Creepiest book of the summer!

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Another 5 star read by Alex North! I have to be honest— although I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of The Shadows, I knew it was going to be tough to follow up with a book as good as The Whisperman— but I’m excited to say HE DID!

After reading the synopsis of this book, I wondered whether it was going to be for me. A brutal murder 25 years ago has left Paul Adams struggling to pick up the pieces of his life. Being friends with both the murderer and the victim, Paul left town shortly after and hasn’t been back since. Now all these years later when his mother’s health takes a turn for the worse, he knows he must face his fears and return home. But shortly after, strange things begin to happen— Paul learns another copycat murder has taken place, his mother warns him that there is something in their home, and he sees peculiar sightings in the woods behind the house. Charlie Crabtree, the teenage boy responsible for the murder that took place years ago, disappeared immediately afterwards, never to be seen or heard from again. But now Paul begins to wonder whether Charlie ever really vanished in the first place because it seems he may have something to do with the recent copycat murder.

The Shadows is told using alternating timelines, which doesn’t always work for me, but Alex North does it well. The chapters bounce back and forth between then and now, with also some chapters being told from Detective Amanda Beck’s point of view. This style of writing only helped with the gradual buildup of thrill and tension. There were even a few shocking surprises sprinkled in along the way!

Alex North has written an atmospheric, eerily haunting novel that will grip readers from the first page. His books are crime thrillers with a super natural twist, but they are also full of sentiment and emotion. The Shadows dealt with the concept of lucid dreaming, which is something that I don’t know much about, and I was absolutely fascinated