Chasing Shadows is a Young Adult novel by Swati Avasthi that's told in alternating prose chapters and comic book pages.
Savitri, Holly, and Holly's twin Corey are a crowd of three that do everything together, from parkour to reading superhero comics. But in one life-changing moment, Holly and Corey's car is shot up by a wiry-looking gang member. Now Savitri is grieving, Holly is in a coma, and Corey is dead—but when Holly comes out of the coma, she reveals strange visions of the land of the dead, and her own role as a budding superhero.
Drawing on Savitri's namesake of the perfect wife who managed to outfox Yama, Holly is convinced that together, she and Savitri can bring Corey back to life and escape the snake demon Kortha. But there's a fine line between devotion, grief, and madness, and Savitri must decide whether to hang on or to let go.
This novel contains examples of:
- Back from the Dead: Holly eventually plans to resurrect Corey by using Savitri as a proxy to escape the world of the dead. While Savitri wishes it were real, she knows it's impossible and refuses.
- Big Bad: Kortha, a snake-like death god, accepts "deliveries" of the dead from agents like Wiry and is always keeping Corey just out of Holly's reach. Ends up subverted as he's not real.
- Bittersweet Ending: Holly is on the path to recovery and finally accepts Corey's death and being unable to be resurrected, but her and Savitri's friendship is permanently damaged.
- But Now I Must Go: The story ends with Savitri accepting an offer to go to college in Princeton and leaving Holly behind to heal. She and Holly promise to stay in contact with each other.
- The Cavalry: Just when it looks like Wiry's about to get away with knowledge of how to find Savitri and Holly, Holly's dad and other police show up to arrest him.
- Doing In the Wizard: Eventually it becomes clear that the supernatural occurrences are part of Holly's illness, not reality.
- The Dragon: Holly sees Wiry as an agent of Kortha's who killed her brother on his behalf. Ends up subverted, as Wiry wanted to frame a local gang for the shooting and had nothing to do with Holly's beliefs.
- Everybody Hates Hades: Played with. Yama in Hindu mythology is a benevolent death deity who presides over justice and was willing to give the mythological Savitri extra time with her husband when she tricked him. In Holly's visions, Kortha plays it straight as a twisted serpentine death god who never makes fair deals.
- The Hero Dies: In-universe, the fictional superheroine The Leopardess dies in the final issue of her comic.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Holly's visions show her that Savitri killing Wiry would make her just as bad, at least to Kortha, and she pleads with her not to do it.
- Le Parkour: All three kids are parkouring experts, and Holly and Savitri use the skill to their advantage in trailing Wiry.
- Medium Blending: The story is told mainly in prose, with comic book pages for Holly's visions and nightmares. As Holly's mental state worsens, the comic book pages appear more frequently in her chapters. Savitri's chapters are told entirely in prose.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: The book follows Holly's increasingly fantastic attempts to do this by saving Corey, and Savitri's confused attempt to help and stick with her friend. It isn't until the last fourth that she's able to properly grieve after being hospitalized, and Savitri realizes the best thing she can do for her own health is to let Holly go.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Savitri and Holly trying to bring Wiry in on their own results in much worry for their families and Wiry knowing how to track them down.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The gang member that shot up Corey's car is referred to as "Wiry" for much of the book.
- Refusal of the Call: Ultimately, Savitri refuses to go along with Holly's plan to bring Corey back, choosing life by walking away.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Holly is on the receiving end of two of them.
- The first one comes from her father after she steals his gun out of his lockbox and takes it with her when she and Savitri decide to hunt down Wiry. After showing up to save them, he points out that if Savitri hadn't sent him their location, Wiry might have hurt or killed them. And even if that wasn't the case, he still had to lie about leaving his gun unattended to keep from having to arrest his own daughter. Unfortunately, Holly's too Drunk with Power to listen to him.
- She receives a second one from Savitri. Her best friend lays into her about how selfish she's been ever since waking up from the coma: ditching her therapy appointments, becoming obsessed with finding Wiry, nearly getting them arrested by taking her father's gun once they did find Wiry, and finally drugging Savitri into a near-death state in a deluded attempt to bring her brother back to life. And all because she can't just let Corey go and deal with her grief. This one prompts a Heel Realization and a My God, What Have I Done? moment from Holly.
- Sadly Mythtaken: In-universe. After the extent of Holly's psychosis is revealed, Savitri and her mom comment on how Kortha is nothing like the benevolent Yama.
- Sanity Slippage: After waking up from her coma, Holly finds herself unable to move past Corey's death and becomes obsessed with hunting down Wiry to avenge her brother. Even when she and Savitri succeed in getting him arrested, she still doesn't get better. Instead, she changes her obsession from finding Wiry to trying to bring Corey back to life. This culminates in Holly drugging Savitri to near-death in order to try and force her to help Holly bring Corey back to life.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Holly's chapters delve into her increasingly-fragile mental state as her visions and mental health worsen, culminating in bringing Savitri close to death in the hopes she can bring Corey out with her.
- Traumatic Haircut: Holly forces Savitri to shave her (Holly's) head in a frenzy when she remembers that Wiry cut a chunk of her hair in the attack. Her new look is seen in one of the comic pages right afterward, and it contributes heavily to Holly's Sanity Slippage.
- Wham Shot: What would normally be a Wham Line becomes a Wham Shot when it happens on a comic book panel instead of in prose. When Holly and Savitri seem to have a breakthrough in narrowing down Wiry's location, the two decide to stake out the area to try and find him. But after Savitri leaves to get ready, Holly pulls a box out of a closet, thinking she'll need it when she finds Wiry. The final panel on the page shows the open box, revealing a loaded gun!
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: After Holly and Savitri spend most of the book hunting down Wiry, he gets caught and arrested at the end of the book's second act. The rest of the story deals with Savitri dealing with the full extent of Holly's Sanity Slippage even after Wiry's defeat.
