❝No one ever notices a shrike, until it's too late.❞

The Knight and the Butcherbird - Alex E. Harrow
★★★★☆

Thank you Netgalley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The thing that sold me the most about this book is the blurb. A tale about a Knight, someone who was sent to hunt demon, meets a girl Secretary named Shrike who is trying to hide and protect the said demon—her wife. Imagine the contradictory, secrets, and hidden emotion lies beneath their masks along the hunt.

What i didn't expect is that the setting to be more advanced and futuristic, with the mention of cancer, microplastic, concrete, etc. I thought it would be set in the fantasy setting i know when i take the details about Knight and the way he spoke. Kinda confusing to begin with, made my progress with this book kinda slow.

The value this book is trying to bring just hits me so hard. Definition of demon could be different depends on to whom you talk to, depends on which perception did you see things. I like how the story proceed and concluded. The idea is authentic and feels refreshing to this genre. Also that ending was perfect, beautiful in its on way. It made me want to explore more of the author's work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC.

I would have read this simply for the vibes based on the description alone but this story just got better and better with each layer it peeled back. Everything from the atmosphere, plot, and dialogue just meshed together perfectly. It's a dark fantasy in a sweet treat packaging.

I've been curious about Alix E. Harrow's work for some time and thought I'd try a short story first. This solidifies that I will definitely be picking up other works!

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for an advance copy.

Gonna be real honest and tell you I understood less than nothing. Pretty though.

For such a short story it really draws you in. There was some really cool forest-body horror, but the story wa also beautiful and emotional.

This is short stories done right! In less than 40 pages I was whisked away to a post-apocalyptic dystopia and had all the feels for the main characters. Echoes of The Last of Us and Fallout but with a Game of Thrones vibe. Very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the eARC in exchange for this honest review .

I am devastated that this is a short story because I want nothing more than to read a full book or better yet several books set in this world with these characters. Please Harrow convert this to a full novel, 36 pages is not enough for May and Shrike.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy!!

Things haven't been the same since the apocalypse happened, hundreds of years ago. Shrike knows this, but the outlands—and stories from the before times—are all she knows. Life is *hard*, and it's harder still when people keep turning into monsters. And when a famed monster hunter comes to town to destroy the latest victim, Shrike will do anything she has to to stop him...

I had to start this story twice (I wasn't in the mood for something kind of fairytale-esque the first time, so I took note of the vibe and came back to it), but once I got into it the story kept surprising me. It reminds me a bit of Lauren Groff's "Matrix", not because the plots or even the settings are so similar (they're not) but because of the way Shrike has been fighting for years to survive, because of the way she is so determined to make things work despite the status quo.

This was delightfully twisty—although I'm not sure I ever fully understood the context of Iron Hollow, where Shrike lives, I'm also not sure I really needed to; it was enough to know that life is hard for her, and that she has loved and lost, and that she is so determined not to lose everything. (There's also a beautiful moment, late in the book, where she reflects on what it means to love enough to kill—and on who is willing to take that step for whom. I would read a dissertation on that moment.) This is not my style for a novel these days (I'm not one much for alternate universe, or fantasy, or whatever this would be classified as), but for a short story it was just the right amount of weird and wild.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This was fantastic. It's very Alix E. Harrow (complimentary), with beautiful prose, great character work, and tons of deep thematic undercurrents. I very much hope she will write a novel in this setting. While this story was perfect the length it was, I would have been thrilled to read another 400 pages about the post-apocalyptic North America she imagined here. It's such a rich, interesting setting, and I'd love to see what else she might do with it.

Part fairy tale, part post-apocalyptic fantasy, and part love story, this does more in its 30 pages than lots of authors can do in an entire novel. Harrow's skill in writing short stories is on full display. I just didn't want it to end, and I know I'll be coming back to this story again and again. Highly recommended.

Huge thanks to Alix E. Harrow, Amazon Original Stories, and NetGalley for generously providing an ARC for review!

A haunting dystopian fairy tale that follows the town storyteller as she struggles to protect a local demon from the knight who would see her harmed.

With grotesque aspects of body horror and shape shifting creatures this tale is ultimately one about doing whatever it takes to keep the ones you love alive.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐱 𝐄 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰

The Knight and the Butcherbird is a compelling fantasy short story told almost as a dark fairytale but set in a modern dystopia. Narrated by Shrike, a young storyteller in a rural almost border community, the story follows the arrival of a legendary knight who is summoned to kill demons. Demons are shapeshifting monsters who were once human and mysteriously changed. This short story covers so much ground! It is a story about love, the lengths you’re willing to go for it, how much you’re willing to change yourself or sacrifice. But at the same time, it also weaves in the devastating effects of climate change, propaganda, the disparity of caste system where resources are hoarded within enclaves while rural communities die off or turn into demons.

My only hold off is that I wish it didn’t take place on Earth. I was a little thrown off by the modern Earth references and it took me out of the moment at first. However in the end this felt like a very minor annoyance because I enjoyed all of the other aspects of the book.

The Knight and the Butcherbird is another very solid story by Alix Harrow. The prose is absolutely beautiful. The world building is beautiful. It was simultaneously fun, sweet, bittersweet, and tragic - so much substance packed in a short story. It took me less than a hour to read. I would definitely recommend picking this up for fans of dystopian fantasies, Grimm fairytales, Greek mythology. This is a story I’ll be remembering and rereading.

4.25/5

I've read some Alix Harrow books, but this is my first short story by her. There is an incredible amount crammed into 36 pages! It's a very dark love story set in a very dark, terrible future, and yet, love still conquers all.

I received an ARC for free and gave my honest opinion voluntarily.

A quick hit from Alix E. Harrow that is absolutely worth it - I was immediately immersed in the post-apocalyptic America where demons have begun appearing in the Outlands where people are plagued by the effects of pollution and disease, while others live behind walled cities. Shrike Secretary is a storyteller for Iron Hollow and Sir John of Cincinnati comes to help slay a demon in their midst. This novella manages to pack queerness, criticism of Christianity, and Animorph references all into a quick 36 pages.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Amazon Original Stories for the advanced copy.

This post-apocolyptic tale was so beautifully and hauntingly written. I loved all the twists and turns and surprises that Harrow takes the reader in a mere 30 pages. Every time I thought I had figured out the world-building mysteries, something new would be revealed that had me second-guessing what I thought I knew.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

For a story just under 30 pages, this sure packs quite the punch. Alix E. Harrow's dystopian fairytale is gorgeous written and deeply touching. I'd love to read an entire novel set in this world! Dystopian and fairytale is a combination I didn't know I needed but one that results in a story that is familiar and refreshingly new in equal parts. It's a very quick read and I highly recommend it!

Short and beautifully written dark fairy tale. Female lead, a knight and demons. Great story. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This short story showcases all the signature elements of the author’s work: engaging characters, a vividly twisted setting, and an eerily captivating tone. Set some hundreds of years after the apocalypse, the reader will recognize the world as both familiar and altered—an unsettling but believable evolution of our own. The author paints a picture of a poisoned world, telling both a love story and monster hunting tale. And while the creatures are scary in both origin and form, they are described with an animalistic realism, making them feel less like horrors and more like a realistic evolution of nature. Overall, it was a short, compelling read with a very satisfying ending. Fans of Alix E. Harrow’s previous work and T. Kingfisher’s horror stories wont want to miss it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's a compelling narrative filled with suspense, emotional depth, and the complexities of love and sacrifice. There really is something for everyone in this book! I just wish it was longer!

A short story set in a post-apocalyptic world that is a call for change in today’s society, Alix E. Harrow has reminded me why she’s an author I return to again & again. There were themes of love & transformation, environmentalism, & a distrust of authority that claims to do things for the benefit of the wider population (& she somehow worked in Animorph & Hulk references, which were amazing). There’s also an ode to the art of storytelling woven into this tale, & I loved the author’s assertion that the setting in which one hears a story matters.

Thank you to NetGalley & Amazon Original Stories for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alix E Harrow has such an imagination. Here is a world where the people you love can turn into literal monsters that can no longer live in society and may be hunted down and killed. The characters are asking themselves important questions about themselves and their ties to their loved ones and their homes.
It's a short story, but I found myself thinking about it later. I felt angry and sad and surprised, in just a short space.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

This is a post-apocalyptic short story that has dark fairytale elements. It sounded like it would be a hit but didn't work for me and I didn't like it. I wasn't endeared to the characters and it was slow with lots of talking and not enough action or true world building descriptions. It tried to bring up relevant things from current times to create the backstory but didn't flesh it out all the way, which is understandable since it's so short. There were moments that touched on great but they fizzled before they could be explored more.