This book was twisty, creepy, and kept me guessing. I would have liked a faster pace and a bit more action, but there were several plot twists that definitely surprised me and made up for that.

For the first three quarters of the book I couldn’t tell if it was paranormal, or if some characters just believed in something paranormal. I liked this method as it was one thing that kept me going - I had to know!

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: ----------

<spoiler>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. </spoiler>

I received a free copy of the audiobook of The Shadows by Alex North through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Eeeehhh okay so this book wasn’t bad, but like it wasn’t good either. Like honestly the only interesting part was the past and the lucid dreaming. Like it’s not as fun when you already know who the killer is.

The Shadows by Alex North
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Consider me officially creeped out.

After having read The Whisper Man, I knew I’d be getting my hands on this book, and sure enough, I selected it for my July 2020 Book of the Month pick as soon as it went up. Then I was graciously and awesomely provided a review copy of the Audiobook from the publisher via Netgalley, so I read along to the hardcover while listening to this one for total creeptastic immersion.

The book itself was great, and the dual narration was fantastic. We got a then and now timeline with our main character, Paul, and we got Detective Amanda Beck’s present day narrative with some copy cat murders happening that pull them both back to that frightening place and time it all began.

You have, in the Then time, a spectacularly creepy kid, Charlie, who is written so well with this calm and eerily controlled demeanor, the way he smiles this smile like he knows something you don’t. Then there’s The Shadows, which are the woods by Paul’s house that seem to move around you, like the woods itself were a character. There’s a faceless man with bloody hands haunting their dreams, and of course, the murder victims.

In the present, you have Paul’s dying mother he’s finally come back to see when she goes into hospice, and she’s rambling eery things from her dementia induced stupor. You have old voodoo dolls and dead kids’ dream journals popping up, and red hand prints on walls, and the distinct feeling of being watched. Not to mention the people still alive back then slowly being picked off one by one in these gruesome ways.

Woo! It was a lot! I had to stop reading when it got dark out because I was legitimately spooked. The book was done so well, you could hear the sounds and see the sights. Amazing.

I really liked the narrators of the audio. I listened at 2.00 speed. Very well done.

"Red hands everywhere."

After reading The Whisper Man last year, and really enjoying it, I've been waiting for a new wonderfully dark thriller by Alex North. And now, here it is, and it's all I hoped for, maybe even more!

Yes, I loved it! It was dark, it was creepy, it made my head spin with all of its twists, and it played with my emotions. Not to be dramatic, but this might be my favorite thriller I have ever read.

The story follows Paul Adams as he returns to his old town, where twenty-five years ago a gruesome murder was committed by Charlie Crabtree and Billy Hague. After all that time, one would expect the past to stay in the past, but Paul would find out that that wouldn't be the case. Copycat killers appear, secrets emerge, and the past and present start to overlap.

We also follow Detective Amanda Beck who is investigating a murder connected to Charlie Crabtree, and is led to Gritten to uncover the buried secrets of its past. Through those two perspectives, as well as flashbacks from Paul's past, we finally grasp the full story of the past that was kept a secret for so many years.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrators did a brilliant job of bringing the story and characters to life. Hannah Arterton and John Hefferman added so much to the book's dark atmosphere, that a lot of times goosebumps would appear all over my skin. And the pauses they would make when something was about to be revealed were amazing!

This was my first ever audiobook, and i'm so glad it was this book. The Shadows was a wild ride, and I loved every last second of it.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me with the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

You knew a teenager like 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 senile, 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. Reading the news, Paul learns another copycat has struck. 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 25 years ago. It wasn't just the murder. It was the fact that afterward, Charlie Crabtree was never seen again....

The Shadows by Alex North is an incredibly atmospheric horror thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat during my entire listening experience. I had the opportunity to read a chapter sampler from NetGalley and that sampler reeled me in right from the get go. It only included the prologue and the first chapter, but that little taste made me really excited to read a finished copy of the story. I just had to know what happened next and I fully expected the novel to become a five star, favorite read of 2020. It was so close to being a five star read. The story itself earns its five stars easily. The creepy keep-you-awake-at-night atmosphere, the twists and turns, the alternating POVs, character depth and development, and the flashbacks are all outstanding elements. I was particularly pleased with how the present day story and the flashbacks come together as the story goes on. The flashback do a fantastic job of showing just how inescapable the past seems to Paul. Like I said, the story itself has become a favorite, but there are a few other elements regarding my listening experience that knocked my rating down in the end.

I'm so lucky that I was approved for this audiobook via NetGalley. It's such a fantastic program that they've started to feature audiobook ARCs as well. I love listening to audiobooks while I'm driving, cleaning, working out, and more so this is a brilliant opportunity as an audiobook fan. I wasn't already familiar with the two narrators here, Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan (while performing as narrators anyway), but they both did an excellent job bringing the cast of characters to life and making them each sound quite distinct from one another and they also did a good job of bringing the world to life. All that said, my experience with the NetGalley Shelf app itself when it comes to downloading ARCs and audiobook ARCs wasn't a good one. In fact, I deleted it from my phone and I'm hoping that it will be improved upon in the future since I've already managed to get myself approved for a few other very tempting audiobooks. I'd still like the opportunity to give them a listen, but based on my experience of listening to just one via NetGalley's app has put me off for the time being.

To keep it simple, the audiobook took ages to download and it can't be paused while it's downloading. There were a couple of times where the download "failed" because my phone's screen timed out for a second too long and the download needed to be over again. The app and the download of the single audiobook took up a huge amount of storage space on my phone as well as the files were bigger than what I was expecting considering that I often download audiobooks via Libby and never have any trouble there. It wouldn't have bothered me all that much if those were the only issues, but that wasn't all. I've never had this happen while listening to an audiobook before, but several times the audiobook would randomly skip around. Like I'm just listening and suddenly it bounces into another chapter (sometimes while it was in the middle of a line or randomly it would switch to a random point from a chapter with the other narrator), usually one I'd already heard a while back. I couldn't just skip ahead or whatever the case may be though because according to the player's display it was on the correct chapter counting down the time to the end of the current chapter like nothing had happened. It even did it at the very end of the novel - once I hit the end it suddenly jumped into a chapter from close to the beginning. It didn't happen a lot, but just enough to be extremely irritating. By the way, after I completed this audiobook and then deleted my download from the app, I decided to try downloading one of the others (Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust) to see if it would give me the same troubles. It did - in fact, once the app completed the download (I found the downloaded files on my phone to verify it) it's like it couldn't find them to play the audiobook and kept trying to download it again and again and again until I had to perform a force stop. Yeah.

Anyway, sorry that my review of The Shadows by Alex North on audiobook got away from me a bit there and ended up as a review of the NetGalley Shelf app as well. Overall, I highly, highly recommend the novel. The story is compelling and the narrators did a brilliant job bringing this mystery horror thriller to life. It was exactly what I needed and I can't wait to read more from the author. The Whisper Man sounds like it would be right up my alley. However, in terms of the NetGalley Shelf app itself, and the difficulties it presented while attempting to listen to an otherwise brilliant novel, I would not recommend it at all in its current state. It's such a fantastic opportunity to have the opportunity to listen to audiobook ARCs, but I think I'll hold off on listening via this app until all the bugs and glitches have been ironed out.

The atmosphere of the books was eerie from the start and the author does a great job of that by going back and forth between "then" and "now" so we get bite size pieces of each story. This book also utilized the story of something happening during childhood that ends up resurfacing in adulthood. It's hard enough to live with something that doesn't sit right as a child, but to have it continue into adulthood would escalate ones anxiety 10x. The author did a great job keeping the shadows/woods and red hands an interesting plot point throughout the book. The characters as well, especially Charlie, were very complex.

Overall, the writing of this book is creepy and mysterious which is why I was able to listen to it within 3 days. Also, there was a great plot twist at the end. I haven't read The Whisper Man (also by this author), but I think after reading this, I'll have to give that a try!

This newest book by Alex North was super creepy! There’s something wicked in the house and something frightening in the woods. There’s also the feeling that something is following you. Can you face your fears and find out what it is?

The plot centers around the ability to manipulate dreams into reality and the ability for several individuals to share their dreams with each other. Pretty far-fetched, but makes for a wonderfully disturbing story. The instigator of all the dream manipulation was Charlie Crabtree, presumed dead, but no one really knows for sure. Twenty five years after his disappearance, strange things begin happening again and no one knows for sure if it’s Charlie or a copycat.

The story is told with two timelines, spanning 25 years. It meandered at a fairly slow pace, but the narrators, Hannah Atherton and John Heffernan did a wonderful job keeping me engaged. I have to say, I never really guessed the truth of what happened until the reveal at the end.

This is one that I am glad I didn’t read on a weekend when my husband was out of town.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to the audio version and offer my honest review.

Just finished listening to this on audio, and it did not disappoint! The alternating narrators did a great job. Without giving too much a way, this story goes back and forth between two timelines, connected to the narrator's childhood. A group of kids involve themselves in a ritual that leads to a murder, which comes back in copycat-style 25 years later. I loved going back and forth between the timelines, as things are slowly revealed about what really happened. Very reminiscent of Stephen King books!

This has to be one of the creepiest books I've read in a while. Paul returns to his small home town to his dying mother only to find red handprints in the attic and articles on murders that are copycats of what happened in his town when he was a teenager. Detective Amanda Beck is investigating the most recent copy cat and all roads are leading to some one who has been missing since the first murder.

When Paul was a teen a group of misfit boys followed the lead of Charlie Crabtree in learning more about lucid dreaming and how they could use it to avenge themselves from bullies. But what starts out as a game for some starts to take a sinister twist. The narration on this book was excellent and really took me into the story. The writing had just the right amount of tension and creep factor.

Unpopular opinion - I don’t have any idea what this book is about. And it’s not really the book’s fault.

I received this book to review from Netgalley as one of the first audiobooks offered on their new app. I was EXCITED… like beyond… not only did I get to read this book review, but as audio! This helps me enjoy more books because I can listen during work.

Anyway… The app glitched hardcore. It would pause itself, the sections wouldn’t line up with the chapters, and when pushing play shoots itself back to the beginning of a previous chapter (and not necessarily the one it was playing). So I spent most of the time trying to figure out where I was in the app.

For this specific book, which not only has a past and present perspective, but also tells parts of “lucid dreaming” where the character may not know they are awake. Additionally, there is a narrative involving a detective who is trying to solve a grisly murder that connects to the main story. So add in all those narratives and the above app glitch and you can probably understand why I was so confused.

That being said, I got the general gist of the book. But the nuances and twists were very much lost on me. Being a new reader of Alex North, I had only heard how much people liked Whisper Man so that made me want to read this one. Unfortunately, I think I need to read an actual copy to see if I enjoy this author or not to give it a fair opinion.

You can see my video review here:
https://youtu.be/Ey-blBDSjOw

I really wish I enjoyed this as much as all the positive reviews posted. First I found similar elements to Whisper Man. Detective Amanda Beck is called to case that is similar to a part case .....like Whisper Man. Then we jump back and forth between the present then go into the past and jump back and forth from that perspective. So this was all over the place with two different narrators in the audio. Some good creepy elements but I'm going between Beck's story then past and present perspective of Paul Adams, the murder of his friend from the past, disappearance of a friend, disappearance of suspected murder. Then we have Paul's mother saying Red Hands committed the murder. Had me going all over the place

I throughly enjoyed listening to this story. The duel narrators added a lot since the story had not only multiple points of views, but also switched between past and present. Having both a female and male narrator gave distinction to those shifts and both read in a way that was a joy to listen to. I say joy, but I mean that in the most creepy way, as this was a pretty chilling storyline.

The lucid dreaming concept was very cool and the Shadows/woods super creepy. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the slow build. The future parts added as many question as did the past as the story unfolds with the detective and Paul and his mother. The emotion builds along with the horror making it both profoundly sad and scary, powerful.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. It has been published in July 2020.

"The Shadows" by Alex North is a perfectly chilling horror story in which a gruesome murder from the past gets reenacted by a pair of copycat teenage killers, bringing the old crime under new scrutiny by the police and at the same time setting off a chain reaction that will lead to several more deaths and finally to the solution of a twenty-five-year-old mystery.
A few of the plot twists towards the end are a bit far-fetched, and I didn't particularly like the motivations behind Charlie's obsession, when they were finally revealed (I'm not going to spoil it for you, but they seemed quite simplistic and unoriginal to me), but overall this novel does for a very entertaining read.
The characters are highly relatable, although somewhat stereotyped, and the plot is intricate enough to take you by surprise several times over. There are plenty of scary scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and the tension is masterfully built up through the narration.
I particularly enjoyed the atmospheres (the author nailed exactly what it feels like to grow up in a small village, or to be bullied by schoolmates during PE).
Extra points for keeping me wondering until the very end whether the story was going to go with the supernatural element or to explain it away rationally.
All things considered, a very pleasant read.
This was the first book by Alex North I read, and I will definitely check out his other novels.

What I Loved:
I loved the creepy characters in this story. Alex North does a great job of describing his characters and really allowing the reader to imagine each person. He makes them feel real, like they are coming right off the pages and being brought to life!

How I Felt:
The Shadows takes the reader into a story that starts 25 years ago when two teens were part of a murder. While one boy was captured, Charlie Crabtree escaped, disappearing without a trace. Now, Paul Adams, who was linked to the original crime, must return to his hometown to help care for his elderly mother. His mother keeps saying things about the murders…she seems to know more than Paul thought. When a copycat killer starts bringing up the past, Paul must face his past and question everything, and everyone.

This story was spooky and creepy, but I wasn’t absolutely terrified like I thought I would be. Which is honestly, fine with me. I don’t really like having to read with the lights on and my back against a wall! The plot was a bit complicated, and I think that it ultimately led to me being a bit less scared. The timeline jumps around, and there are people in the dream world as well as the real world. It created a very unique, but confusing story. I ended up never really settling into the plot and just falling into the world because I was concentrating so hard on where we were and with who. I think that this would be good to go back and read a second time. I might enjoy everything a bit more, already knowing who was who.

That being said, this was still a really good story with wonderful writing by Alex North!

The characters that North creates are fabulous. He has this perfect mixture of personality traits that makes for just the right creep-factor. Charlie Crabtree is a terrible character, and I think we can all agree that he’s the root of all evil. Thanks Alex North for adding this man to my nightmares!

The plot had some great twists that I didn’t see coming. It will absolutely keep a reader on their toes, and while there might be people that can guess some of the twists, I think the plot will provide surprises for any thriller-lover!

Overall, I enjoyed The Shadows. The complicated plot did not completely stop me from enjoying the story, it just slowed me down a bit. I enjoyed the pace and the characters!

I listened to the audio version of this story, and I felt that the narrator did a great job of bringing the anticipation and heightened feeling nervousness to the plot! I would recommend the audio to readers that enjoy listening!

To Read or Not To Read:
I would recommend The Shadows to readers that enjoy a creepy mystery!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

The Shadows is the second novel by Alex North, the author of the highly popular The Whisper Man.

I have very mixed emotions about this book. Some aspects of it were excellent. North is a great writer, in the sense that his descriptions and prose are unique and fascinating. This is a stark contrast to the other thriller I read this month, Home Before Dark, in which I found the writing to be a bit rudimentary. In addition to this, North does do a great job of establishing an eery atmosphere. This book is quite creepy, which I don’t say about many books. I also found *some* of the plot twists to be quite surprising, though I also felt a bit let down by others.

Which leads me to the things I didn’t like about The Shadows. I found pretty much all of the characters difficult to connect with; especially the protagonist, Paul. He was definitely more of the Unwilling Hero archetype than what I prefer, and I found him to be boring and kind of frustrating. I also felt like the pacing was kind of all over the place in this book. Rather than building the tension slowly up to an explosive finale, this book was full of tiny explosions, followed by dragging moments. And, while there were some pretty great and highly unpredictable plot choices that North made in the second half of the book, I found the resolution to be a bit lackluster, personally.

In conclusion, I would say that I recommend this story, but only if you aren’t looking to be amazed, just a bit creeped out. There were some gasp worthy moments that I appreciated, but over all, I would have liked this story better had it turned out a bit differently. I’m hoping to pick up The Whisper Man sometime soon, and will hopefully like it more than The Shadows!

⭐️⭐️⭐️


This is a July Book of the Month pick. Also, thank you to Netgalley for sharing the audiobook with me!

Dreams are powerful. Lucid dreams are powerfully dangerous. The Shadows is haunting tale centering on one man psychological battle with murder from his past. What is real and what is merely a remnant from a dream is the story's central theme.

Simply stated, I could not put the audiobook down. I highly enjoyed the narration. Of note, Heffernan's inflection and description captured the essence of the story.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy the study of dreams and would like to parlay in the field of lucid dreaming weaved into a horrific tale.

The Shadows by Alex North

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I recently reactivated all my accounts and subscriptions (including Masterclass). Picked up this #horror #audiobook coz I haven't read many books in this genre (I only remember The Silent Companions, which I enjoyed), and this one is a new release, also a BOTM.

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The story is about a group of four friends who take up for hobby, lucid dreaming! This involves them going into the woods, maintaining a dream journal and the main plan is to disappear into the dream world! (Am all for it 👍🏽) Things get murky after a murder, and subsequent disappearance of the Team Lead Charlie. Did he really disappear into the dream world? Or is he around... A psychopath, a serial killer using the same modus operandi to kill others? These are the answers you get at the end.

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The narration is great with different chapters and POVs having different (male and female) narrators. However, there was some issue with the App/Audiobook and the overall user experience was very poor. I think a chapter or two were missing. This didn't take away from the story but definitely reduced the overall enjoyable experience.
This could be a good horror recommendation for a young audience.

Okay. (July 2020)

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#qotd Do you keep a dream journal? I do 👍🏽

@the_bookish_islander on Instagram

I personally wasn't a fan of this book, because I felt like it was too slow and too all over the place for me. Maybe it had something to do with it being an audiobook, and maybe it was the narrator. I just honestly couldn't get into this book.

The Shadows by Alex North is a clever thriller and I am glad I got the audiobook version. Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan both do a brilliant job with the narration and really bring this creepy tale to life. I first read Alex North's The Whisper Man due to the hype that novel was getting when it came out. I enjoyed it but perhaps not as much as most folks. I am happy to say that I enjoyed this novel far more than my first Alex North read and I applaud the author for this gripping story that is full of clever twists and surprises. I found the story to be imaginative and suspenseful. I was hooked as soon as i got through the first chapter and I enjoyed this fine story in one sitting. As for the narrators, this is the first time I hear from either of these talented voice artist and I hope it is not the last. I look forward to hearing their voices in future audiobooks.

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.