nauseam with everyone in my life, singing its praises. I stayed up late to read despite being an old person with an old person’s bedtime, and I got genuinely annoyed every time I was interrupted. This book was set to go down as one of my all-time favorites.
Then I got to the ending.
And don’t worry, we will be discussing it, but let me talk about every other aspect of the story before my hurt, anger, and disappointment calcify and make it impossible for me to remember why I loved the story so much.
This is my first Sara Hashem book, and my GOD, but she’s an incredible writer! The story snared my attention from the very first sentence and never let me off the hook. I loved the way we started right in the thick of things. Curse? Active. We skipped all the “this can’t possibly be happening!” shock and confusion in favor of immediate, visceral horror.
And about that? THE. HORROR. Genuinely terrifying. The mortuary scene? I’m in my forties and it STILL had me side-eyeing my lamp like I was an eight-year-old afraid of the dark. I can leave the light on just a little bit longer … right?
Mina might be my very favorite YA character of ever. She is so genuinely good. And while she had carefully cultivated a persona, once that started falling away, that goodness remained. because it was core to her identity. She never stopped caring about people. Maybe even more than her fear of dying, she was afraid of making someone into a murderer. She was selfless in a lot of ways, but never felt fake or forced. And her struggles to connect with her Egyptian heritage? Her deep desire for family? It's all so real and raw and aching. Plus her romance with Jesse? Possibly the best one I've ever seen in YA. Worthy of ALL the swoons. I was so utterly done in by that first kiss.
That’s why…
Yeah. Alright. It’s time. Let’s do it. Let’s talk about the ending.
I wrote this quote down early in my read-through: “Hope is its own violence.” I didn’t realize that it was a warning to the reader, and I blithely, blindly went about hoping with my whole heart. The ending of this book took that hope and did every unfair, unjust, cruel thing to it. How dare
I hate it. I hate it so much. It’s awful and infuriating, but… beautifully written and well-earned.
But the REAL heartbreak is that it doesn’t feel like that was the ONLY meaningful ending that could have been. Often, a book is destined for one specific ending and if an author tries to force another one, it feels, well, forced.
But with this story, I genuinely feel like Sara Hashem could have ended That ending could have been just as beautifully written and just as well-earned.
I’m having trouble accepting what we got. I guess this is the kind of thing that makes a book discussable.
(Just an aside, but… why did we never see what was in the sketchbook? It was so weird that Mina didn't open it. I was left wondering… could something in there have helped?)
Audio-Specific 🎧: 9 hours 23 minutes. Victoria Nassif does a fantastic job capturing Mina’s voice: excited, in love, dreaming, and in endless torment and fear, she brought Mina to life in every situation. She also created distinct voices for the full cast (though I wasn't sold on the one she gave Jesse’s father) and did especially strong work with the dark things lurking in the narrative. The voices for the possessed, the ghosts, the shadows — never cheesy, never overdone. She kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved her Arabic pronunciation woven throughout. I ran the book at 1.25x just because that's my preference, but it works beautifully at 1x!
📌 TL;DR: The author wrote one of the most incredible books I’ve ever read and then chose to kabob my heart. I did not appreciate it.
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