Tragic and engrossing, filled with nightmarish dreamscapes and menacing villains, it also treads the tender terrain of family, and the strange and sometimes dysfunctional ties between siblings. Highly recommended!” —Kendare Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns on When I Cast Your Shadow
"You'll never think of your nightmares the same way again. Darkly seductive. Sarah Porter’s writing glitters and her storytelling stuns in this twisted tale of siblings, love, and death." —Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval on When I Cast Your Shadow
“Gorgeous sentence-level writing and vibrant horror elevate this character-driven story about resilience, identity, and learning to save yourself.” —School Library Journal
“Sarah Porter is a genius. Her language is lush and dangerous, and her books burn with the beautiful, ferocious intensity of a bonfire in the darkest night. Read Never-Contented Things with the lights on. Then read it again.”—Brittany Cavallaro, New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Charlotte
“Sarah Porter’s Never-Contented Things creates a creepy new world like none I’ve seen before. Eerie, edgy and filled with mystery, Porter takes us to the depths of the magical and psychological.”—Danielle Paige, New York Times bestselling author of Dorothy Must Die
“In Porter’s hands, even undead, skinless slivers of shadow burst to life… A wildly innovative, whip-smart, and utterly spellbinding testament to family, memory, and love—and the messes and miracles of each—poised to possess legions of readers.” —Booklist, starred review, on When I Cast Your Shadow
“Porter offers a poignant consideration of how far we will go for the people we love… An excellent selection for libraries serving teens.” —School Library Journal, starred review on When I Cast Your Shadow
“….[D]elivers a deliciously disturbing and engaging portrait of the complexities of familial love and takes readers to the boundaries between innocence and corruption, self-preservation and sacrifice, the dreaming and the dead…. A haunting tale of possession that explores the ghostly landscape of dreams and nightmares—but more importantly, the particular dynamics among siblings, both oppressive and redemptive.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This book is relentlessly dark and horrifying, compelling the reader to seek out the redemption that these characters so desperately need. Ruby is so utterly bound by grief over Dash’s death, she seems unable to avoid becoming his victim. Everett, however, personifies the loving sibling bond that allows the cathartic conclusion of the novel to occur. …This book is recommended for teen fans of supernatural fiction ready for the dark and disturbing material."—VOYA
04/01/2019
Gr 9 Up-Ksenia is cold where foster brother Josh is warm; sharp where he is soft. She is almost eighteen and their foster parents are simultaneously planning for Ksenia's transition to a group home while preparing to adopt sixteen-year-old Josh. Ksenia is a bit of an oddity in their painfully conventional town with her androgynous looks and thrift store style without any of Josh's charisma to smooth things over. While Ksenia is resigned to their separation, Josh is desperate to hang on to Ksenia at any cost—even if it means making an impossible bargain with otherworldy creatures they encounter at a party. Entrapped in another world with Josh, Ksenia is determined to protect him despite his betrayal. Josh sees it as a refuge where no one can question his romantic love for his foster sister while Ksenia knows it is a prison with no possible escape. Josh and Ksenia are people no one would look for except for their best friend, Lexi, a girl whose life couldn't be more different and who, if she can find them, might have the key to breaking the spell. Porter blends horror and urban fantasy in her latest novel of faerie. Evocative, phantasmagorical prose carries across multiple viewpoints as Ksenia works to save herself and the people she loves, in this book filled with messy characters doing the best they can. VERDICT Gorgeous sentence-level writing and vibrant horror elevate this character-driven story about resilience, identity, and learning to save yourself.-Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library
2019-05-22
Two troubled foster siblings are drawn into a dark and twisted world where they'll never have to be apart, but getting what they want comes at a terrible price.
The self-contained Ksenia Adderley, who is genderqueer, and 16-year-old free-spirited Josh Korensky, who is pansexual, are on their own while their foster parents, Mitch and Emma, are on vacation. Ksenia is almost 18, and their foster parents want to separate them and put a stop to a relationship they consider unhealthy. One night, the two come across a group of strange, feral teens who lead Josh into the shadows, where he disappears. Ksenia takes her own life soon after. But nothing is what is seems, and Josh and Ksenia now exist, together, in a place built on their emotions and the whims of otherworldly beings that seek to twist Ksenia's and Josh's pain to their will. Josh and Ksenia's friend Lexi Holden is eventually drawn into their world and vows to help them escape. There is some clunky dialogue and the novel at times seems overlong, but Porter (Tentacle and Wing, 2017, etc.) weaves a tale that's a bloody and imaginative horror/dark fantasy hybrid that explores obsessive love, self-determination, and loss. Unfortunately, that imagination only slightly makes up for a messy third act. Most characters are white except for Lexi, who is African American.
A strange and exceedingly creepy fever dream that doesn't quite reach its potential. (Horror. 14-18)
