2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Shadows by Alex North.

Pages: 336 pages

Length: 1 Month (February)

Participants: SarahKat, Zeejane.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

Me too! I've heard mixed reviews so I'm hesitantly excited.

When do you plan on starting? I can download this whenever you're ready!

That happened to me at the beginning of January! I'm doing the quarterly Best in Show and I'm using Goodreads Choice 2020 nominees so they are all fairly popular right now so I put holds on everything. But the wait times all lied to me and I kept getting 3 or 4 books at a time!

Anyway, we can wait a week or two if you need to get through some of your library holds, or I can probably start today if you want to knock this one out early! Either way!

Sounds good to me!

I got through Chapter 6! I'm liking it too

Random thoughts: (view spoiler)[I thought this was going to be a regular old mystery/thriller but there seems to be some paranormal stuff going on too that we just sort of found out about at the end of chapter 6.

Charlie is a creepy character. I'm not sure if he actually caused that Hague guy's death or just saw it coming? But it's making it sound like he succeeded in living forever in the dream world after he and Billy killed a kid. Was it James they killed? I can't even remember if it said and I literally just put the book down.

The lucid dreaming is interesting. I did my final on sleep and dreams for my psychology degree and I find it fascinating. I used to keep a dream journal too because I have some weird ones, and keeping the journal helps you remember more of them because you're intentionally thinking about them. (hide spoiler)]

That's true! Maybe (I don't remember what chapter this is in but I haven't read further than yesterday) (view spoiler)[it's like what Paul and Jenny were discussing with the Stephen King books. The Walking Dude turning out to be the devil. (hide spoiler)]

I had a really busy day too and I knew it would be. That's why I didn't feel too bad about reading a chunk last night hehe

I still haven't read more! I have a pile of emails I have to catch up with and I'll focus on this book this afternoon instead of my others ;)

I was getting a Momo or Slenderman vibe too.

Nice! I'm having a crazy week so I'm only on chapter 13. I was going to ask if you've read The Whisper Man. I haven't, but this book mentions that in chapter 10. I was worried I would miss out on some backstory but it looks like it just has the detective in common.

Okay I just finished Chapter 15 (view spoiler)[ the one with the bloody fist-prints on the door of his house and then the ghost/Charlie?/James/something from the shadows showing up and running back into the forest. (hide spoiler)] and I really shouldn't read this right before I go to sleep. I need to read a chapter in my murder mystery for something happy haha

Zeejane (Sara) wrote: "Just finished chapter thirty-one. What.The.....

My head hurts hahahaa 🤪😂"

Just got there. Whaaaaaaat

Edit: (view spoiler)[ Okay so as soon as I read the first line in the next chapter it clicked I think. The only reason he's been talking to Jenny "now" is because he's been controlling his dreams. Did Charlie and Billy kill Jenny? I thought they killed James? But has it actually said that or am I just assuming? I can never remember! (hide spoiler)]

I finished! I don't have time right now to write my review and I need to mull it over a bit more. Here are my current thoughts:

(view spoiler)[Probably 4 stars for me. There were some random cliffhangers that were a little too cliche "dun dun dun!" for me. Not a huge deal. But the other problem I had was what is up with the Hague death? Charlie told him he saw him die basically, and then he did. I was thinking Charlie was going to be some supernatural devil of some kind but this didn't turn out to be that type of book. And yet the prophesying of Hague's accident was WAY too coincidental to put down to chance.

Otherwise I really liked this. I loved how the author played with our assumption that James had been the one killed when it was actually Jenny. I also thought it was interesting that the "bad guy" who killed Billy and James was the recent victim's dad, Dean Price. By that point in the story, I had almost forgotten about the most recent killing! But then it makes complete sense when it's pulled together.

Carl Dawson being a red herring didn't really work for me, as I never saw him as capable of doing that, but I also had assumed (as the author intended) that the one killing Billy and James was also the one who left the doll and banged on Paul's door. So it was interesting that he was actually the one who did that.

I did LOVE the atmosphere in this book and how it walks a very thin line between real and surreal. (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: "Nice! I'm having a crazy week so I'm only on chapter 13. I was going to ask if you've read The Whisper Man. I haven't, but this book mentions that in chapter 10. I was worried I would miss out on s..."

Hi! I decided to pick this up for my last Feb read. I've read The Whisper Man and they seem to have similar story flow. I'm currently on Chapter 13. I think Detective Amanda Beck, is the only character from The Whisper Man and I'm wondering why is this a standalone book.

Zeejane (Sara) wrote: "Alyana wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "Nice! I'm having a crazy week so I'm only on chapter 13. I was going to ask if you've read The Whisper Man. I haven't, but this book mentions that in chapter 10. I w..."

Yes it could be with contract with publishers. Anyway, I really liked The Whisper Man and I'm keeping my hopes up that this book if not better but at least the same effect on me :)

Hi Alyana!

I just figured because you don't have to read Whisper Man to understand what happens in The Shadows. But then it's similar to a lot of other detective series where you don't necessarily have to read them in order but they are still numbered (like Hercule Poirot, Harry Hole, etc.). So... I don't know.

I've heard a lot of people who read Whisper Man first didn't like The Shadows. Interested to hear what you think when you finish!

I'm about 80% of the book and I have to be honest, I didn't like this as much as the Whisper Man. The timeline jump is making my head hurt. One scene this is what was happening and in just a snap, I'm already in a different timeline. I felt like the story was a little bit unrealistic.

I'm probably expecting more from the author since I read the other book but I don't know, can't help it (smh)

Zeejane (Sara) wrote: "Alyana-you're making me want to move The Whisper Man up on my TBR list, maybe I'll move some things around and fit it in next month :)

eta: just put a library hold on it, lol."

Disclaimer: Please don't blame me if you end up not liking The Whisper Man. lmao