Well, well, well. This book was quite a surprise. I really enjoyed it! I didn't know what to expect of the story, but I have wanted to try some New Adult Fantasy, fantasy that was a bit darker, and a bit sexier, and this one sure delivered. This one was a Hanzel and Gredal retelling with a cursed town, werewolves, and a forest haunted by a man eating witch. No Gingerbread House here.

Pros:
Very dark set up. The Shrike is a witch who is picking off men and boys in the small village of Krume. She kills them and leaves their hearts on the family door step. Super creepy. The town has turned to a new preacher for guidance, and he seems convinced that they need to blame a witch for their problems, and his lecherous hands are wandering to Greta.

Hans and Greta are twins who have been left alone in the world after both of their parents die and they only have each other. There relationship was mostly realistic, but Hans is definitely the more annoying of the two.

There are other aspects I want to get into but I want to keep this spoiler free. I really did have a great time with this story. It was engaging, mysterious, and it had a great cliffhanger.

Cons:
The first half was built up very nicely, but somewhere around 60% there was a sharp left turn into the sexual. I know this is New Adult, and it isn't the sex in of its self, its how the sex arises and who is having it. It seemed a bit out of place and it was a bit random.

Also, the origin of the Shrike was confusing to me, they did reveal who she is but not what or how. Hopefully we will get more into this soon.

I give this 4 stars. I was very into it, it was a fast read, and I want more.

The Shrike & The Shadows – The Witch of Krume Book 1 by Chantal Gadoury and A.M. Wright is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel only the names (and places) have been changed to protect the innocent … okay, just kidding about that last part! It’s actually about Greta and Hans, the village of Krume, the haunted woods that surround it, and the Shrike (the witch) that preys on the not so innocent men of the village.

To start, this is not your classic fairytale that you’d read to children! For one, The Shrike is a witch that preys on men by using their lust against them. She lures them in to the woods by appearing as a beautiful woman and then things end badly for them, heart ripped out of the chest kind of badly. Did I mention there’s sex in this book? Ok, well yeah, there is, so like I said, not your classic fairytale. The villagers of Krume are a superstitious lot and at the bidding and lies of a few nefarious villagers – I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the pervert douche Father Emory here - are certain that the siblings are practicing black magic. Hans and Greta have a choice: Stay and burn for the crime of witchcraft or be banished from the village. Hans (who I’ve nicknamed the Horndog in my own mind) and Greta (the patient) choose banishment so in to the forest they go and what a forest it is! Here they encounter a series of misfortunate events and some unfortunate creatures. I’d like to mention that The Shrike is an absolute terror. I’m just going to leave it at that.

For me, this is where the story really takes off. The authors did such a wonderful job in the telling of this tale! It had tremendous atmosphere, was easy to envision, and the characters were well-developed and flawed – just the way I like them! It was an absolute delight to read and I’m really looking forward to the next in the series.
A big thank you to NetGalley, The Parliament House, and Xpresso Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Side note: I’ve been sick with some funky chest cold so I read this last night and didn’t go to bed until 5:30 am until I finished it and I don’t regret it a bit!

An interesting take on a well known story. A 3.5/5 rounded up. I found the prose interesting, and the story compelling although at times the characters felt slightly unrealistic. The twists and turns of the book were fascinating even if I could see where they were going. A lot of the fun of this book came from guessing the path that the story is moving and then watching it go. That being said, the book occasionally became tripped up in it's paranormal setting and confused characters. It occasionally felt like the author wasn't quite sure of where they want the story to go which only resulted in more confusion for the reader. In the end, it's a compelling adventure story and I look forward to reading the sequel.

It's been a delightful reading, as it is all you can ask for: easy to read, fast-paced and as thrilling as surprising. It has adventure, horror and a bit of romance (just a bit, and that's perfect 😼), so well mixed that you always want more of the story 🤩 As a retelling of Hansel and Gretel, we have two siblings, woods and a witch, but in a darker and creepier way: no sweets or candies, no house made of ginger and chocolate (this witch has more adult ways to attract her victims 😼), but a continuous nightmare of death and blood across those cursed woods while Hans and Greta try to scape from who they call The Shrike --as the bird that impales its preys on branches 🙀 4'5/5⭐ Can't wait for the sequel 😻

The Shrike & The Shadows by Chantel Gadoury is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel, the age of fairytale that tells of brother and sister and the witch in the forest who eats children. In the adaption, the witch is named The Shrike and she targets the boys and men of a local village, leaving only their hearts behind after stripping them from their families.

It’s a story about familial relationships, loss, inventive gossip and gospel, and also fear. It’s heavily set in an alternate 17th century setting sharing perspectives between Hans and Greta, the main characters,

<i>I was given an arc of this novel on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own and I am submitting this review of my own accord. </i>

I really wanted to fall in love with the book, the premise and concept blew me away. As I delved in, I could picture the village and the characters but I found it hard to follow. As a dual-perspective novel, I found that both Hans and Greta shared a similar voice, which meant that switching between their perspectives would lose your attention more easily than not. And their relationship while cute to begin with, made me uncomfortable, it seemed unhealthy in a way.

I found myself not relating to either character, I felt the for the first half of the novel Greta served no purpose but as a crutch for Hans and Hans himself wasn’t particularly likeable. But I think what took away from the story the most, were the grammatical errors I came across, like on Page 22 of the brook “Nearly tripping over own two feet”. It made reading the text difficult as you came across these moments in text.

The Shrike, however, carries the highest regard from me, the legend was there, the storytelling was there, even the suspense and foreboding. The writer succeeded my expectations by far and made sure that The Shrike frightened and befell a certain elegance at the same time. And it did. You could sense the fear in the villagers, the tension between neighbours. The way everyone looked to each other to blame but were left uneasy. What better way to depict a fearful witch in the woods.

While it won’t make my favourites list any time soon, I don’t doubt that other readers will fall in love with the story and the fairytale. There’s much potential for this story to be great.

All in all 3/5

This book is dark fairytale that retells the story of Hansel & Gretel in an adult manner. In this retelling, the twins are nineteen and the classical witch in this story is called 'The Shrike', The Shrike is known for taking young men and rips their hearts out and does so by luring them in as a beautiful woman and bringing out their lust and desire.

The story was so creative, quick paced and creepy that you could not put the book down. It is the perfect balance of horror and fantasy. What I also loved was Hans and Greta, both characters were so complex and interesting and have to face a lot of things from beginning to end which readers will see. Greta in specific was such a strong character that really was the heroine of the story for me.

Unfortunately, the story does end on a cliff-hanger so I hope book two will be coming soon. Overall, this book was smart, scary, and the perfect dark fairytale book if you like fantasy and horror.

Hmmm. This is a hard book for me to review. It was so different than other books I’ve read. In this case, different is definitely a good thing. It was nothing like the old Hansel and Gretel stories I’ve read. The vibe was creepy/spooky, and I loved it. Especially for my first October read. The character were brave yet afraid and worrisome. They were corrupt yet so pure in their emotions. There were some more gruesome bits that I ate up. It was a great read. Hans did start to annoy me about halfway through with his bits of anger toward Greta. I know it was the Skrike, but I wanted him to be stronger and resist. The fact that he wasn’t, only added to tale. The ending was also slightly unexpected. I’m interested to know how the story will continue.

**Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.**

"The Strike & The Shadows" definitely isn't the Hansel and Gretel story you remember reading, but it's an amazing re-telling. There's still the same premise with twin siblings (Hans and Greta) and the witch in the woods (The Shrike) who takes the hearts of young men and boys by seducing them with her body (instead of candy).

The world in the book and the prose used by Gadoury and Wright is dark and beautiful, painting each scene clearly, as well as disturbingly. There were multiple parts where I cringed or were grossed out by how well they described rotted skin or a mutilated body.

If dark fantasy is your thing, I definitely recommend this book! March 2020 come sooner!

Content warning: Sexual assault, torture, gore

trigger warning
<spoiler>sexual assault
gore</spoiler>

The Shrike comes at night and takes men. The next day, the family of the taken will find their hearts on their entrace-doors and know what has happened.
Greta fears for her twin brother, not realising that the townspeople are thinking she's a witch.

First of all, I did not realise that this is the first installment of a series until I read the afterword, which makes the ending better. It felt unresolved, which greatly annoys me in standalones - with series I don't mind that much as I can see why it's done.
This takes some of my frustation of the plot away, as I looked at the progress bar and wondered how they would get the rest of the story in so few remaining pages. Another part that was not to my liking was the predictability of the plot: You constantly know what is going to happen next. Some people like it, I don't in most cases.

So we have twins in a tiny village that is surrounded by the wood, people are frightened, we have a manipulating priest. They lash out, and accuse Greta of witchcraft and drive her, her brother and a family friend out into the trees, not caring that the Shrike is at large and hunting people.
The three refugees are able to take some stuff but have to leave most of their belongings behind, and they don't know the way and can only follow the path, hoping it will lead them out and to the next village - where hopefully they'll be recieved in a more welcoming way.

I have had some issues with the writing. One, it's not as precise as I would have liked and quite often I had questions about details. Like, how come the village is cut off? Is it in a kind of clearing, surrounded by woods? Are there mountains which prevent access from one side or more?
The side characters felt more like shadows than anything else, there was not even enough distinction to call them cardboard cut-outs. Often, when it came to reactions of developements of thoughts or emotions, it felt to me as if one step was left out and the person hopped straight to the next. This was also noticeable when a character remembered something as it was quite unclear where the memories ended we were back with the current plot.

Then there was the wording which was strange, in times creating unneccessary complicated phrases and also using words that felt out of context, like one would do when starting to write novels. But what annoyed me more was the peeling-off of clothes. If you use it maybe once or twice, it's a cool alternative that creates a special kind of imagery, but please don't use it every single time someone undresses!

Lastly, in the beginning, they tried to introduce some German words, but to me as a German native speaker it felt like they had taken the words out of a dictionary rather than ask a German speaker. You don't call little children little children in German(y) if you want them to stay calm. They will argue and be very offended.
They used Frau instead of mrs., which was cool - but then in the other two thirds of this book, this was abandoned completely, to the extent that it felt jarring as a person called Lady appeared.

The plot is very repetive. They go into the woods, they make camp, they argue, Hans is feverish but nobody knows any home remedies which sounds ridiculous, they sleep and have nightmares, they walk the next day, repeat. Insert some bickering and unconsciousness.

Some parts of this novel were badly written and others just not my cup of tea.
I have the suspicion that you could edit the end result once it's there and make one standalone from the series without missing anything because so much feels like unneeded filler material.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read and not what I expected. It's an adult twist on the Hansel and Gretel story, the twins are nineteen and the witch is called The Shrike. She takes older boys and men and rips their hearts out. The Shrike lures the men through lust, appearing to them as a beautiful woman and bringing them to her. Hans is basically ruled by lust the entire book, even before The Shrike starts invading his mind. Hans sleeps around with all the girls in the village and that's what gets him and Greta in trouble. He can't resist The Shrike and it's up to Greta to save him. I did like Greta for loving Hans and doing whatever she could to help him, even when he's pushing her away, but she doesn't realize her strength. Barin was a good character, basically a werewolf under The Shrike's control, but he's slowly breaking free of her. I thought the book would wrap up, not leave us hanging! Guess I'll have to wait for book 2, although it's going to be a while lol.

Gadoury and Wrights book is a retelling of the classic fairytale of Hansel and Gretel (or Hans and Greta), in which the children are twins living in a small village in the middle of the woods. Since a few years back they're orphaned and this made them stigmatised. The reason why is sort of explained in the book, but it's an odd reason, and it doesn't feel like much more than the authors wanted the main characters to be shunned by their society.

As in many other similar stories (and well, true to this ones' original) there's a mystical force living in the woods surrounding the village called The Shrike. This malicious force lives on human hearts - that it, if The Shrike is real. The villagers think not, lead by the local priest. In some way or another Greta is accused of being a witch, with the result being that both her and Hans are driven out of the village into the dark woods. There they meet their own demons, more or less.

There are makings of something interesting but the story is not intriguing enough for it to be really engaging or interesting. Some things, like the siblings' stigmatisation, is just sort of there? I gathered that this is, probably, the first book in a series but the way it ended was very cliché and it didn't make me want to continuing on to see where the story would go. Language wise, though, it's okay.

I think that's the whole thing, the book is too "okay" with nothing really special to make it different from other books in the same genre.

I really enjoyed this book! Not only was the plot clever and intriguing, but I felt that the characters were ones you could empathise with and fully comprehend their emotional depth! I will absolutely be buying a physical copy and recommending this to everyone!

I believe most if not all of us know the tale of Hansel and Gretel.

Two children are cast out by their parents but leave breadcrumbs to find their way back home. They come upon a witch’s house and she wants to eat them yada yada blah blah. There are many variations to the story but that’s the basic gist of it. And of course there are many retellings.

The Shrike & the Shadows is one of these retellings. It is the story of Hans and Greta and of course the Shrike. The Shrike is hungry for men and when she comes you will know, as she leaves the hearts of her victims on your doorstep.

The villagers of Krume soon turn against the siblings and cast them out of the town and into the haunted forest to the waiting and hungry clutches of the Shrike. Will they be able to escape her clutches? Or will they fall victim to her hungry heart and lips?


Have any of you ever played the game Heavy Rain? In the beginning the main character is searching for his son and intones over and over again: Jason…Jason…JAAYYYYSOOOON. It’s hilarious in a way. This is how I felt reading this book. Over and over again Greta called for her twin, Hans, looking for him, and all I could think was that fucker could really use a tracker or a bell placed around his neck.

This was…disappointing to be honest. It showed a lot of promise in the first half but at the first titty suck it quickly went downhill. And yes, I said titty suck. There’s sex in it. A lot of it. Now, I’m no prude. Not at all. I enjoy romance and erotica to a point but when there’s a demonic witch bitch flitting about and literally tearing the hearts of men out, the last thing I want to be doing is humping. I put my kindle down and rolled my eyes. I understand that tensions are high but jesus christ, PUT IT AWAY AND FOCUS PEOPLE.


The characters are alright. I could throttle Hans though. Minor spoilers but Greta defending him throughout the book and blaming the Shrike’s hold on him. Um, girl. Your brother was going around saying that you nagged him LONG BEFORE THE SHRIKE CAME INTO PLAY. He was an ass long before any of this. Bairn was meh. Tolerable. I wasn’t shocked at his big reveal. More like…oh, wow that’s crazy *flips page*

The end felt rushed and I had to re-read it a few times to fully digest that it was the end. I found myself internally yelling at the characters that yes, you said this before many many times.

I did enjoy the setting of the book, this was a new fresh way to bring to life Hansel and Gretel and the Shrike was a really interesting character, my favorite actually. She actually struck fear into me. I just feel that this could have been executed much better. The timeline was also tricky. I was confused regarding the deaths of the twins mother and father and felt that that could have been explained more. The cover for this book is beyond gorgeous though and really well made. I am always here for dark retellings of fairy tales so I’m happy I got the chance to read this.

Thanks very much to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Shrike, kinder, comes only at night.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley, Xpresso Book Tours, and The Parliament House for the e-arc to review!

Hans and Greta are two outcast orphans living in Krume, a village on the outskirts of a haunted wood plagued by a witch. The witch is known as the Shrike, and she terrorizes the villagers by taking the men and leaving their hearts as a bloody token of her visit. When Hans and Greta are soon met with accusations of being witches themselves and are forced to enter the wood the Shrike calls home...

First things first, I absolutely love the premise and the idea behind this story. It is a dark and twisted Hansel and Gretel retelling that definitely gives the creeps. The setting is well done, evoking foreboding and dread. The writing had flashes of brilliance, however, between those flashes I felt the writing lacked a bit, becoming mundane and too simple.

I had such high expectations for this book, so ultimately I was left a bit disappointed and there are two main reasons why.

First is that I actually had a lot of trouble connecting with both Hans and Greta. I found Hans to be rather unlikeable. There were mentions of how he wasn't acting how he normally was but since I felt I never got to see the supposed 'real' Hans, I didn't feel affected by anything he was going through. With Greta, she was far too naive for me and seemed to be crying all of the time? Granted, she was going through a lot but I found myself being annoyed with her rather than sympathizing.

Secondly, the story felt so slow. I felt like there was no clear goal with the plot and that I was just a passenger on some wayward vehicle with no set direction. This wouldn't have bothered me as much if the characters were more well-written and likable, then the more emotional part of the journey with the two characters would have been more captivating and able to carry the story better.

Overall, it wasn't bad. There were parts I really liked, the overall intent behind the story, the setting, the twist at the end, and of course there was Barin. But some inconsistent writing and lack of plot points as well as two protagonists I wasn't completely sold by have let this story down a bit.

If you like dark, spooky tales that are definitely more mature in theme, I would recommend you give it a read and see what you think!

A dark reimagining of the Hansel and Gretel folk story, The Shrike and the Shadows is an immersive and fluid read that explores the sibling dynamic. Broaching such subjects as sexual assault, religious intolerance, and mass hysteria, this novel is a unique and dazzling take on the medieval era and the ways that our differences can often be our greatest strengths.

A special thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.