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A review by paulabrandon
The Shadow Friend by Alex North
3.0
Paul Adams returns to his hometown upon learning that his mother is dying. He left 25 years earlier after two of his friends brutally murdered another classmate in a Slenderman-type scenario. One of the boys, Charlie Crabtree, the manipulative ringleader of the group, was never seen again.
25 years ago, Paul and his friends were big into "lucid dreaming" and believing in shared visions of Red Hands, a mysterious shadowy figure. Paul never really bought into it, but the legend of Charlie Crabtree and Red Hands continues to this day, and has inspired several copycat murders.
As Paul reconnects with childhood girlfriend Jenny Chambers, he gets the sense he is being followed. The latest copycat murder has brought Amanda Beck to town. It appears as if the past isn't at rest and Paul could still be in danger.
The Whisper Man was a ripper thriller, managing to be both scary and suspenseful. Sophomore slump is very evident here. The author takes on the over-used "then" and "now" format to describe current events, and the events in the past that led to the murder of one of Paul's classmates. The present proceedings are decent, with the same sort of spooky imagery and scenes found in The Whisper Man. However, the chapters in the past often drag the story to a halt. There was WAY, WAY, WAY too much talk about lucid dreaming, which led to one of my pet hates in books of describing what happens in a character's dreams.
There was a plot twist about three quarters of the way through that I did not see coming at all, but it still felt a bit cheap, and on reflection, I could see how the author was only able to achieve this through characters not saying out loud what you would expect any character to say out loud with that sort of knowledge. It's a case of all the characters knowing something, but not the reader, and I think that's a bit lazy.
The plot involving the copycat murders throughout the years just seems to get dropped halfway through the story and nothing interesting comes of it.
Paul's character was a bit too mopey and boring as an anchor for this sort of story, but the relationship with his mother was sad and handled well.
The Shadow Friend is a decent thriller, but nowhere at the standard of Alex North's first novel. It will keep you interested, but there's nothing here you haven't seen or read before.
25 years ago, Paul and his friends were big into "lucid dreaming" and believing in shared visions of Red Hands, a mysterious shadowy figure. Paul never really bought into it, but the legend of Charlie Crabtree and Red Hands continues to this day, and has inspired several copycat murders.
As Paul reconnects with childhood girlfriend Jenny Chambers, he gets the sense he is being followed. The latest copycat murder has brought Amanda Beck to town. It appears as if the past isn't at rest and Paul could still be in danger.
The Whisper Man was a ripper thriller, managing to be both scary and suspenseful. Sophomore slump is very evident here. The author takes on the over-used "then" and "now" format to describe current events, and the events in the past that led to the murder of one of Paul's classmates. The present proceedings are decent, with the same sort of spooky imagery and scenes found in The Whisper Man. However, the chapters in the past often drag the story to a halt. There was WAY, WAY, WAY too much talk about lucid dreaming, which led to one of my pet hates in books of describing what happens in a character's dreams.
There was a plot twist about three quarters of the way through that I did not see coming at all, but it still felt a bit cheap, and on reflection, I could see how the author was only able to achieve this through characters not saying out loud what you would expect any character to say out loud with that sort of knowledge. It's a case of all the characters knowing something, but not the reader, and I think that's a bit lazy.
The plot involving the copycat murders throughout the years just seems to get dropped halfway through the story and nothing interesting comes of it.
Paul's character was a bit too mopey and boring as an anchor for this sort of story, but the relationship with his mother was sad and handled well.
The Shadow Friend is a decent thriller, but nowhere at the standard of Alex North's first novel. It will keep you interested, but there's nothing here you haven't seen or read before.