Alder Glen is a town shaped by secrets, where the pine trees never move quite the way they should and the night carries more than simple darkness. Evan Miller never believed the stories whispered through Shadowood Forest. He grew up hearing old poems, family warnings, and strange superstitions from a grandfather who seemed to drift further from reality each year, yet he always assumed they were nothing more than the remnants of an overactive imagination.
When tragedy fractures the life he once knew, Evan is pulled into a legacy he never asked to inherit. A hidden amulet emerges from the ruins of his past. A presence stirs within the trees and begins to take shape. The Huntress watches from the shadows, patient and relentless, and the forest seems to recognize him in a way that feels unsettlingly intimate.
Evan's search for answers leads him through the weight of grief, the unraveling of long buried family history, and the quiet spark growing between him and Riley, a boy whose gentle presence reveals truths Evan has avoided for too long. As his sense of reality begins to distort, he must decide whether the danger is coming from the world around him or from something rising within him.
Before the Shadows serves as a prequel and sequel to The Shadows Within. It unfolds slightly before that story begins, crosses through the same timeline, and continues the narrative beyond it. Although connected to the larger world of Evergreen Falls and Shadowood Forest, it can be read independently without any knowledge of The Shadows Within.
This novel blends psychological horror with queer identity, memory distortion, small town dread, and the fear of losing oneself to forces that feel both familiar and ancient. In a place where perception bends and the past refuses to stay silent, Evan must face truths that have followed his family for generations and decide who he will become once the shadows finally close in.
About the Author :
Rufus Watson is a writer, casual console gamer, and nurse-in-training who spends most of his time thinking too much about fictional people and not enough about nursing school. He writes stories that explore the space between what's real and what the mind refuses to let go, often through eerie forests, fractured families, and queer characters just trying to survive the week.As a gay author, Rufus believes in writing LGBT characters who exist without apology, without explanation, and without being reduced to stereotypes because love is love, even when you're being stalked by something older than the trees. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana, where he drinks far too much coffee, and worries about things that haven't happened yet.
Review :
"A BRILLIANT continuation of the Shadowood story! I couldn't put it down!"
