I was provided an ARC via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This is a strange little book set in a small Appalachian town, where demons infest the wild lands and knights are summoned to hunt them down. Information is no longer passed down electronically, but via storytellers, the current storyteller is Shrike who knows more about the town's current demon than anyone as it was once her wife May. The knight also knows much about demons but he longs to know the secret of their creation for like Shrike, his wife was also turned into a demon. Shrike is determined to keep May safe and prevent the knight from harming her. He is surprised by the history lesson given by the storyteller, but knowing what he knows about the toxic lands and the science and medicine available in the cities it all makes sense.

I really enjoyed this short story. The author packs alot of information into only about 40 pages. It is rare that I find a short story that feels complete and while the author could probably write and entire novel about this world, I think it is perfect as is. Harrow's work to date has been hit or miss for me, but this was a real hit! I loved the push and pull between Shrike and the Knight, they both have secrets and personal motivations. They both want to protect their loved ones and took their vows seriously. This also has commentary on the environment, technology, healthcare, societal collapse, religion, etc. It certainly made me think.

Alix E. Harrow proves to me once again that she is one of the biggest queen’s in storytelling (queen of the short story) in this deeply riveting and deathly sarcastic short story that focuses on love and the things we are willing to do to protect those who’ve earned it.

Shrike Secretary is harboring a secret - her wife, the person she loves most, has become a demon. Which, without needing much context, is obviously not a good thing. At least not to the people of Iron Hollow who have learned by the Enclave, an uppity up upper class society ruled by a, you guessed it, ruler to do their own version of a Salem witch-hunt on the people in Iron Hollow. Is someone changing how they dress? How they act or just switching up their entire routine? It must mean they are in the beginning changes to becoming a demon and if that’s the case, we must immediately end their life. It doesn’t matter who they are, age, or gender.

A demon is a demon and we gotta kill it.

If the town doesn’t catch the change in time and the infected person completely changes, the Enclave sends in a knight. Enter in Sir John and his very large bird that resembles a falcon (but isn’t). Shirke Secretary must do everything in her power to make sure her wife is safe, because when we love someone, we will do absolutely what we can to protect them.

The storytelling in this novella was absolutely compelling. It had some of the best lines (I particularly highlighted almost every sentence or paragraph on the page) with a subplot of looking into the hierarchy of the upper class and the lower class. It was smart, witty, and carried incredible depth that draws you in and sends you spiraling as you focus on the love of two couples, the lives we live around it, and the choices we make to keep it alive.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for this advanced reader copy!

I don’t usually pick up short stories because I love immersing myself in a good long read. But Alix E. Harrow works her special brand of word-magic into a story that seems to compress 1000 pages into a 30 page parable about love, death and memory, about making peace with suffering: ‘Nothing grows on a grave if you’re standing on it.’

The story takes place in a devastated future, 300 years from now. It is a future whose roots we can see in our own time, without need for explanation. A great unknown event has returned the world to a dark age of tribalism. A patchwork of survivor settlements, some slightly better off than others, remains, but all are, in varying degrees, poisoned, and cancer strikes those who do not die of disease or starvation or at the hands of others. The enclaves are also threatened by vicious L monsters’ or ´demons’ who are actually ordinary people, even children, overcome by a mysterious plague. It is a nightmare scenario.

Sir John, the celebrated knightly hero, is clad in armour made of tire treads and bears the marks of vicious battles, including a lost ear. He travels everywhere to kill the monsters, his loyal falcon always with him. Although no one knows, he does it for an unusual and very personal reason. 17 year old Shrike, the only resident of rural Iron Hollow to oppose his demon slaying, does so for a very personal reason. They discover each other’s truth at the end.

Harrow writes with such poetic intensity, drawing on breathtaking metaphors that made me want to write down every one, just for their beauty. This is a very dark story, but a tiny light glimmers through.

My thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Stories for the free ARC and the opportunity to express my views on it.

This was such and interesting and unique story. There are so many elements all going at once and it was never overwhelming or felt like it wasn't fleshed out enough. The lyrical way that this was written is so satisfying to read and the story it's self is wonderfully done. All though usually at the end of short stories I usually find myself wishing for more I feel like this one wrapped up just right as to make you feel like you have completed a full length novel. Harrow has definitely done it again and I cannot wait to see what is next.

I was very excited to receive this ARC as I absolutely loved Starling House by Harrow. This was a post-apoptolytic short story that follows a monster hunter and a town leader. But we discover that the "monsters" are not as monstrous as many think. This would be good to expand upon for a full novel.

I loved this short story, and I don’t often read many of them. I also love Alix E. Harrow and anything she writes. The Knight and the Butcherbird had the entire premise and backstory of a full length novel and still depicted the entire story with depth and understanding that not even many novels can.

In only 36 pages, Harrow was able to tell a beautiful story about a demon hunting knight, a young historian and the struggles of mourning and loss of loved ones.

I would highly recommend this story to anyone!

The Knight and the Butcherbird sees Alix E. Harrow back in her glory as the Queen of novellas. This dystopian novella had me ripping through the pages as fast as could. The characters just jumped off the page and grabbed me. As this is a very short read, I recommend reading this in one sitting, and I also recommend going in a little bit clueless.

I don't want to spoil the narrative since it's so short, but I am LIVING for the return of dystopian stories. Alix E. Harrow excels at writing in the most lyrical, and moving, prose. There is no one better at capturing an audience in just 30 or 40 pages. Please read this book, and get swept away in a world not too far distant from where we are now.

Since I'm not giving much of the story away, I'll just leave you with a quote that stuck with me: "Finch always said there were certain places where it was easier to tell stories, and to hear them: around a fire at night, in the mist at dawn, on a porch at dusk. In-between places, balanced on the border between familiar and strange."

So go find your in-between place and take a few minutes of your day to get lost in this tale.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

4 🌟 such a wild short story! I normally don’t read short stories but when I saw the description “dystopian sci-fi/ horror” from Alix E. Harrow, I had to check it out!

The dystopian world set in a dying village made the tone bleak but add demons that are constantly and grotesquely shape shifting and you have something truly horrific. While the world is ominous, love drives this entire plot. The central theme of “love is whatever you’re willing to kill for” is equal parts beautiful and savage. It’s amazing how a world was created, characters and motivations established, and a love story unfolded (I may have teared up at the end?) in so few pages. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out - worth the read!

Thank you NetGalley for my e-ARC in exchange for my honest review 🫶🏼

A gritty, quirky, and creepy dystopian fairytale adventure that is nothing short of perfection. Harrow’s ability to craft such a lush, vivid world and create relatable characters in such a short page count speaks volumes about her talent as a storyteller.

A famous knight arrives to save the town from the demon at its doorstep. Meanwhile, the town’s storyteller grapples with her loyalty to the town and her vow to protect the woman she loves—the woman she promised to cherish "until death do us part."

This short story is a masterpiece. It strikes hard and fast, encompassing both fascination and horror in equal measure.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙆𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝘼𝙡𝙞𝙭 𝙀. 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬 is a beautifully haunting tale woven with love, loss, and the fine line between monsters and heroes. This is a story about love—the kind that fights, the kind that transforms, the kind that refuses to let go even when the world says it should.

Set in the Appalachian town of Iron Hollow, the story follows Shrike, a storyteller trying to save her wife, May—who the world sees as a demon. When a knight arrives to slay her, Shrike has to weave a tale strong enough to change fate.

The author’s prose is beautiful, making every word count, and she does a fantastic job in drawing you into a dystopian world. Barely over 30 pages, the book sure packs a punch.

Thanks Amazon Original Stories & @netgalley for the digital ARC. in exchange for an honest review.

The beauty of this short story is unparalleled.

Set in a modern post apocalyptic time when Knights are called out to hunt and kill the patchwork demons who stalk the land. One Knight in particular is in search of answers, not just demon heads. When he meets the town storyteller, they find out that their individual paths are much more similar than they expect.

This is a story about love. It’s about the sacrifices we make in order to keep that love. It’s about the fear that festers and permeates when faced with someone or something different. The fear that ultimately morphs into hate of that different someone or something. It is about taking that love and using it to set fire to that fear, that hate. And letting that love change us from the inside out, in order to be free.

*Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC copy!

This was stuninggggggggg! I loved Harrow's Once and Future Witches, and thought Starling House was okay, but this short story merges the best of both works. This is one of the most interesting takes on dystopian society and demons that I've ever read. I desperately wanted it to be longer, not because it felt rushed, but because I was just so engrossed in this world. I can't more highly recommend 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.”

The Knight and the Butcherbird by @alix.e.harrow delivers a short but ever so satisfying and thought provoking read.

We are immediately presented with this bleak post apocalyptic way of life where humanity find a way to live in the outlands. This sets the tone perfectly as we know this tale is going to be one of survival, it’s going to be dark and deadly.
Then we meet our Knight, Sir John, who rides into Iron Hollow where he’s come to kill a demon, this is where I began to see the fairytale element I was expecting and also hoping for. I love a good fairytale, especially if Harrow’s telling it because I know it’s going to twisted! When Shrike, our storyteller, wants to stop the demon from being killed I was immediately curious, a lot of questions arose and I was eager to discover more.

There were many themes which all connected together in one way or another but for me it was the theme of changing for survival that I found so interesting. Throughout the narrative it’s illustrated how illness changes you but also how you can change too because you have to, because your body and mind learns to adapt. The theme of love was explored superbly too. There was such a yearning love throughout, for all that was and all that could have been, because some loves you just have to let go of.

I’ve always said that Harrow says so much in so little words and The Knight and the Butcherbird is the perfect example. I didn’t expect that within thirty pages I’d get such character depth, a fully realised dystopian world which I could visualise clearly and a story that sucked me in and had my heart aching by the end.

"The Knight and the Butcherbird" by Alix E. Harrow is a novella of just 36 pages, but it feels like a full-length novel (in the best way). Harrow has managed to craft a story that depicts the past, present, and future of the small community of Iron Hollow and the world around it. At the same time, we get character portrayals that are deeply detailed, painting a picture of complex individuals.

I really enjoyed how Harrow blends modern society and well-known cities/areas with almost dystopian, ruined regions and small towns. It shows how today's people live side by side with the less fortunate who struggle for survival in devastated lands. Diseases like COVID and cancer are prevalent, but medicines are scarce for those in the slums, and political authorities mostly govern the modern cities. The story becomes eerily relevant to today's news landscape.

People transforming into demons that must be hunted and killed by knights adds a beautiful fantasy element to the story, making the novella an exciting hybrid of several genres (fantasy, dystopia, fiction). I loved the ending, which, despite its tragic backdrop, still offers a glimmer of hope. What a masterpiece in so few pages! This story offers a lot to the reader and is well worth picking up.

I honestly had a pretty hard time following along with this and was quite confused, but the concept was so cool and I loved the aesthetic and a full novel of this would have been awesome

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a short story that packs a lot of punch. I requested this ARC after reading another book by this author despite being new to the genre, and I was not disappointed. The author takes no time throwing you into the universe, immediately in the middle of an unfolding situation. Despite its short nature, I found a deeper meaning within the pages through the MCs story, which I was impressed by as the book is less than 40 pages long. My only issue with this is that I wish it were longer in order to connect with the characters more and see the larger picture of the landscape/timeline itself. Definitely recommend giving this one a read!

Fantastic short story. I’ve always been such a snob about short stories because I have this naive worldview that length is required to establish a solid narrative. I’ve recently worked past that and have found some phenomenal short fiction which has really altered my view on it.

The Knight and the Butcherbird is set in the nearish dystopian future (seems like I’ve been identifying with the dystopian stuff lately, can’t imagine why 🥲) where a well respected knight has been summoned to eliminate a demon. I’m going to leave it there since it’s shorter read but in this tale there are heavy elements of grief and how the mind copes with change past the point of recognition.

I really liked our narrator and especially the knight, Sir John. There are so many cliche traps to fall into with a man of his caliber but Harrow crafted him both affable and dimensional. The story has a full circle aspect which I loved. Definitely recommend.

Dystopian novella from one of my favorite authors. The way she can engender such feeling about this world and characters in such a short format is amazing. I would love to read more about this world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the E-Arc in exchange for my honest review.

I rarely enjoy short stories but this one is one of the very few that I thoroughly enjoyed! There was enough world building and lore in such a short story, touching aspects of horror, fantasy, emotional conflict and duties, love, and grief in a post-apocalyptic world. The setting and characters made me wary (in a good way!) cos they were written so well with enough background information as to why they are the way they are. If this was a short book (less than 300 pages) instead of a short story, I wonder how much information and plot we’d get since this was written so beautifully and tragically.

The last novella of Alix E. Harrow I read was The Six Deaths of the Saint and that was UTTER PERFECTION so I had high hopes for this one. Though this didn't strike me like the last one did, this still had promising parts to it. Sci-fi/horror aren't my go-to genres, but this was still interesting and I feel other readers would enjoy this more than I did.