“This is absorbing, headlong reading, a play on classic horror with an inventiveness of its own… As with all the best illusions, you are left feeling not tricked, but full of wonder.”– The New York TimesThe haunting new thriller from Alex North, author of the New York Times bestseller The Whisper ManYou knew a teenager like Charlie Crabtree. A dark imagination, a sinister smile–always on the … Charlie Crabtree. A dark imagination, a sinister smile–always on the outside of the group. Some part of you suspected he might be capable of doing something awful. Twenty-five years ago, Crabtree did just that, committing a murder so shocking that it’s attracted that strange kind of infamy that only exists on the darkest corners of the internet–and inspired more than one copycat.
Paul Adams remembers the case all too well: Crabtree–and his victim–were Paul’s friends. Paul has slowly put his life back together. But now his mother, old and suffering from dementia, has taken a turn for the worse. Though every inch of him resists, it is time to come home.
It’s not long before things start to go wrong. Paul learns that Detective Amanda Beck is investigating another copycat that has struck in the nearby town of Featherbank. His mother is distressed, insistent that there’s something in the house. And someone is following him. Which reminds him of the most unsettling thing about that awful day twenty-five years ago.
It wasn’t just the murder.
It was the fact that afterward, Charlie Crabtree was never seen again…
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I listened to the audiobook for this. I thought the narrators did a good job bringing this story to life. This book takes place both in the present and twenty five years ago. A tragedy happened 25 years ago that is still haunting people to this day. Paul goes home to find that not all is well in his hometown. The book goes between Paul and the detective on the case. I liked having the different perspectives in the book. I didn’t like this book as much as I liked The Whisper Man but it was still a good thriller book to read. There is a lot of creepy things that happen in this book. The sense of loss is strong in this book.
*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily giving my honest opinion*
I couldn’t wait to jump into this book. Last year’s book by this author was one of my favorite books of the year. I went into this one really hoping for another bone-chilling read!
This book is side-connected to the author’s previous book, The Whisper Man. You do NOT have to read The Whisper Man to read this one though. The town for the previous book does hold a significance to this story. If you read this book first, you will end up wanting to read the other just off the pieces that are given in this book.
The only let down for me in this book was that it wasn’t so much of a horror like the previous book. I wish it had been more scary. I really wanted the creep factor. It definitely wasn’t as strong in this book.
There are a couple of mysteries in this one. They are connected, yet standalone mysteries. Okay, they’re totally connected. They just felt separate at times. I was wholly immersed in getting all of the answers to this book. I can say I put the pieces together later in the book. This left me feeling satisfied. I get a little let down when I figure stuff out too soon.
Overall, this book is definitely on the must-read list. For all of you thriller junkies, this one will definitely be one you don’t want to miss.
I’ve been listening to more audio books lately and was very excited to see the newest North book available to my ears! I was in for a wonderful surprise; not only were the narrators great at telling their story but they were able to capture all of the creepy tales, uncertainty and mystery in each line of this newest story! This well thought out and plotted story surrounds a traumatic event in the lives of a few young children years before. When stories and local events start to look like the past is coming back to haunt the present, our protagonist Paul comes back home to help his ill mother. Paul’s mother begins spouting strange stories and sentences about Red Hands and the woods to Paul that make him believe she may hold more to the secrets of the past, but what are they and how do they connect with the here and now. A large part of this storyline centers around lucid dreaming and so much of the way the story was told was haunting and made this yet another difficult book to read at bedtime without the story infiltrating a restful sleep. Not to mention, it was such a quick and captivating story that it was hard to stop and not continue to the last word. The narrators were great and helped break up the characters by using different narrators. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe Alex North is definitely a writer to watch as he has a strong sense of character development and original story told in a beautiful yet haunting way. Sure to entertain you to the last page!
I just finished this audiobook today. The narrator does amazing job keeping me listening. I enjoyed this book just like Alex North first book The Whispering Man. I will continue reading anything that Alex North writes. The characters are amazing. I do recommend Alex North books.
About Book-
When kids believe that they can live in a dream world and they can do things in this dream world. Bad things end up happening and people end up dead. Paul comes back into his home town. Due to his mother had fallen and not doing so well, But what Paul doesn’t realize the past comes to haunt him. Amanda who comes into this town because someone haas copied the murders from many years ago. Again I highly recommend this book. I give it four stars because I didn’t want this book to come to end.
We listened to this on a recent long road trip and found it enjoyable, well-paced, intriguing. Lots of guessing along the way about who dun what.
I loved this book. Found it very scary. No sophomore slump here!
I haven’t had the time to completely finish The Whisper Man yet, but when the chance to listen and review Alex North’s The Shadows popped up I had to do it. That synopsis alone had me hooked.
Atmosphere is everything in The Shadows. A decaying industrial town backed up to a forest that seems forbidding and unnatural. There isn’t anything spectacular or unique about the town beyond it’s slow, seemingly inevitable demise. North weaves a creepy, intriguing tale of murder complete with lucid dreaming while straddling that divide between paranormal and mundane. North kept me guessing throughout the entire book. Is it something paranormal or something more routine? Is Paul just a bit cracked from the pressure?
The detective’s POV felt a little extraneous as time went on. While parts were necessary for the story to tie small parts together, I didn’t require her box metaphor and angst regarding her father. I think my dislike of the character POV bled over into my reaction to Hannah’s performance. It was good, but I wasn’t blown away. It would be unfair to say it was due to her abilities, as I really do think it is because I didn’t need Amanda hijacking the story.
My highlight for this book has to be John Heffernan though! He did a phenomenal job of bringing North’s words to life. I’m positive I wouldn’t have been near as affected if I had read the book. Absolutely brilliant.
While I haven’t read the physical copy, I definitely recommend listening to The Shadows. Especially if you are in the mood for an eerie story expertly performed by a narration duo.
**I voluntarily read/listened and reviewed a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to Netgalley & MacMillan Audio for gifting me a copy of this audiobook. This review is my own.
While this is my first Alex North novel, I had high expectations since I’ve heard nothing but good things about his writing. Maybe that was my first mistake. While it wasn’t a horrible book, it also wasn’t amazing and it left me confused about things even days after finishing the book.
This is a story about lucid dreams which turns into murder, both in the present and 25yrs ago. The Shadows is told from two POV and flops back and forth between present day and the past (25yrs prior), which sometimes was a bit confusing. I really appreciated though that the audiobook had two different narrators for the different POVs, it made it much easier to follow.
I enjoyed the creepy supernatural feel that the first part of this book had, especially with Paul’s confused mother and the secrets that she’s hiding. With that said, I found the second part of the book to be a bit confusing and a little too much. It felt a bit like the author throwing everything at the wall and hoping something would stick. It took an unpredictable turn (which I can appreciate) but that turn was so unpredictable that it felt like I ended up in a whole different story. It honestly just felt like the story was trying too hard to be something that it wasn’t, if that makes any sense.
Alex North is a master storyteller. I absolutely loved the Whisper Man, and The Shadows proves Alex North is much more than just a stellar debut novel.
Like The Whisper Man, The Shadows is told from multiple points of view, though not as many. There is a good bit more language in this book than the other book – lots of F-words, mostly at the beginning where there are lots of conversations between teenage boys. The two books are not connected, however Detective Amanda Beck is back on the case. This time she’s looking for the root of a copycat killing that appears to have grown from a decades-old murder shrouded in mystery and urban legend.
Paul Adams is returning to his hometown of Gritten where memories best left buried threaten to overwhelm him. He hasn’t been back since college, and wouldn’t be now except that his ailing mother has taken a turn for the worse. In her fog and confusion, the past and the present intertwine. But as current events start to spiral out of control, Paul begins to realize his mother may be the sane one and that the past is far from buried and gone.
This story has twist after twist that I didn’t see coming.
As for the technical aspects – I experienced this read as an audiobook. I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook. He reads naturally and gives each character distinction. My major issue was that due to some initial hiccups with the NetGalley Shelf App, I kept losing my place when I would hit pause, and it was difficult to find it again because the chapter numbers did not match up with the section numbers on the audio. I think introduction was “1”, and prologue was “2”, making chapter one “section 3”. I would prefer a format where the the audio breaks match the chapter breaks in number. Other than that, I highly recommend this as an audiobook.
All in all, Alex North is now in the “If he writes it, I’ll read it!” category.
Twenty five years ago there was a murder by Charlie Crabtree that shocked the small town and sending Paul away from home. Now Paul is back and his mother’s health is failing. Paul at one point had been friends with Charlie who believed in dream journals and how they can use they can control their dreams. Staying in his mothers house the red handprints begin to reappear and Paul is trying to figure out why they seem to be targeting him.
There is a ton of stuff in this book that I am not going to delve into as it is better to read it and see how the story unfolds. I liked this one quite a bit but Whisper Man was better read for me personally. I struggled a bit with the dream aspect but overall the story was haunting and I was pulled in and surprised by the ending.
While The Shadows by Alex North can be read as a standalone, it does have the same detective (Amanda Beck) that was in The Whisper Man, plus relatively the same setting so I ended up reading them in order. You don’t get to know Detective Beck all that well, but it was nice to go a little deeper into her character in this book. I didn’t find The Shadows quite as creepy as The Whisper Man for some reason, but it is definitely still creepy, disturbing, and complex.
I did the audio for this one as well, and I really enjoyed having two different narrators. Hannah Arterton voiced Detective Beck while John Heffernan narrated for Paul and I enjoyed them both. I do think this book might be better read though as once again I was a little confused at times just because it is on the complex side, especially when we start finding out who did what. I ended up having to go back and read certain parts of my physical copy just to make sure I understood what was going on. This could just be a me problem, but I think it is something to keep in mind.
I really enjoy North’s writing style, and The Shadows was a solid read for me. The crime/detective fiction aspect was very satisfying, and I thought there was a bit less of the supernatural in this book, but it still gets a little creepy. Nothing scared me to the point of nightmares, but the lucid dream aspect was freaky and not something I would be interested in having happen to myself! There are two timelines and quite a few characters, and I liked how the author linked everything together, even if it did get confusing at times.
I would read The Shadows if you are a fan of this author, or if you are just looking for an engrossing crime fiction/police procedural novel. I liked it about the same as The Whisper Man and am looking forward to reading whatever North writes next!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance listening copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Having thoroughly loved ”The Whisper Man”, I was delighted to get my hands on this author’s next book! His book cover designer is amazing!
The concept of lucid dreams was very intriguing, but I didn’t care for it as much as I anticipated. I was confused by the dual timeline and too many characters. With so much going on, I couldn’t keep up with everything.
This audiobook was my introduction to the new NetGalley Shelf app. The story might have been less bewildering as an actual book, rather than audiobook. But I’m still a fan of the author, and will certainly read his next book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Alex North and Macmillan Audio, for this free digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
Another incredible group read with No Rules – Just Thrills!
My Rating: 3 ’s
Published: July 7th 2020 by Macmillan Audio
Duration: 9 hrs 5 min
Recommend: Maybe. Great author…might be better as an actual book.
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The book was very slow. There were times I thought we were finally getting to the action and good parts only for it to slow back down again. I’ve listened to thrillers and chillers before and this book wasn’t even creepy to me. The narrator was great in trying to get the creepiness across in his voice but I just feel this book wasn’t for me. I tried three different times to listen and play close attention to what was going on. I just kept seeing such good things about this book and author, I am sad it ended up falling flat for me.
I received this audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5s. Not bad, but I think there was no way to live up to The Whisper Man…my bar was too high. This one has a complicated story line that ends up taking away from the suspense at times. There were a few creepy parts but not so creepy I had to keep a light on… good read but The Whisper Man is still my fav Alex North novel!
this book was okay i thought i would like this better since i love thrillers but it was kinda boring and hard to get through the first few chapters i have not read the author’s other book whisper man and this book made me not want to read it.
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Alex North is a talented author. These last two books of his have blown me away and I devoured as fast as I could. The Shadows is his second novel and just as good (if not BETTER) than his first (The Whisper Man). I’m officially obsessed! I felt like that Shadows had a blend of Slenderman, Nightmare on Elm Street, and IT (for it’s coming of age aspects). It was so damn good! Is it to early to bed for the next book? Because I don’t know how I’ll be able to wait for another!
If you’ve read The Whisper Man and enjoyed it then you’ll definitely like this one. I can tell that Alex North has his own unique flair when it comes to writing and it’s visible (and apparent) in both novels. His books aren’t necessarily horror, but they are very creepy. One would think they are supernatural in nature but in this case, there’s much more than meet the eye. I love how he built this book up and shocked the hell out of us!
I don’t want to get into the plot all that much because there’s no sense in me doing that when you can read the blurb but I will say this: This is a part coming of age tale, part murder mystery, part psychological horror, and suspense. There are many layers to the story and reading it and becoming fully invested in the story is easy. I highly recommend it!
Oh my word, I don’t even know where to begin with this review.
I loved the Whisper Man! I went into that one blind, I didn’t even read the synopsis, not even the first sentence. Saw the cover, saw the genre, saw the overall rating and said, “Sure, why not?” And it was a 5 star read for me. So going into thrillers totally blind has been my new thing. Not even reading a sentence. It just allows me to be completely taken by surprise from the get go, and I LOVE IT. Thrillers is a tough genre. It’s basically all been done, right? So, how do you keep the thrills and the suspense, and the twists coming? Well, Alex North seems to have it figured out and done it yet again!
Since I think this is another one that’s great for going into blind, I don’t want to say anything about the story itself, but I will say that I was honestly thrown off and surprised. I love when there’s twists I don’t see coming.
This is great for anyone who likes a slow, steady building suspense thriller. The narrators, Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan, were wonderful and helped me to connect to their characters while the story was building. The alternating of past and present timelines was a brilliant way to give us mini cliffhangers. Since the story does jump between timelines and characters, it was helpful having the dual narrators.
The story, and narrators, kept me intrigued (and surprised) throughout. I don’t always need an edge of your seat thriller, so I found The Shadows highly enjoyable. I pre-ordered a signed copy from the UK, which I’m still waiting for delivery (thanks Covid!), and I’m looking forward to reading it and seeing what hints where left that I missed.
So, why not 5 stars? The ending. It wasn’t awful, it just …. fell a little flat for me. Sure, I didn’t see it coming until we neared the end, but I still wanted something…more. I loved how The Whisper Man ended, so maybe I just had my expectations a little too high.
But overall, fantastic thriller!
Huge thanks to Netgalley & Macmillan Audio/Celadon books for the ALC and the opportunity to share my thoughts.
Well, it does begin with a rather disturbing scenario in the prologue which prepares you for a wild story. A detective 25 years later facing a similar disturbing crime scene. This crime scene is oddly staged with a tableau and red hand prints carefully placed around it. What is one to make of such a coincidence? Or is it? A man visits his mother after 25 years away where she is in hospice dying from dementia and cancer. What does she say when she wakes up and sees her son after 25 years? “You shouldn’t be here!” “There are red hands everywhere!”
If that isn’t enough to get your heart racing then I think you need to finish reading this thriller!
I received a complimentary audiobook from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an unbiased review.
The prologue begins with a bloodied playground and the narrator being driven to the police station by his mother. At 15 yo he felt “responsible” for Charlie Crabtree and the tragedy that followed.
It’s 25 years since that brutal crime was committed by troubled teens. It seems their legacy lives on with the recent onset of copy cat killings. Detective Amanda Beck fights her own nightmares being the daughter of a former police officer. She makes her weekly visits to Rosewood Gardens Cemetery to connect with her father and seek guidance.
When Elliot Hick and Robby Foster are found bloodied and carrying a knife, the police are led to the crime scene in the quarry. There they discover a teenage boy on a circular stone floor surrounded by bloodied handprints.
Paul Adams returns to his hometown when contacted about his mother’s ailing health. Daphne was his mother’s hospice caretaker since her fall, cancer and worsening dementia. He sadly remembers it’s been 25 years since he last visited his mother and hometown. Although, he would call his mother he never really invested much effort in maintaining contact. He preferred to leave the past just as he left it in the shadows all those years ago.
Paul is startled when he visits his mother and discovers she had been reading a book he borrowed many years ago, The Nightmare People” with the red devil face in the cover. Suddenly, his mother boots up in bed and warns Paul that she should never have come. She screams as she recalls something from the past yelling about red hands everywhere.
As he is in town, Paul confers with a friend and former crush Jenny Chambers who had lent him “The Nightmare People”. They reminisce about the past and try piece together the dreadful events that divided all the friends. Back then, it seemed Charlie Crabtree had a following who were desperate to believe his claims of lucid dreaming. Paul was a loner who followed along until Charlie’s suggestions became to incredulous and dangerous.
It takes Paul returning to his family home to make sense of his mother’s ramblings. As Paul is trying to piece together events from the past, Detective Amanda Beck makes a visit to Billy Roberts who had been released from prison for the crime many years ago. It seems the only one who seemed to escape the scene was Charlie who was never seen again. Rumors spread that perhaps his lucid dreaming theory was true which led to copy cat killers.
This is a wild story which keeps you in the edge of your seat. There are several stories from past and present that seem to be swirling around. It was at times difficult to keep track of the many characters. Everyone wonders what happened to Charlie. What really happened that night? Why does Paul’s mother seem to have a collection of articles regarding the crime and every copy cat murder since? This book will keep your mind spinning until the end.
The Shadows is a supernatural mystery that unfolds from a narrative in present time and in flashes back to a tragedy that happened 25 years ago, something which seems to be recurring now.
While the novel jumped around too much, from now to then to lucid dreaming states, what it did well was surprise me with the amount of heart and insight it offered. I may have gotten frustrated with the flow, but the messages were thoughtful and warm. Not all of the characters were likeable, but they were realistic and sympathetic. I actually teared up a bit at the very end.
Is it worth a read? Of course, but keep your expectations from going too high. (this is not a compliment –>) The Shadows feels like a Stephen King novel in its structure: great build up, great characterizations and some very quotable insights, but the ending feels rushed and is quite a disappointment in its execution.
———- SPOILER ALERT: ———-
I found the supernatural aspect was wedged in, and my feeling that it was ill-fitting grew as the story progressed. I had hoped for more resolution, actually ANY resolution, to the lucid dreaming experiences, but there was none to be had. I get that the inexplicable was the glue that held the story together, but some explanation for how it existed within this world Alex North created, which included the sad community of Gritton Wood and the forest of The Shadows, would have made a huge difference. It would have elevated this book from creepy to something much more haunting and memorable.
I received a free copy of the audiobook of The Shadows through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I think it’s fair to say that this wasn’t exactly what many of us were expecting. I don’t know y’all… something just wasn’t working for me with this one.
Let’s just for minute contemplate the idea of “lucid dreaming”, some might consider this just ludicrous. I however, I wanted to buy it, I wanted it to work, but for some reason, it just didn’t come together here. At least not for me. Maybe there was just too much going on, and rather than converging, everything just seem to run parallel. Maybe I just need to think on this one some more. Hmmm…
As for the narration, I can’t say this was as bad as with The Whisper Man, but perhaps it simply doesn’t work well as an audiobook. There’s not as much dialogue, so you find yourself getting lost in the narration. There’s also not enough descriptive writing in my opinion to pull you in.
I want to thank NetGalley, MacMillian Audio, and Alex North for allowing me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for my review.