By Alex North
This book is about a horrible child murder that sparks an urban legend following and copycat killings over the years. Nearby woods to the crime form the perfect, eerie, remote setting; referred to by locals as The Shadows. The original players in the crime are all still deeply scarred years later, except the mastermind, Charlie Crabtree. Charlie seemingly vanished the night of the killing, never to be seen or heard from again, adding to the mystique of the crime. Instead of him, readers follow the narrative of Paul, the one member of the group responsible who left when things started getting weird and had nothing to do with it.
Paul was initially suspected by association and brought into the police station, but was cleared the same night. He left the town quickly afterwards for college, and never set foot back for twenty-five years. Returning now due to his dying mother, Paul is forced to confront a past long buried. He is also a person of interest in the most recent copycat killings. Law enforcement and Paul are all trying to piece together what really happened that night decades ago, convinced the recent killings can be solved there along with the original wound that has never healed for the entire community. He is shocked to find clues in his own attic, and wonders what his now confused and senile mother knows about the crime. Will she ever be cogent enough to reveal her secrets before she succumbs to death?
The reader is forced to question did Charlie really vanish, or did Red Hands, another local urban legend antihero who dwells in the Shadows, absorb him into the terrifying forest? Charlie’s obsession with lucid dreaming, and making the other members of the group attempt it as well, has us questioning what is reality and what isn’t. Alive or dead, Charlie’s legacy seems to be living on through the internet, instructing others how to coordinate their dreams and commit the same crime over and over.
Basically, the reader is continuously questioning everything, so it is difficult to surmise what actually happened. Applause to North for keeping a sometimes-jaded-reader guessing. I will say the ultimate ending, for me, was a bit of a let down. I think it is because even with so much supernatural lead up, ultimately the worst, most gruesome crimes we encounter are never committed by actual monsters, but merely awful, evil, human beings.
Soundtrack
- The Shallows by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper
- Shadows of the Night by Pat Benetar
- Last Kiss by Pearl Jam
- My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- Twisty, turny, dark and spooky
- The reader’s assumptions lead one down a path where the rug is yanked out from under us, and it is hard to pinpoint when our assumptions led us astray
- Old skeletons, figuratively and literally, reveal the biggest plot points
Cons
- Didn’t like the ultimate killer – understood motivations but wanted someone else
- Lots of judgement of different neighborhoods and social classes
- Lots of unrealized potential and dreams