Title: The Knight and the ButcherbirdAuthor: Alix E. Harrow
Pages: 36
Publication Date: March 11, 2025
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Fantasy / Romantasy
Synopsis:
In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster—and her own secrets—safe from a legendary knight.
Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don’t turn into monsters first. Bcut what’s causing these transformations?
No one has the answer, not even the town’s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.
Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it.
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Title: The Knight and the Butcherbird
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Page Length: 36
Pub. Date: March 11, 2025
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Synopsis: In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster—and her own secrets—safe from a legendary knight.
Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don’t turn into monsters first. Bcut what’s causing these transformations?
No one has the answer, not even the town’s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.
Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it.
What a beautifully poignant and heartbreaking short story about love, loss, and change! The Knight and the Butcherbird immediately pulled me in with its haunting premise and vivid world-building, and it amazes me how much of a punch this packed considering it’s less than 40 pages. I was wholly engrossed and so impressed with how fleshed out and fully realized the story and characters were.
Harrow’s dystopian world is rich and immersive, with demons and post-apocalyptic horrors woven into a tale of love, sacrifice, and defiance. It’s a world of stark disparities where demons are made from the people you love. Dark and bleak and beautifully constructed, it’s very easy to get sucked into this wholly original place.
Shrike, the town’s storyteller, is determined to protect her wife, May, who has recently turned into a demon. When a legendary knight arrives to hunt May down, Shrike misdirects him and slowly learns that the knight has secrets of his own that change everything. Part of what makes this story so powerful is Shrike’s love for May. Their relationship shows the emotional weight that comes with trying to hold on to someone you’re losing in such a heartbreaking way, and it totally got me right in the feels.
The knight, who at first seems like a simple enemy, has his own secrets, which makes him a way more sympathetic character than I expected. The connection that forms between Shrike and the knight is unexpected and surprisingly moving, and as Shrike learns more about him, you start to see that they’re not very different from each other. There’s an emotional complexity in these relationships that hits you deep in the heartstrings. Did it make me cry? Most definitely. I think anyone who has suffered loss will feel this one deeply.
As a former high school English teacher, I’ve read my fair share of short stories, and I have a list of all-time faves. The Knight and the Butcherbird has officially made it to the top of the list. It’s the type of story that you think about long after you finish it, and I already know that it will live rent-free in my head for a long, long time.
She knew me then, at the beginning of ourselves, and she knew me now, here at the end, when she did not even know herself.
Why do people change? Because they are cursed, pursued, poisoned, trapped, under siege. Because they have to.
a former academic, adjunct, cashier, blueberry-harvester, and kentuckian, alix e. harrow is now a full-time writer living in virginia with her husband and their semi-feral kids.
she is the hugo award-winning and nyt-bestselling author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY (2019), THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (2020), a duology of fairytale novellas (A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED), and various short fiction.
This is on my TBR! Great review – I’m so excited to read this one.
It’s fantastic! I hope you love it. Yolanda!