Review: The Shrike & the Shadows

The Shrike & the Shadows by Chantal Gadoury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Krume has been plagued with an evil witch who lives in very haunted woods. Hans and Greta have known of this since they were young children. When men start disappearing, the village looks to blame somebody. With the urging of the village priest, they blame Hans and Greta and insist they leave the village immediately. If they don't, then the villagers will burn Greta for being a witch. With no choice, they leave to look for a new home. They have no other path than the haunted woods.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I feel like it had very great potential to be a very wonderful story. I am to the understanding that this is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Which I gathered just by the character names alone. I feel like it is the Grimm fairy tell version as opposed to the more happily ever after version. I tend to like the more darker stories, so I didn't have a problem with that. I also felt like there were references to other tales. I'm not sure if this is me personally or if there actually were.
While this book had great potential, it also could use quite a bit of work. There are parts of the story that could have had a bit more flair and drama. Instead, it fell a bit flat instead. I also didn't care for the characters in the book at all. Their behaviors were very inconsistent. Some times they just fell very flat and robotic. It was a little unnerving if I'm being honest. I feel like if this could use a bit of a polish. Just a little rewrite. I don't hate it, but it could use improvement.
This book is narrated by Ryan Haugen. He did a pretty amazing job considering. That's the problem though. I'm not sure if he took a bit of the dullness of the story out of the story or if his narration was the reason for it. The only way I can truly determine this is to listen to other books narrated by him and actually go back and read this book. I don't mind doing this. I just don't want to do it now. Either way, I really enjoyed his voice. It was very soothing.
I really did like this book a lot. I feel like it had a great deal of potential. I feel like if this book could be polished just a bit, it would be a wonderful book. I didn't hate it, but I didn't really love it either. I am open to reading it again to give it another chance. That's how much enjoyment I got out of it. I just saw a lot of flaws that I couldn't really overlook. I am willing to admit that some of the issues I have with the book are personal.

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