The Shadow House by Anna Downes

​Do you ever read a thriller and think…oh, if only this had more romance or mommy business? If so, this thriller is for you. I never had the thought and thus for me it ended up a disappointment.
The promise was there. I loved the setting of a semi-remote ecovillage in Australia. I liked the spooky is-there-or-isn’t-there a witch in the woods situation and all the concomitant creepy goings on. But then, quite literally from the first scene where our protagonist meets her future love interest, the quality just drops precipitously. And from then on, just as you begin really getting into the story, the book continues to remind you how much of a mommy thriller it is, how much of a love story it’s going to be, how much estrogen is flowing through its vein.
Too much estrogen, in fact. Sorry. Tedious amount of estrogen. Overshadowing every good thing about the story.
Is the story at least original? Well, yes and no. It’s nigh impossible to do an original thriller these days due to the insane popularity of the genre. So, since all the main premises have been done and done, originality is traditionally relinquished to the smaller aspects of the plot such as the ecovillage location here.
It is meant to be a fresh start for the mommy protagonist of this book. She’d just left an unhappy relationship, so now she’s got two kids (14 and a baby) from different fathers none of whom are around and a grand idea that this ecovillage will be the new beginning she so desperately needs. I mean, a more introspective protagonist might analyze their actions and realize how much her present is define by her past mistakes (yes, this woman is dumb enough to think that having a bay is a good way to fix a messed up relationship and this was her latest, not her wild youth’s ideas) and maybe learn a thing or two, but hey, she’s just too busy being a mommy. And for that her reward is a surly teen and a constantly wailing baby.
But wait for it, she is still the yummy mommy of someone’s dreams. She manages to grab the attention of the oh so hunky ecovillage’s founder and they proceed to exchange romantic sparks while she is trying to figure out what’s going on in the community around her. They had a teen go missing a while back. Is her kid next? What are the strange gifts she’s been receiving? Do the villagers even want her around or are they gathering their pitchforks and torches? Etc.etc.
Don’t worry, she’ll work it all out, like a supermommmy that she thinks she is. And every reveal will be more disappointing and more pedestrian than the next until the initial premise will seem like a distant and faded thing of the past. Because the endings for these sorts of stories and these sorts of protagonists are usually sappy happy and book is all too aware of it.
Overall, decent enough, the pacing’s pretty good, the writing would also be pretty good if not for all that freaking estrogen and romance and babies, but as it was, the book left a lot to be desired and did nothing to distinguish itself from the plethora of same and similar thrillers out there. Thanks Netgalley.