I hope you’ll forgive me for the odd review but I must start at my favorite part. The end. No I’m not giving anything away I promise. The authors notes. The author explains how the book came to be and it made me understand the characters even more than while I was reading the book.

This book was creepy yet relatable as a mom. The end was a little odd (the actual end not the authors note) I felt like the author wrapped up stuff in an odd way. But maybe that’s just me.

The Shadow House by Anna Downes tells the story of a young single mother named Alex. She has a baby and a teenaged son and they have just moved to an eco village in Australia to get away from something in their past. Hints are given here and they are about what they are trying to get away from. The eco village is called Pine Ridge and everything seems to be perfect on the outside. When you dig a little deeper, things are not as they seem. Weird things start happening to Alex, weird and ominous things.
Alternating between Alex’s chapters we hear from Renee, another mom who lived in the big farmhouse on the flower farm that is now Pine Ridge. Renee is also having weird and strange events happen to her on their farm. Her teenage son is withdrawing and becoming depressed. These events mirror the current events happening to Alex. Is there some kind of connection?
This story had such a sense of dread. You have this feeling of something bad is about to happen but you don’t know what or when. I really enjoy books like this. For me the fun of this book was more about what might happen or could happen then what did happen. I would have liked a little more detail on Alex‘s past but overall her character was very well developed. Being a mom of a soon to be teenaged boy I very much identified with her feelings of frustration and sadness. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Very good story! I enjoyed this mystery! I liked the characters, and the atmospheric location. I would recommend this book to everyone, not just mystery buffs. I also will read more by this author..

Fleeing a toxic relationship, Alex, a single-mother of two, moves with her children, teenage-son, Ollie and infant-daughter, Kara, to the remote eco-village of Pine Ridge. Alex dreams of a fresh start for them. Things had gotten pretty bad in their old life, with Ollie even having been expelled from school due to of a bit a scandal involving some classmates.

Determined to make it work, Alex signs on to a 3-month commitment at Pine Ridge. They need this. They have to give it a fair shot. Once arriving, Alex begins meeting current residents of the village, who try to clue her in to the ways of the community. This includes Kit, their charming and charismatic leader.

As much as she wants to fit in, however, there's something about the place that makes Alex feel unsettled. It's not just the rumors of the witch who lives in the woods and steals children, but things start to happen to them as well. Mysterious, ominous packages, strange drawings; it's all a bit overwhelming. Add to this Ollie's temperamental and moody behavior, Alex finds herself close to the end of her rope.

Alex has always had a hard time accepting help, but as one of her neighbors reminds her, sometimes it takes a village. Slowly, she begins to lean into the experience, growing closer to some of the others. It's unclear who she can trust though. Soon people Alex thought were friends are talking behind her back; it seems trying to push her out. Is this whole scheme some sort of sham?

In addition to Alex's perspective, the Reader also gets the historical perspective of a woman named, Renee. Renee once lived in a farmhouse on the grounds of which the eco-village now sits. Years earlier, Renee's teenage-son, Gabriel, went missing. His disappearance was never solved.

As you learn more about Gabriel from Renee, you see that he has a lot of similarities to Alex's son, Ollie. Additionally, strange things about Gabriel's case mirror things currently happening to Alex and Ollie. Could the two cases be related? Is Ollie in danger, as he fears? Is there a witch in the woods snatching children?

Alex begins investigating. She needs to find answers before it's too late, but with no clue who she can trust, the odds seem stacked against her.

The Shadow House is hard to categorize. I wouldn't stick it in a strict Mystery, Thriller or Suspense category. I think if you go into it expecting that, you may be disappointed. It feels Dark General Fiction, or Dark Domestic Drama to me, with a slight Mystery. Regardless, I really enjoy Downes storytelling. I was intrigued by her first book and even more with this one.

I loved learning about the eco-village; how it was run, it's history and the lore surrounding the area. The characters were vibrant and believable. I also really enjoyed the way Downes used the two perspectives to build the story out. It's definitely a slow burn, but I was happy with the conclusion and the length of time it took for all of the pieces to fall into place.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was excellent. I felt like their accent attributed a sense of place to the overall story. It was a great listen!

There was a romance subplot that I personally could have done without, but I get it. I understand why Downes included it. I just may have enjoyed it a bit more if Alex had embraced her time finding herself and growing with her children on her own.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this. The atmosphere was fantastic. I loved the build and how it began to feel a bit claustrophobic. I found certain aspects of it to be unsettling and I did start to feel a real sense of desperation towards the end. The whole 'is it supernatural, is it not supernatural'-vibe, I thought it was very well done.
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Thank you so much to the publisher, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I appreciate it so much. This is the second book that I've thoroughly enjoyed from Downes. I am certainly looking forward to more!

Alex is on the run, but in true suspense novel fashion, the reader is not sure from what exactly. But she arrives in Pine Ridge, an idyllic planned community, with her teenaged son and infant daughter. She quickly learns that Pine Ridge is not as idyllic as it seems, with some residents downright hostile, others clearly hiding something, along with rumors of a witch and an abandoned farmhouse. One thing is clear, though: she's attracted to Kit, the community's founder.

As Alex dives deeper into events several years ago, she fears losing her son and her family's tenuous security.

The dual timeline story also features Renee, a troubled farmer's wife who is torn between her troubled son, distant husband, and fanatically religious parents.

This is a unique suspense novel with an ending that managed to surprise me. There really wasn't anything wrong with it, but it failed to totally grab me. Others may have a different reaction. Alex is a strong protagonist, but all the hostility from the community members wore on me. #TheShadowHouse #NetGalley

This was such a good book! I didn't know if I was reading a thriller, horror, or paranormal novel, and loved that! I enjoyed the authors writing and the fast pace of the story. There was no skimming for me here!

This book was a DNF for me. I didn't find the story compelling and I found the teenage son of the main character Alex to be particularly annoying.

Alex, her teenaged son, Ollie, and her baby daughter move to a planned utopian community to start over after her separation.

She views Pine Ridge as a quiet place for her to raise her family, at least until the little town begins to give off some creepy, cult-like vibes. As the hidden secrets of her new home’s history begin to repeat themselves, Alex realizes that she and her family may be in greater danger than ever before.

Told in alternate POVs between Alex and Renee, the former inhabitant of the original farmhouse on the property, I found the jumps between POVs jarring. Unlike Anna Down’s previous novel, The Safe Place, I felt these characters were thinly developed and the story didn’t hang together as well. Three stars for me.

Author Anne Downes follows up her debut work, The Safe Place, with another story about a woman looking for a safe place to call home.

This time the woman is Alexandra Ives, a thirty-seven-year-old single mother. As the story opens she is just arriving at a temporary new home in the quiet ecovillage of Pine Ridge. She has escaped a bad relationship, the salient details about which Downes gradually reveals in succeeding chapters, with her two children in tow: fourteen-year-old Oliver, who is sullen and unhappy about the move, and Kara, just eight months old. Their residency gets off to a rocky start when, before Alex has even begun unloading their belongings from the car, she finds a box on the porch of their new residence. It contains the remains of a dead bird. Alex begins to panic, questioning her decisions and choices that have led her to the unconventional community where they are scheduled to live for three months on a trial basis designed to reveal whether the ecovillage is a good fit for her and her family, as well as their neighbors. Recognizing that she must hold herself together for the sake of her children, Alex regains her composure, telling herself that everything will work out in this new environment. With that opening scene, Downes deftly tells her readers a great deal about Alex. She is desperate -- only a person with no other viable options would remain in a place that is so inhospitable from the very start. She is determined and resolved, as demonstrated by the way she quietly disposes of the box in a nearby trash receptable, and protective of her children, as evidenced by her relief that she kept Ollie from seeing the parcel. And Alex's fresh start is off to a very rocky beginning.

As Alex works to settle into the close-knit Pine Ridge community, she meets the other residents. They are an eclectic group, ranging from other mothers of teenagers with whom she instantly bonds, to an environmental scientist, a botanist, an architect, a physician, and the perpetually grumpy Maggie. One of the first residents of Pine Ridge, Maggie makes her feelings about newcomers known. Jenny, an older woman who lives in the adjacent downstairs unit, is gaunt, thin, but friendly. She seems frail and because she always wears headscarves, Alex wonders if she is undergoing treatment of some sort. Jenny lives alone, and not only offers Ollie an old television, but offers to babysit when needed. Alex leans on her for support, friendship, and childcare. She also finds herself drawn to the community's charismatic founder, Kit. He's a handsome younger man who asks Alex a lot of questions about her background but reveals little about his own.

In subsequent chapters, Downes alternates Alex's first-person narrative with a story told from the perspective of Renee, who lived in the abandoned house that remains on the Pine Ridge property. Shortly after arriving in Pine Ridge, Alex is informed that a family lived on the land and operated a flower farm, but their son disappeared years ago and was never found. The missing boy is the subject of a dark legend that is intensified by the foreboding presence of the empty, dilapidated-looking farmhouse that stands in the distance. In fact, Alex catches a glimpse of the old witch who is said to wander the neighborhood, telling the children that they must be good or monsters will arrive and take them away. Through the narrative focused on Renee, Downes reveals how she and her husband, Michael, took differing approaches to dealing with their troubled son, Gabriel. Michael wants the almost sixteen-year-old to help him around the farm in the same ways that Michael worked with his father. But Gabriel grows increasingly withdrawn, secluding himself in his room, playing video games and refusing to even emerge to eat dinner with his family. It is all Renee can do to make him attend school. She is horrified when she discovers the depth and manifestations of Gabriel's emotional struggles. A string of increasingly disturbing and frightening events, beginning with the discovery of the decapitated family cat in a box on the porch, culminated in Gabriel's disappearance six years ago.

Now Alex fears that the same fate will befall Ollie, but she is intent on protecting her son, whose behavior at school was one of the reasons for their relocation to Pine Ridge. Alex has moved numerous times, always opting to run when things got tough, but as Ollie makes new friends, especially the lovely Violet, and looks forward to attending the local school, he makes it clear that he is tired of moving and wants to remain in Pine Ridge for the foreseeable future. Despite her desire to make Ollie happy, Alex cannot ignore what she believes are warnings from someone or something that she and her children are in danger. The events are unfolding as the children say the witch describes them, and they always lead to a tragic conclusion: a missing child. But who is behind the effort to frighten Alex and make her believe that her son is in danger? Why is Ollie being targeted? Is there anyone in Pine Ridge that she can trust? Could the events unfolding be connected to Stuart, the abusive man she left who has now gone missing, too?

The Shadow House is a cleverly engrossing mystery. Downes hints at supernatural elements and dark forces as Alex undertakes a risky investigation into what is really happening in the communal Pine Ridge development. Downes expertly employs misdirection, injecting clues that fail to yield revelations and making several characters potential suspects, only to deliver a shocking conclusion that showcases her intricately-constructed plot. Downes explores the challenges of parenting a child with emotional issues in the age of hypnotic video games and other electronic devices, as well as the difficulties inherent in parenting without a partner. Her setting is key to the story's effectiveness, and Downes' prose makes Pine Ridge, along with her characters, come alive. Her cast of supporting characters is fascinating and well-developed, as are the two key female characters. Both Alex and Renee learn that they are stronger than they ever thought they could be, and running away from problems never really solves them. They both are protective mothers, but flawed human beings, who must learn to stand on their own, rather than in the shadow of a man who is no match for their inner strength. And both find the truth. Even though it leaves one of them "broken in ways she'd never imagined possible," it also provides both a path to peace for her and a satisfying conclusion to the story.

The Shadow House is an inventive tale of secrets, betrayals, and a shattered family whose tragic history looms over and threatens to destroy Pine Ridge and its new residents. It is a tense but surprisingly touching story, replete with unpredictable twists, and compelling and memorable characters.

The Shadow House was a creepy, suspenseful novel that I read quickly! Although I liked this book, have to be honest it wasn’t my favourite. Downer writes very well and it is easy to get into the plot pretty quickly. I found that what was a well-paced, built-up storyline was followed by a slightly lacklustre and “oh” ending. Being picky, there were a few plot lines/character points I thought were done a bit messily, but overall I would definitely like to read another book from this author.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC!

3 stars.
Did not guess what was going on at all! I liked how the conclusion was slowly revealed. But felt some of my questions were left unanswered and a slow buildup with getting to know the characters.

Thanks NetGalley for the ebook version.

Although the title has little relevance to the story, The Shadow House, by Anna Downes, is exactly the type of creepy, unsettling mystery/thriller that serves to distract from everyday distractions. Despite a few avoidable issues that did disturb me, the story with its twists and turns was a quick read that was mostly fun.

First, the specter of abuse hangs over much of this story. The instances of animal abuse were completely unnecessary. The domestic abuse, most of which occurs “offstage” and predates the main story, is essential as it shapes two characters’ world view. Second, while I like a twisty story, many of the twists end up as banal, normal aspects of life, unconnected to the real danger.
Third, the ending/resolution was sad, but didn’t seem quite enough to justify the angst, fear, and terror that came before.

I confess that my refection of the book is more critical than my experience of the book. I still recommend it. It is certainly not the best of its genre. However, it is way better than most. I give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, for the opportunity to read a digital ARC.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, St. Martin’s Press and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I forgot the scene with the cat problematic and stopped reading.

Alex is a single mother of her teenage son and baby girl running away from a bad relationship and she decides that a rural community called Pine Ridge is the perfect place to start over. Things seem to start off on a great foot as she is introduced to the community members and sees how beautiful the surrounding landscape is but then odd things start to happen. She starts receiving boxes with terrifying gifts in the form of dead animals and creepy dolls and then she hears the stories about the witch nearby that steals children. She learns that the farmhouse she saw when she first got there was where a family lived until their son disappeared and it's now thought to be haunted. After a few public shows of her freaking out she needs to prove to herself, her family and the community that she isn't crazy and the only way to do that is to discover the truth about the farmhouse and the family who lived there.

I really loved the creepy atmosphere that the author created when Alex was walking through the forest and farmhouse. I think she did a great job creating that menacing atmosphere whenever Alex was near the community members who all of a sudden didn't trust Alex as a neighbor or mother. The crazy plot twists that the author dropped had my jaw on the ground because I had a sliver of an idea of what happened and what was going to happen but I was so far off. I love the suspense and tension I could feel through out the book when Alex found herself getting closer to the truth and I was so afraid of her stumbling on something that could hurt her or her children. It did drag a little bit in parts but for the most part the story was full throttle.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital copy of this book with me in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit I stopped reading after the incident with the cat. I just can't handle scenes like that & feel they're unnecessary.

Thank you Minotaur Books and Netgalley for the egalley of the Shadow House by Anna Downes.

In the end I just wasn’t impressed with this one. There were too many small pieces of the story that were used to try to throw you off the trail of the mystery, or make you wary of a character but in the end they just didn’t feel necessary. It felt like the pieces the author tried to fit together to form the mystery just didn’t fit together. It was an easy read but not overly thrilling.

I thought this psychological thriller had a slow start. The number of novels which commence with either an escaping woman or an escaping mother-with-children seems quite extensive. I would never decry the existence of situations that impel escape; but after reading so many, I'd like to find something more in a plot.


But although I diligently attempted to delve into the novel, it just didn't cohese for me. Perhaps it was the Australian setting for a reader accustomed to US and UK settings. Perhaps it is the exasperatingly unreliable Narrator (whose whininess tired me out fast) or the push-me-pull-you of the surrounding community (two-faced almost to a person). Or the slow slow pace occasionally jerked awake by jump Scares. I just could not engage with the Mystery (mysteries).


Whatever the cause, I and the novel just did not connect.

3.5 stars!
Alex is fleeing her abusive partner and decides her family needs a fresh start. She chooses Pine Ridge, a commune, as their new home. They are focused on being eco-friendly and creating a sense of community in their compound. As Alex starts to settle in, she realises the people of Pine Ridge have dark secrets as well.

A special thanks to @macmillan.audio, @netgalley, @stmartinspress and @minotaurbooks for my audiobook/ebook of this new release! I found this read to be just okay. I found the characters irking me at times - especially Alex - as I couldn’t believe how thick they were being. I wanted them to make more self-aware choices. While Alex’s story fell flat, I did really enjoy Renee’s backstory. I found the tension building in her chapters to be great and very eerie. Downes connected both POVs in an intense scene, although it was a bit unbelievable. I also found Pine Ridge to be very “cult-ish” and I’m not sure if that’s what Downes was going for or not.

The Shadow House is the second thriller written by Anna Downes. I really enjoyed The Safe Place so was excited to dive into this one. Downes is really great at setting the scene. I always feel like I am living inside her novels. Taking place in an ecovillage in Australia, The Shadow House took me to a location and community I've never experienced before. With a few fun twists and turns, this book kept me guessing up until the very end.

Weary mother of two Alex has moved her family to an ecovillage. She used to move around constantly until her son begged to stay put but her relationship with her daughter's father had grown toxic and she felt her only choice was to walk away from him.

The community is peaceful and most of the residents are welcoming.

Upon arriving Alex finds a disturbing box. But between dealing with Ollie's surly behavior and Kara's constant crying, Alex pushes this aside and forgets until she begins to notice other creepy things happening around their new home. Then she learns that something similar to this happened here before.

Thank you so much to St.Martin's, Minotaur Books, the author, and NetGalley for this ARC to review.