Your Shadow Half Remains

Moraine’s (Sword and Star) latest takes listeners on an emotional journey through human interactions in a postapocalyptic landscape. In this pandemic-ravaged world, simply looking into someone else’s eyes triggers and ignites murderous rage and violence. Riley has been alone for a long time until she meets Ellis. She wants to get closer to him but is also cautious and distrustful, unable to trust her judgment as unexplained phenomena pile up. Moraine, a writer for podcasts including The Shadow Files of Morgan Knox, keeps a tight focus on Riley as she tries to discover how to engage with people when eye contact leads to certain disaster. However, that tight focus, combined with Riley’s questionable reliability as a narrator, occasionally wears thin. Additionally, Riley’s incomplete explanation of how the plague spreads might frustrate some listeners. Moraine’s audiobook narration, with her pulling double duty as author and voice actor, does give Riley’s character some emotional pathos despite her slippery nature.