I believe Reeve makes Shrike feel like an evil person but deep inside, he’s actually a heartfelt person. This can show how a creepy man can have hopes and dreams. It also proves the philosophy “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”.

‘“HESTER SHAW!” Screeched a voice like a saw cutting metal.’

This shows an evil appearance to Shrike because of the way people ran away and feel scared with he’s voice. As well as that, he tries to make his voice sound creepy since he’s a stalker and stalkers are evil, murderous and heartless psychopaths. This is also the point that everyone thinks he’s a villain but after a sudden shock, Hester knew who he was.

‘“Hello, Shrike,” said Hester.’

Now everyone knows that he has been told to kill Hester and Tom. Now the twosome have to run away from Shrike.With a murdering cyborg on their back, it will be time-consuming and the gang may have a longer journey then planned. The next chapter shows us how Hester tells Tom on how her and Shrike met.

‘“Of course he did,” she said.“We’re old friends, Shrike and I.”‘

This indicates that Shrike does have a heart through out the chapter. We also find out that Shrike was going to kill Hester as a young girl but instead Shrike let’s her go and the two became great friends. This also shows that Hester may be able to reason with Shrike and then Tom and her will be safe. This can also indicate that Shrike can become a great ally to the like Anna Fang is.

Eventually, Shrike dies because Tom accidentally man-slotted him before Shrike could murder him by pushing Tom down a mountain slope or stabbing Tom with Shrike’s raze, sharp claws. This is a sad ending to Shrike because, even though he was told to murder, Tom knew that Shrike had hopes and dreams and knew he had done a big mistake.

This shows on how people can have mixed feelings for Shrike. Even when dead, Shrike had a great heart and would be a great name to the Mortal Engine’s tetra-logy. I hope this gives you a little description on what the story is about.