Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: April 5, 2022
Source: ARC E-copy via Netgalley
Summary:
Extraordinarily tense and deliciously mysterious, Anna Downes’s The Shadow House follows one woman’s desperate journey to protect her children at any cost, in a remote place where not everything is as it seems.
A HOUSE WITH DEADLY SECRETS.
A MOTHER WHO’LL RISK EVERYTHING TO BRING THEM TO LIGHT.
Alex, a single mother-of-two, is determined to make a fresh start for her and her children. In an effort to escape her troubled past, she seeks refuge in a rural community. Pine Ridge is idyllic; the surrounding forests are beautiful and the locals welcoming. Mostly.
But Alex finds that she may have disturbed barely hidden secrets in her new home. As a chain of bizarre events is set off, events eerily familiar to those who have lived there for years, Alex realizes that she and her family might be in greater danger than ever before. And that the only way to protect them all is to confront the shadows lurking in Pine Ridge.
My thoughts:
Having read, and loved, Anna Downes debut novel, The Safe Place, I have been quite eager to see what she would write next and so I was quite ecstatic to get my hands on her sophomore novel. And I have to say I was not disappointed. This is another addicting read that will keep you captivated from start to finish!
I went into this one fairly blind – not having a print copy, I didn’t have the back of the book to glance at when I picked it up to read – and I think that helped. This is a very atmospheric, creepy read that uses alternating timelines quite well. Having the story told from two perspectives really keeps you wondering just what is going on and where things are headed and I have to say, I had many questions as I was reading this, trying to put all the pieces together.
This book explores loss and the lengths a mother will go to protect her children. The characters are richly drawn and I loved the idea of an eco-community – it almost becomes a character itself. I loved that the way the characters were developed, it was hard to tell whether they were to be trusted or not, and as we get further into the story, my radar was going crazy. The suspense builds steadily throughout and I found myself flipping through that pages quite frantically to see how it would all play out.
There were just enough twists to keep this one from being predictable and I loved that there was a little bit of a supernatural element added in. I’m not usually a fan of this, but it really worked here. I am clearly a fan of this author’s work and cannot wait to see what she writes next!
