The Shadows: A Novel

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. How did the blend of psychological thriller and detective story feel to you? Did you find one aspect of the narrative, like Paul’s internal struggle or Amanda’s investigation, more compelling than the other?

2. Alex North’s debut novel, The Whisper Man, also explores how a killer’s legacy affects the present. How does The Shadows compare in its treatment of past crimes haunting a new generation? Have you read other novels that broach this topic? In comparison, how did they handle it?

3. Were you surprised by the final reveal of what really happened to Charlie Crabtree? How did the demystification of his supernatural legend affect your reading experience?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Paul’s return to Gritten forces him to confront a past he’s tried to escape. Have you ever returned to a place from your youth and found that your memories of it felt very different from the present-day reality?

2. The novel realistically captures the intense and sometimes toxic friendships of adolescence. What did you make of the dynamic between Paul, James, Billy, and Charlie? Does their experience resonate with your own experience of childhood friendships?

3. Does your hometown have any local legends or ghost stories similar to the ones Marie shares? What role do you think these kinds of stories play in shaping a community’s identity?

4. Do you think Daphne and Carl ultimately made the right choices in trying to shield Paul and James from the truth? Where do you draw the line between protecting a loved one and hiding something difficult?

5. Marie suggests that time isn’t a straight line but more of a “scribble,” where the past is always tangled up with the present. How does this idea resonate with your own experience of memory and history?

6. Paul carries guilt about Jenny’s death for 25 years. How does the novel explore the difference between feeling guilty and being responsible? How does his experience reflect your own experience with notions of guilt and responsibility?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. The copycat killers are radicalized in an online forum called “The Unsolved and the Unknown.” What does the novel suggest about the dangers of online true-crime communities and how they can blur the line between fact and fiction?

2. What does the novel say about the nature of memory and truth, especially when contrasting Daphne’s recollections, complicated by her dementia diagnosis, with the supposedly objective “facts” archived on the internet?

3. Gritten is described as a town trapped by its history. How does the novel portray the long-term effects of a shared, unresolved trauma on a small community? Can you think of real-world contemporary examples of this phenomenon?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. The narrative alternates between Paul’s first-person account and Amanda’s third-person investigation. How did this dual-narrative structure shape your understanding of the events and build suspense? How might the novel have been different if just one of the narrators told the story?

2. How does the menacing woods, known as “the Shadows,” function as more than just a location in the novel? How does this setting contribute to the thematic meaning of the novel?

3. Is Charlie Crabtree a more terrifying antagonist because we only see him through flashbacks? How does his absence in the present-day narrative amplify his manipulative influence?

4. What is the significance of the recurring red handprints? How does their symbolic meaning evolve over the course of the novel?

5. Discuss the role of the dream diaries in the novel. Consider how North uses them as a plot device, a symbol, and even as character development.

6. The story uses classic horror tropes, like a menacing figure in the woods and a dark local legend, similar to tales like Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. How does North update these traditional elements for a modern psychological thriller?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Write an epilogue from Paul’s perspective five years after the events in the novel. What do you imagine Paul’s future looks like? Do you think he’ll find peace, or will the town’s history always haunt him?

2. Charlie Crabtree successfully created the legend of “Red Hands” to manipulate his friends. If you were to create a new local myth or ghost story, what would its central tale be, and what warning would it carry?