This article reports the measurement of the $^{235}$U-induced antineutrino spectrum shape by the STEREO experiment. 43'000 antineutrinos have been detected at about 10 m from the highly enriched core of the ILL reactor during 118 full days equivalent at nominal power. The measured inverse beta decay spectrum is unfolded to provide a pure $^{235}$U spectrum in antineutrino energy. A careful study of the unfolding procedure, including a cross-validation by an independent framework, has shown that no major biases are introduced by the method. A significant local distortion is found with respect to predictions around $E_\nu \simeq 5.3$ MeV. A gaussian fit of this local excess leads to an amplitude of $A = 12.1 \pm 3.4\%$ (3.5$\sigma$).
Comment: This is the Accepted Manuscript version of an article accepted for publication in J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys.. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6471/abd37a. 34 pages, 14 figures