Paul Adams has avoided his hometown of Gritten as though his life depended on his absence from that dark, sinister place, but when his mother's dementia takes a turn for the worse, Paul must face his demons and return to the house he hasn't visited in twenty-five years. Unfortunately, even though Paul has desperately tried to forget the nightmares which plagued his existence as a teenager, the town of Gritten is not unforgiving. To Paul, the town feels frozen in time, with memories threatening to expose his secrets at every corner.

Because when Paul was a teenager, his friends—led by the malicious Charlie Crabtree—committed a ritualistic murder which shook the town of Gritten right to its very core. Having an everlasting effect, the crime tainted the once quaint, safe town in a murky haze. With stories passed down through the generations, the townsfolk have never quite recovered from the blood spilled that day.

With a steady string of copycat killers mimicking the heinous murder, Paul quickly discovers his past has not stayed buried and the crime has not been forgotten, even though he has spent the past quarter of a century attempting to do just that: forget. Much to his dismay, Paul can no longer suppress his emotions; his inner demons are alive, and his secrets are eager to smother every last bit of sanity he has managed to maintain.

In The Shadows, Gritten welcomes Paul home, even if he is still desperate to escape it.

Alex North's sophomore novel sets the stage for a thrilling, unputdownable read. Told in dual POV and dual timelines, The Shadows is a fast-paced novel, taking the reader right to the heart of what happened in Gritten all those years ago.

The setting of Gritten provides the perfect dark, atmospheric mood for a shocking suspense novel. The small town is bleak, with an underlying sinister presence around every turn.

In addition to the compelling setting, the narration is equally superb. The characters were incredibly well-developed and smartly written. Paul and his friends have unique personalities, all different in their own creepy way, and as the story progresses, each character is given the opportunity to really shine.

Overall, The Shadows by Alex North is an immersive, enthralling tale about friendships, secrets, young love, and a mother's devotion to her child. A solid thriller with a touch of the supernatural, this twisty tale thrives on human emotions, so you might want to read with the lights on...

Maybe Alex North isn't the right fit for me. I understand the appeal, but The Whisper Man fell short for me and The Shadows missed the mark as well. I really thought I would stay captivated after a STUNNING start, but it fizzled out fast. That being said, I highly encourage readers to give it a go. I will say this one did have more staying power for me than the Whisper Man.

I was hooked on this story very quickly!
I was reading the physical copy of this and enjoying it but today received the audiobook and it really added to the whole atmosphere and creepiness of the story. The narrators, #JohnHefferman and #HannahArterton did a wonderful job capturing the sense of fear and foreboding in this book. Once again Alex North has brought a terrific story through his writing.
The story is compelling in the plot and dual timeline, being told from the perspective of the characters and story of a horrific murder that occurred 25 years before in this small town and the current day timeline of one the main characters being summoned back to town for his mother's failing health. Paul had moved away for university and tried to not think about the events he lived through as a teen. This strategy was somewhat effective until he returned back home to handle his mother's final days. He is quickly drawn back into the previous events and then current events that seem to follow the same course. I enjoyed some of the locales and the references to North's prior book, The Whisper Man.
My only critique of the story is a pet peeve of mine, and may have to occur when marketing the same book in the UK and USA. There are many phrases and terms used throughout the audiobook that were believable as read by narrators with UK accents and the story is clearly set in England. There is also the reverse where terms are artificially changed for the US crowd and it sounds awkward with an English narrator. I found several instances where the physical book had one version and the audiobook had the other. I don't believe there is anything lost in a novel that is kept in its original form, be that UK or USA. Most of people reading these books have enough experience with the differences in terms that we get it.
5/5
#Netgalley #NetgalleyAudiobooks #TheShadows #CeledonBooks #MacmillanAudio

This story was so creepy, it made my jumpy.

I loved the narrators. I struggled when reading this independently sometimes getting confused if Amanda was talking or Paul was at first, so listening it made more sense.

Excellent, creepy, ghost/crime mystery!

This book was so creepy and weird and I loved every minute of it. I just love Alex North and the way he writes. I never quite knew what was going on or where this book was headed. I had so many guesses and they were all wrong. I loved the way everything played out with such a logical and satisfying explanation but was so far off from what I thought. There were several moments that shocked me! And the creep factor was HIGH.

I was SO excited to see this book as Listen Now. I absolutely love the concept of audio ARCs because I'm a big audiobook listener. This is a great audiobook. I love the audiobook reader's voices. I like that they had accents but were still easy to understand. Their voices were very pleasant to listen to and they put just the right amount of emotion into the reading.

All in all I love Alex North and I really think this one was even better than The Whisper Man. Can’t wait to see what he writes next.

Review of The Shadows by Alex North:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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25-years ago a dark and gruesome ritualistic murder at the hands of teenager, Charlie Crabtree, rocked the small town of Gritten Woods. Paul Adams, once a friend with Crabtree, has spent the last quarter of a century trying to compartmentalize and forget about the horrific events in his past but he soon discovers that doing so is impossible. Charlie Crabtree was a kid with a disturbed and sinister mind who believed that by mastering lucid dreaming and offering a sacrifice to “Red Hands” that he could disappear from the real world and live in the world of lucid dreams where he could be all-powerful and in full control. His convictions were the sole reason behind the murder. Following the murder, Crabtree disappeared without a trace. His disappearance piqued the interest of believers and occult followers. Adams is now faced with learning that there’s been another murder and even more unsettling is not knowing who is behind it. Is Charlie still alive out there pulling strings or did he really disappear into the dream world and has this one event turned into an urban legend that will trigger copycats around?

If you ever had a sleepover as a kid and tried conjuring Bloody Mary from your mirror; if you’ve tried having a seance to talk with the dead; or if you’ve been fascinated with stories of Slenderman, then this book is for you. I couldn’t stop turning the pages because I needed to know who (or what) was behind the murders. The character development was in-depth enough that I truly felt like I knew them all but I felt like it missed an opportunity to talk about Charlie’s family and his upbringing. Charlie had a sinister mind and the social worker in me kept screaming “sociopath!” The horrifying murders were detailed enough but not so detailed that I couldn’t stomach it. There were many surprising twists that I didn’t see coming but the book fell short with an anticlimactic ending. Anticlimactic but made sense. I do have questions that I think were intended to be left to be open for interpretation by the reader so I’m excited to discuss in book club at the end of the month!

I was excited to get to listen to this audiobook. Unfortunately the netgalley shelf app was not working out for me. I don't have a lot of memory on my phone (everything requires an app these days!) and as soon as I downloaded the app I was warned about my low storage. Then instead of being able to just stream the story it wanted me to download (even more storage use). Okay I did. Then I hit play and it tried to download again. After saying I already successfully downloaded it. So while I know this is a great book with a spooky and entertaining story (hence the 4 stars) I can't actually listen to it because of the app it forces you to use to do so. So I will just stick with reading the ebooks.

I honestly don't have much to say about this book. I don't have super strong feelings about it. It was enjoyable. It was fascinating... And that's just about it. There wasn't anything ridiculously terrible or superbly amazing. It was just so so.

I do want to say that be very, very careful if you want to lucid dream. Do a lot of research first and be aware of the potential negative effects.

Overall, this book was quite spoopy and enjoyable but nothing to write home about.

You might have removed yourself from the game, he seemed to be saying. But the game isn’t finished with you yet. ⁣
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When reading The Shadows, I put aside the thought of, “Is this better than The Whisper Man?” I wanted to be able to review it as a stand alone, away from North’s previous hit. This task was very hard to do. ⁣
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If this was any other author, I would have said yes this is amazing and creepy! I need another nightlight because I cannot sleep. If I compare this to North’s previous, I would say this is just like The Whsiper Man 2.0. I can definitely see the parallels vividly in this book. I said I wanted to review this as a stand alone, but it is SO HARD to do that when the comparisons to The Whisper Man are right there in front of your face.⁣
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I will say I was confused for the first 1/3 of the book. Am I to believe this is truly real? Or, is this another fictional character that is an urban legend that is pretending to be real? I couldn’t see a clear path in the woods (haha, pun intended) on where this was going. ⁣
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This book was actually kind of sad. There are 3 cases of two schoolmates killing a third and that’s what Dectice Amanda Beck is trying to see if there’s a link. It’s just sad that someone would groom another just to kill them at such a young age. I wish they would have given a little bit more of Beck’s past to help me connect more. However, the concept of lucid dreams and being awake while asleep scared the mess out of me. I was pretty scared to have a wonderful dream. ⁣
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I enjoyed The Shadows, regardless if it was very comparable to The Whisper Man. I honestly like these urban legend type books and have been drawn to them recently.⁣ The audio made the book that much creepier, and I really enjoyed the narration.