So let me set the scene for you prior to me reading this one...
The past several months here in Pennsylvania were completely filled with mad chaos to alter the minds of the neighbors using aerial fireworks going off for months.
Not a good nights sleep to be had -so I was in that thriller mood- to be blown away and I found it with The Shadows.
This one has that psychological horror, fictional thriller, supernatural v natural novel, that explores a past v present scenario with an 'after' column that ends with quite a bang.
Now, I wasn't truly sold on the ending but I was wrapped tight with the plot, the twist, the turns, and the lead me on movements, and the ultimate epic writing of this author Alex North.
I've read the Whisper Man and wasn't a fan but he sold me on this one because he took there--to the backwoods-to that paranoia of being watched--to that delusional time of losing mental capacities with James mom and beyond.
The quotes throughout the book added that extra spook of flavor that spiced it up and kept the chills and spills coming from start to finish.
Lucid dreaming. Nightmares. Foster and Hick's experiments. Schizophrenia. Killings. Dark Markets. and 'Red Hands Everywhere.'
For the love, we are dealing with "Mister Red Hands" but perhaps also a copycat who needs attention.
What floored me is every time I thought I had it figured out the author added another dimension, another death, another mystery, another possibility that kept me swaying back and forth between memories, facts, delusions, and truths.
The anxiety peeks and is pushed to the limit with more than just hear say, eye witness accounts, or past history --as it's now being written down for future reference but by whom and why?
It's like this: Boy-Woods-Dad's Soul-Dead-Ghosts-Possible Suicide--
Ok, now you get me?
Because, you might understand that Charlie really disappeared yet "nobody disappears?!"
"Nobody is ever really gone."
Could Paul be up to no good?
Could he be capable of killing?
His mother insisted that someone's in the house leading to more suspicion, and distressing emotions that became quite complicated...
After all, twenty five years ago it wasn't just the murder ..It was that Charlie Crabtree was never seen again.
It seems this Gritten is not the place I've got on my list of spots to visit anytime soon.
"But despite my best efforts, everything around me was beginning to fade."
In the end, James was just a small vulnerable child-groomed to his current state by those he trusted as so-called friends who intended to kill him.
Never growing, never flourishing, never reaching capacity as frozen in state forever defined by a trauma moment that lingered in his mind.
Billy and James and many others met their fate the hard way but they are in a better place -aren't they?
Could Carl Dawson help with solving this baffling case? Emptying the baggage and leading to 'pushing buttons' and finding answers in the house of horrors.
Could their be something like a journal or diary from one of these kids that can provide us all the answers we desperately seek?
Do we truly want to know after everything that's gone down?
Could Carl and Eileen Dawson( James parents) offer any solace or comfort since they've both been present the day Charlie and Billy were compromised?
Feeling powerlessness, losing hope, seeking answers ...march on!
Or was one of these two individuals -a Victim- of unfortunate circumstances?
Could Charlie have been violent enough to kill and then frame the next guy who came along for his misdoings? Could James have simply reacted to some horror before him knowing he was being betrayed?
Was Charlie the killer or was it someone else...Possibly James?
Or could it be someone not even in the picture yet? Well, Amanda it's up to you...
After all I'm running out of suspects because each one I thought it was has been side stepped and betrayed.
You must read this beauty...
Thank you to Alex, the pub Celadon Books, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
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