Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
Spooky Season continues on and I have another Spooky Season read for you. The longer the season goes on the longer my TBR list grows. The season makes me think of all the great books I have on my shelves and I gotta reread them all. So many books, so little time. Anyway, that brings me to today’s read.
Please give a very warm welcome to The Shadows by Alex North!
As always, a spoiler alert in order. If you’ve read any other review on this blog then you know I love to spoil the entirety of the books I review. This is your one and only warning. I also must issue a content and trigger warning. The Shadows has mentions of suicide. While the mentions don’t happen often, the topic is pretty relevant to the larger story. This book also deals with child death. The Shadows was inspired in part by the Slenderman true crime case so I think that gives you a good idea of what you’re getting into with The Shadows. Read this novel at your own discretion. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.
Paul Adams grew up in the small town of Gritten. When he was a young teen, a horrific crime rocked the community. Charlie Crabtree and Billy Roberts, two of Paul’s “friends,” committed a ritualistic murder and took the life of another teen. While the case was pretty open and shut, Charlie Crabtree disappeared into the ether never to be seen again. Twenty-five years later, Charlie’s crime is infamous in the dark corners of the internet and has inspired several copycat crimes.
Detective Amanda Beck is investigating the latest copycat crime in the nearby town of Featherbank, and while her case is pretty open and shut, she wants to get the answers to Gritten’s decades old mystery. So she travels to Gritten to discover some long buried secrets. Paul has also returned to Gritten for the first time in ages. He spent his adult life trying to forget what occurred in his youth and put his life back together. Sadly his mother is dying and has dementia so he has to come back to Gritten for the first time in decades.
Paul’s mother begins telling him that someone’s in her house. Someone begins following Paul and leaving him little gifts. Everywhere he looks he sees ghosts from his past. And his mom’s illness is bringing back many bad memories. Memories about that murder and the events leading up to it. Now that these memories are being dredged up, perhaps it’s time to figure out what really happened to Charlie all those years ago.
Let’s crack into this review. To begin, The Shadows has so many twists and turns that I found it difficult to put this read down. It’s fast paced with an interesting story. This is the second time I’ve read this book so I did know what was coming, but even then, I was enthralled. I remembered all the beats of the story, but in knowing what was to occur, the book changed. Things were different. The word choice took on new meanings. I gotta give it to Alex North, The Shadows has re-readability.
And I’m a big fan of the psychological aspect. Paul Adams went through hell in his childhood. He experienced an event that no one can truly bounce back from, and the author made that clear. His life, decades in the future, was affected by what he went through in his youth. The event replays in his head night and day despite his attempts to forget. His relationship with his mother was affected, as was every romantic relationship he had that readers don’t see. His experience is an invisible scar that didn't fully heal, and that’s made quite clear to readers through Paul’s internal monologue. Paul’s story was quite haunting. I think his psychological torment was one of my favorite aspects of this novel. Saying that makes me sound like such a bad person, but it’s true!
I honestly wish the whole story was told from Paul’s POV; I find him to be such an interesting character. For the most part the story is told from his POV, but every once in a while the novel follows Detective Beck. I found her character to be the weakest out of them all, and I don’t think the story really needed to follow her. I understand the reasons why, her POV is extremely relevant for the ending, but other than that she feels thrown in there. Her chapters are included to make the book feel longer. At least to me that’s how they feel. I’m certain others find her chapters important to the story and are not an issue. This is the only thing I would change about this read.
The Shadows is a great book, and holds up well on a reread. I think it warrants a reread as things are vastly different once readers learn the main twist. I’m very glad I picked up The Shadows again this Spooky Season.
With that, I must bid you all adieu. I shall see you all again next week with a new fun post. No review next week as I’m deep in Halloween Death Match prep at the moment. Stay tuned for that! If you can’t wait till next week to hear more from me then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. I’ve got lots of Spooky Season episodes to help get you through the season.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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