Title: The Knight and the ButcherbirdAuthor: Alix E. Harrow
First Published: March 11, 2025
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pages: 29
Genre: Dystopia, Fantasy, LGBTQ, Post-Apocalyptic, Short Stories
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
In this dystopian fairy tale from the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, a small town’s storyteller struggles to protect a local demon from the knight hired to kill it.
Hundreds of years after the end of the world, the Appalachian community of Iron Hollow finds itself beset by demons. Such horrors are common these days in the outlands, where most folks die young—if they don’t turn into monsters first.
When a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest unearthly beast to haunt their woods, the town’s new oral historian, 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 herself, 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.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
The Knight and the Butcherbird is an short story that boldly flits between genres. A post-apocalyptic eco-horror that reads like a dark fantasy fairy tale. The amount of worldbuilding accomplished in under forty pages is impressive and the future imagined in this story is fascinating. The story explores themes of love, grief, the terrifying nature of change, and the power of storytelling as a means of building community and sharing knowledge.
Alix E. Harrow has an incredible talent for writing short stories, The Six Deaths of the Saint remains one of my all-time favorite short stories and The Knight and the Butcherbird is further proof of Harrow’s ability to weave stories that are as dazzling as they are heart-wrenching.
Quote
“A patchwork monster. A nonsense of scales and fur which bore no resemblance to the girl I’d loved or the woman I’d married. Except, of course, that I loved her.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Alix E. Harrow
A former academic and adjunct, Alix E. Harrow is a NYT-bestselling and Hugo-award winning writer living in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids. She is the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, and various short fiction.
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