header-bg.png

Half of Me

Trilogy


Book Two

Coming Halloween 2026

Book cover titled "Half of Me Awakening" by Monique C. Shackleford, featuring two large faces of women with curly hair on a dark, stormy background with lightning over a city skyline, and silhouettes of seven people walking.
Book cover image for 'Half of Me' by Monique C. Shackleford. The cover features two women with dark complexions and curly hair, gazing at the camera with serious expressions. The background showcases a dark, stormy cityscape with tall buildings and turbulent skies, with flames at the top of the image.

Something was always there.

She just didn’t have a name for it.

Questions about her family that never quite settled. Moments that felt off in ways she couldn’t explain. A quiet sense that something about her life didn’t fully add up.

She tried to ignore it.

Until she couldn’t.

As she begins to dig into her past, she uncovers secrets that were never meant to stay buried. Not just about her family, but about a hidden world that exists right alongside her own.

A world shaped by power, legacy, and something that has been there longer than she can explain.

The deeper she goes, the more things begin to feel wrong.

The people she trusts feel different.

The truth feels… incomplete. Like something is missing.

And some things do not stay in the past. They surface.

Now she is caught between what she knows and what she is only beginning to understand. Every answer pulls her further into something darker. Something that is not waiting to be discovered.

Something that is breaking through.

Because some secrets are not just hidden.

They are unraveling.

And once they do, there is no putting it back.

Some families pass down secrets. Ivy Inherited something far more dangerous…

Meet the Author

A confident Black woman with styled hair, wearing a white shirt with a button-up front, a houndstooth vest with buttons, a green bow tie, a brown belt, and hoop earrings, posing against a plain white background.

Monique Shackleford writes fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, and epic fiction that explores identity, legacy, and the cost of buried secrets. Her stories center complex, culturally grounded characters navigating power, grief, love, and transformation in worlds where the supernatural feels dangerously close to home.

Raised in Baltimore and now based in Georgia, she draws inspiration from family bonds, hidden histories, and the quiet strength passed down through generations. Half of Me is her debut novel.