The Knight and the Butcherbird is a post-apocalyptic short story that packs a powerful punch. I felt a strong range of emotions and thoroughly enjoyed this short story. At its heart, the Knight and the Butcherbird is a love story, and I found the ending to be utterly satisfying.

I received an ARC from Amazon Original Stories via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A compelling short story from the new to my auto buy list, author Alix E. Harrow. The Knight and The Butcherbird is a haunting and desolate dystopian fantasy fairytale of survival, resilience and love.

Vivid and bold imagery and descriptions quickly create a world filled with fully realized characters in this well paced, magical tale.

I can’t get enough of Alix E. Harrow’s writing!

Many Thanks to NetGalley, Alix E. Harrow and Amazon Original Series for access to an eARC. All opinions are my own.

Wow, I absolutely loved this. For such a short story, it delivered an incredible emotional punch. The writing was beautiful, and I was completely drawn into its world. I love post-apocalyptic stories, and this one explored themes of change, resistance to change, and resilience so well. It also captured the lengths we go to for love. Honestly, I’d love a longer version set in this world. And the Animorphs reference was great!

Alix Harrow will always be an auto-buy auto-read author. Every single book of hers has hit right home, as if it was the story I was waiting to read at that time. I'm glad I discovered her with A Witches Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium from Portal Magic and just at that same time I decided she was going to be my favorite, and she has never ever let me down.
This is a short story but as every Alix book is nuanced and full of a world that feels bigger. Post apocalyptical, full of disease and microplastics and people living in the wilds. But then we also find the Enclaves where rich and pampered people live behind walls.
There is something lurking in the shadows in the wild, some people at some point turn to demons, but what are demons and why are they changing? And most of all Alix leaves us with a hopeful message full of love and love for the power of stories.

First off, I’m not usually a fan of short stories but I wanted to give Alix E. Harrow another chance after not liking Starling House.
And I am so glad that I did!
This is such a well crafted beautiful tale about the power of stories and love and why we change. It is rooted in our world and paints a picture of a post apocalyptic future version that felt horrifyingly real.
I really do not want to say too much since it is such a short story and I could not put this down after going in blind.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

It was a bit hard for me to get in the story, because I didn’t understand the world building. I still don’t know where the story takes place, is it 100 years in the future? Is it 20? And I didn’t understand the beginning with the knight, but the more I read the more I got into the story. The story was beautiful, but also very emotional. It was very interesting how the demons came to be but how they also could control it eventually. <spoiler>It was a very emotional moment when sir John died but I loved how he’s able to fully be with his wife now. I also really like the thought of shrike becoming a demon and being at mays side again</spoiler>

Thank you netgally for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

Thanks so much for the arc!

Alix E. Harrow is a master at writing short stories!

I read ´The six deaths of the Saint´´ and fell absolutely in love with the story, so when i saw that the author wrote another short story i could not help but immediately request it. And i was not dissapointed. I´m amazed how Harrow is able to capture to much with so little words.

This book set in a dystopian, post-apocalpytic world has so much bite and leaves one hungry for more of Harrow´s work. This is a story about doing whatever it takes for the people that you love. Shows us how far we are willing to go for the people that we love. It´s a very real book and will leave many readers being able to relate to, especially in a world like ours that is constantly changing due to climate change. A world where we are exposed to toxic waters and polluted air, radiation seeping through the grounds under our feet, microplastics in our food. Change upon change upon change. But when do we change? What more does is take?

What if the world has changed so drastically that there is no way we can´t change with it?

We have to change in order to surive in the world we live in.

But change is scary and many do not want to change and so perhaps it´s easier for them to live a life filled with lies. Tell us change is demonic and that they only want what´s best for us. So what happens when a small-town storyteller finds out what causes these demonic transformations and still keeps on fighting with tooth and nail for those that she loves?

The way this book answers all the questions above with such heart and love, and all that only in 32 pages.

I know that i will reread this story many a times!

“They were a new kind of creature, born for a new kind of world.”

Sir John, knight and demon hunter, answers a small town’s call for help with a demon that has been terrorizing its inhabitants. When the hunt begins so does the unraveling of past stories and mysteries.

Alix E. Harrow weaves together a brilliant short tale of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, myths, legends and most importantly, love.

I’m amazed how much world building, character development, storytelling and emotions this short story contained. I only wish I could have stayed longer.

It’s funny, beautiful, haunting and bittersweet. I don’t want to reveal anything else as it’s best to jump straight in and explore it on your own. Enjoy!

A big thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited when I saw this short story after reading The six deaths of the Saint by the same author, which I loved !
And not to changed you’re already transported into the world she creates, even with just 30ish pages.
The lore around the world and her characters was really interesting and new to me, I highly recommend!

Alix Harrow is truly the master of the short story. Her ability to pack such a gut punch into so few pages is incredible - the emotional poignancy, the artful prose, the fantastical subject matter. Gets me in the heart every time.

Alix E. Harrow is an absolute expert when it comes to short stories. Between The Knight and the Butcherbird and The Six Deaths of the Saint, she has demonstrated a masterful ability to
convey complex worldbuilding and an engrossing, meaningful story in a mere 30-minute read. Each of these stories have distilled such a grand narrative down to its most essential, most compelling parts. I cannot recommend either story enough.

The Knight and the Butcherbird takes place in a postapocalyptic world, devastated by environmental collapse, microplastics, and radiation. It tells the story of Shrike, a young woman whose wife has transformed into a demon, and of the knight from the rich, protected enclave who arrives to slay it. The story revolves around themes of transformation; of what we will do to protect ourselves from loss and change, and how far love can drive us.

This is the sort of short story that gives you a peek into a wildly interesting world and leaves you longing to see more of it: though we are given only glimpses, the societies we see are richly complex and compelling takes on a postapocalyptic existence. I would love to see an entire series written amidst this backdrop, though perhaps the brief impression of the world we are given is more powerful a message. Moreover, the characterization is deep. Even as brief as the story is, the characters feel multidimensional, and their motivations are clear and fascinating. The emotions are visceral.

This is an easy 5-star read for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A smart and somewhat cynical telling of what it means to be in love and what you would do to keep that love around. Although short, it manages to a presence behind with its manner of storytelling and how the characters interact with each other. Overall a fantastic short story from Alix E. Harrow.

Alix e harrow never misses. This is an interesting little post apocalyptic short story about when a knight comes to town.

It’s a short exploration of community, faith and horror. We get to see a demon hunting knight and a town secretary who have her own motivations and aspirations.

It reminded me a bit of annihilation/ the southern reach quartet in its way to describe horror. I found it both unsettling and beautiful.


I definitely think it’s worth picking up for anyone who might even have the slightest interest since the book is only 36 pages.

( but lets hope America have a brighter future than this. )

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC.

Alix E. Harrow has such a way with words. The prose is lovely, and so is the story itself. Despite being set in a post-apocalyptic environment and violence is common as people succumb to their monstrous transformations, Harrow manages to weave such a romantic tale that leaves you wanting more. In just 32 pages, one might put aside any cynical notions of love only to appreciate how it perseveres despite the horrors from external forces and from within. I loved that we got not one but two love stories in this.

"She knew me then, at the beginning of ourselves, and she knew me now, here at the end, when she did not even know herself."

Alix E. Harrow has already proven her talent for writing short stories with "The Six Deaths of the Saint", and "The Knight and the Butcherbird" just showed it again. It’s about these demon-hunting knights in a rough post-apocalyptic world, and by demons I don’t mean the biblical kind, but the people-get-corrupted-and-grow-fangs-and-feathers-and-claws-and-antlers kind, which is my favorite kind. But it’s less a story about body horror than about the tragedy of losing a loved one to this kind of transformation. Very intriguing and it really made the most out of its 30-something pages. A perfect short story for me.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Alix E. Harrow knows how to write short stories!!! She manager to make me cry in 30 paged and feel so many emotions some 400+ books never could. I’ve read all her shorter works, really need to give her novels a try

Once again, Alix E. Harrow stuns me with her writing and her ability to craft such an expansive world in under 50 pages. There's definitely a lot to like here and the central themes are very timely. I wish it were a smidge longer and I'm a little unsure about the central reason for the demons. I do think it was mostly explained well, but there are certain implications that might come across because of it and I'm not sure the story addressed them fully? I'm trying to be as vague as possible, even though it's almost impossible to not spoil a short story, especially in a review. Regardless, like anything Harrow writes, I do think this is worth the read.

This was fantastic, I read it in under an hour. I don't love apocalyptic stories but my god can Alix E. Harrow write a novella

I really loved this little story, I reread it and I can’t wait to see it in the wild.. Such beautiful pacing.

I really like Alix E. Harrow's short form fiction, and this was no exception. It combines a fuzzy near-future apocalyptic setting with medieval imagery, and has an underlying social message about change and power. Also, like all of the Harrow I've read, it's about the importance of storytelling and narrative, about whose story gets told and why.

Shrike is a storyteller, and her town is being threatened by a demon. Sir John of Cincinnati arrives with his hawk to vanquish it. But Shrike knows the demon is her wife - used to be her wife? Still is her wife? - and Shrike has already committed violence to protect the demon. Sir John has his own purpose in hunting demons, and while his and Shrike's purposes may ultimate dierge, they may also run alongside each other for a bit...

Look, I've read For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale twice in the past 6 months, so I might be a tad obsessed. But I got major FMLH vibes from The Knight and the Butcherbird. From Sir John's archaic language to his devotion to his lady, from the hawk to his quest, I was into it. (Yes, this is an absolutely giant compliment, to be clear!)

But this is no romance with a guaranteed happily-ever-after. It's a story about survival and change, the longlived few versus the diseased many, about how love can flourish despite many obstacles, and about how that might be the way forward anyway.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the story.