I wasn't sure what to expect from the story, but the wonderful cover drew me to this book. The author jumps into the action almost immediately by describing a horrifying occurrence where the MC's brother is taken over by shadows and hurts her as she tries to bring him out of the nightmare. Sadly, their adopted mother is of the superstitious type and tries to "cure" him with various types of abuse (e.g. holding his hand over the fire or locking him in a cellar). I am very interested to see where this story goes. I do wish there had been a trigger warning for child abuse.