The Shadows by Alex North: A Book Review
Genre: Suspense
Looking over my list of want-to-read books, I was drawn to Alex North for too reasons. One: the titles were vague enough to be interesting. Two: the cover art looked cool. (Whoever said not to judge a book by a cover, never visited the library not knowing what to check out.) I had two books of his that I was interested in: The Whisper Man and The Shadows. After reading the descriptions, needless to say, I chose the later.
In all honesty, The Shadows made me more anxious to read The Whisper Man. North showcases this incredible ability to create urban legends and describe visually what they are able to do to our minds. While holding a supernatural element, North never goes in into the supernatural genre and instead stays intertwined with realistic fiction.
I had a hard time thinking of what genre to put the book into because of that. It was not really suspenseful, or a thriller, or even a horror story, but it also was not just realistic fiction or contemporary fiction. Rather the story held elements of all of the above while having defining characteristics of none of them.
What I found amazing about this book was that I was completely fooled until the very end. All of my predictions and thoughts about what was happening were wrong – which makes me very happy. I always enjoy “what the…” moments or times I have to do double takes and The Shadows certainly gave them to me.
If you like Stephen King and want a little less horror for a change, The Shadows should be put on your to-read list. King was definitely inspiration for North and North compliments his muse well. King would be proud.
Other books like the one reviewed:
Stephen King books
Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing: 10/10
Editor: 8/10
Total: 38/40
Title: The Shadows: A novel
Author: Alex North
Edition: First U.S Edition
Published: 2020
Publisher: Celadon Books
ISBN: 9781250318039
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
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