I liked this book but I wanted to love it. I felt like it should have enchanted me more than it did. It reminded me of books like the Night Circus and Caraval, but it didn’t quite capture the magic in the same way those books did.

I felt a big part of this was that I just didn’t believe in the character. She came up with this big stories about where she came from but I just didn’t believe them. It felt like she was being swept up by her own imagination whereas in books that do this well, I would have been swept along with her.

I did like the idea of the theatre district and an everlasting play though. I really loved the way everything was secretive and complex and how the fans in the book were shown to really be following it and trying to track it all. I could see how fun it would be to follow along and discuss it endlessly.

I wanted to love this more than I did, but it was still a really good story.

In The Theatre of Glass and Shadows, by Anne Corlett, we follow 20-year-old Juliet Grace as she gets to know the Theatre District, an independent borough of London bordering Lambeth.

Inside the district’s walls, there’s always entertainment on offer, whether that’s an encounter with a roaming performer, a play at one of the plentiful smaller theatres, or The Show – a never-ending production which runs day and night at the sprawling House of Doors, where actors, dancers, and singers repeat the same scenes in different spaces until the time is ripe for them to move on to the next part of their characters’ stories.

Following her father’s death, Juliet comes to the district to see what she can discover about the mother she never knew, who lived and worked there. A trained ballerina herself, Juliet gains a coveted small part in The Show, but continually runs into dead ends on her fact-finding mission. What’s more, it seems that a serial killer is operating locally, and the police are circling the district despite their lack of jurisdiction.

Not unlike the Theatre District itself, The Theatre of Glass and Shadows has something for all sorts, making for a sophisticated novel with plenty of layers to sink your teeth into.

The mystery of Juliet’s heritage, and the cold indifference of her stepmother, Clare, will appeal to those who like Gothic fairytale vibes – an aspect of this novel I especially appreciated. At the same time, seeing Juliet escape the stultifying life Clare’s planned out for her as a secretary or mother’s help, and experience genuine warmth from people for the first time in her life, is uplifting.

Habitual crime fiction readers have the police investigation into the unsolved murders to pique their interest. Fans of fantasy and/or alternate history are likely to enjoy the detailed world-building, including extracts from a history book that, with an air of authority and authenticity, outlines the area’s development over the course of centuries.

Relatedly, the features of the district, how it operates, and who pulls the strings, are well-described and thought-through, with incidental details contributing to its believability. While aspects such as being picked out of the crowd for a private scene, collecting tokens in pursuit of an unknown prize, and the treasures one might find in the unofficial memorabilia museum (housed by the pub) captured my imagination, the district is far from a utopia unaffected by the world at large.

For instance, the place would grind to a halt without its stagehands or hospitality workers, but of course, they live in the down-at-heel housing of the outer district, unlike the top performers, who live in secure private quarters close to the heart of the action. Additionally, the Second World War sounds like it was much the same in this alternate world, and proved a challenge for the district and The Show.

The idea of The Show enthralled me. I pictured it as a kind of in-person, interactive soap opera, where the same set of scenes played out over and over, until such time as it could be surmised that anyone who wanted to know the latest developments would have got to see them, and anyone who loved particular scenes so much they made repeat visits had had sufficient fill.

I’d have liked to read more details about the storylines – maybe from the mouth of Juliet’s lovely new friend, Show enthusiast Eugene – but then again, this way it retained its aura of mystery, and with all its history and interconnections (both on- and off-stage), even a summary of the most recent, major storylines might well spiral out into a separate book in itself!

The Theatre of Glass and Shadows is imaginative, expansive, and full of mystery.

When I first started reading this book, I got very strong Night Circus vibes. I love that book so I was eager to see how this one would go with the mysterious Theatre District where the Show has been going on for centuries, and how Juliet goes on an adventure there to find the truth about her mother, father, and own past that she can't quite remember. Sadly, among the magic of the Show, there is also darkness and shadows. It was very intriguing, especially when Juliet got to the Theatre area and met the Followers that help her find the answers about the Moonshine Girl and other performers that were larger than life and lived in the hidden side. I liked all the searching for secrets and hidden doors to the stage in the district. Add in a murderer who may or may not be killing girls that mysteriously turn up alive again, and it was a good story. The ending was a bit rushed with all the revelations of what was going on with the deaths and Director and Juliet's past. I think I would have enjoyed more in depth history of the Theatre District and the deals made so long ago. I want to know if there is really a bit of magic involved or if it was all illusions and dark secrets.

I really enjoyed 'The Theatre of Glass and Shadows' by Anne Corlett but, the ending lost it for me slightly, dropping my star rating by one. I loved the fantasy World of the district of which parallels can be drawn with Erin Morgenstern's 'Night Circus'. The difference here, however, is that The Show must go on, no matter what. A deadly and dark tale that I was completely absorbed in until the resolution of the book when a new and crucial character is introduced towards the end. The ending lost something for me but, I was compelled by the Moonshine Girl plus, The Girl in the Silver Shoes and their story throughout the novel. An interesting nod to Jack the Ripper with the Night Versions and their quiet end. An interesting read where not everything is as it seems

Juliet looked away. “Another time.”
“Well, if you change your mind, you know where we are.” Anna said, getting up and walking out of the room, leaving Juliet with an ache of loneliness.
Juliet waited until she heard Anna leave before heading downstairs to make a sandwich, which she found she couldn't eat. As she was washing up, she heard the front door open, then voices and footsteps on the stairs. A few seconds later, Sally walked into the kitchen, followed by a little crowd of people. Macy was there, and Jan, and some other followers Juliwt vaguely recognised.
Macy gave Juliet a lite wave. “Hello, stranger.”
Anna squeezed through the door behind them. “Our usual table was occupied,” she said. “There was outrage. We decided to come home instead.” She gave her housemate a slightly lidded look. “So you don't need to drag yourself to the Shipping News. We brought the Shipping News to you.”
Juliet could feel the back of her neck growing clammy.
Keep yourself apart.
There was a thudding from the hallway, and Eugene appeared, followed by another man, both carrying chairs.
“Well done,” Sally said. “If anyone else turns up, they'll have to sit on the floor.” :||

All Juliet has ever wanted is to feel loved, to know where she came from and hopefully unpick the secrets around her upbringing. But when you come from glass and shadows they won't give up their mysteries easily, in order to find out what happened in the past she must give the Theatre her all. But will she lose herself to the feeling it gives her, be upstaged by her mother's memory, fall in love with the artistry she always craved or will history repeat itself. Only time will tell..

Okay, I’m going to get right to the point, this is not something I would usually read. This genre is hit or miss for me but after suffering a really bad migraine attack (which unfortunately made me take a while to read it) I couldn't put it down. This whole world opened up before me and it was like, it made sense but it shouldn't have. There were so many threads being woven and so many hints and flickers or recognition I couldn't pinpoint that by the end I was so shocked even I was left feeling distrust😂
All I kept thinking was this would make such an epic movie. I know they would miss bits out but omg.. It was magical!

Thank you so much to Anne Corlett, black and white publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book x

The Theatre of Glass and Shadows by Anne Corlett is stunning tale that takes the reader on a thrilling adventure in a beautifully imagined alternative London where mystery and intrigue is the order of the day and danger lurks behind every hidden door.
Julia's mother has always been a mystery, she died when Julia was just a baby and her father has always been close lipped about their family history. When he dies nineteen year old Julia finds a cache of hidden objects that seem to point to her origins being in the Theatre District , a walled district in the middle of the city which has its own rules and secrets. A vast immersive production known only as "The Show " has been running for centuries featuring a rotating cast of performers from a select pool of families who keep their identities secret and are known only by their character names such as The Shadow Man or The Girl in the Silver Shoes, and Juliet begins to wonder if she might actually belong to one of these families, especially following her first visit to the Show where she is surrounded by sights and smells that seem to trigger her memories. It is not all magic and glitter in the district however, it seems that over the course of the last couple of decades young girls have been dying in a range of tragic and mysterious circumstances. The police have no jurisdiction within the Theatre District but a determined detective who has been trying to crack the case for years thinks that Juliet may offer him his best chance yet. As she tries to uncover the truth about her origins she may uncover a secret that could bring the whole District to its knees.
The worldbuilding in this book is absolutely captivating, reading it felt like being transported to another time and place, the descriptions of the Theatre District were simply magical, it did feel like being behind the scenes of a working production, but somehow also more. I was completely drawn in to the story and definitely found myself rooting for Juliet as she struggled to find out the truth about her family. There were plenty of twists and turns along the way which made me reluctant to set the book down, instead I kept saying just one more chapter, which is always a good sign. If I had to pinpoint an issue it would be that the ending felt a little rushed and seemed to tie things up in a way that suggests the author does not plan to revisit this world , which is a shame as I think it has plenty more to offer.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This is, in my opinion, an stunning book and may very well be my book of the year.

We follow Juliet as she tries to unravel her past and follow her dreams in a highly detailed (and utterly credible) alternate version of London, in which an area called The District is, in effect, a self governing, self policing theatre where 'The Show' runs all day and all night. Highly dedicated fans called Followers busily try to work out the secrets that they think lurk behind the storylines and the lines between the real truth and the fiction become increasingly blurred.

Juliet is wonderful as the central character. Her father has just died as the story opens and her stepmother, with whom she has never bonded, just wants her out of the house. She follows the trail of her father to The District hoping to find more about her past and her birth mother, and, she believes, take her rightful places amongst the Elite Performers of the show.

The truth of her past however, is far murkier and The District hides many secrets. Juliet is believable, she is no screaming 'girly' girl nor does she think that she can work it all out on her own. She befriends Followers and Performers alike and all of these are beautifully drawn and it is easy to picture them and fill in their back stories. This, of course, is the aim of The District - tell part of a story and let the audience work out the rest as they wish and adopt whatever version feels right to them.

The shadowy, murky truth is revealed very slowly, as we, along with Juliet, slowly piece together the evidence and learn more about the inner workings of the Show.

The title of the book suits the story perfectly, there are many 'glass' areas within the story, both literal and metaphorical and there are certainly plenty of shadows. There is much interesting imagery as people are sometimes viewed through shards of mirror and glass which perhaps serves to demonstrate how easy it is for us to see what we want (or perhaps need) to see by defining our viewpoint.

I also enjoyed the well developed history of The District and the little 'extracts' from (fictional) texts at the end of some chapters which gave more insight into this version of London. Quite why and how the divergence from the real world happened is never explained nor does it need to be. I think that it would have been easy for the author to get bogged down in linking the world of her story to our reality but I am glad that she avoided the temptation to do so as I think that it would have detracted and distracted from the tale she wanted to tell.

If I had any criticism it is that the end is a little rushed, and, unless a sequel is planned, could have been tidier and a little more told about what happens to the main characters after the denoument. But then perhaps that is just all part of the Show!

The book is genre defying, fantasy, mystery, coming of age, maybe even romance. Read it and choose for yourself.

I am immensley grateful to Black and White publishing for a review copy and for letting me enjoy such a wonderful and different story. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Thank you NetGalley and Black & White Publishing for this eCopy to review

The Theatre of Glass and Shadows was an interesting read, but like the maze that is the theatre district I felt the story lost its way a little and was quite slow in places. Juliet leaves her step mother's house on the death of her father and moves to the theatre district in London to find what happened to her mother and hopefully find somewhere she belongs. Initially she is swept up with the glamour and magic of the district but on gaining a job there she finds it increasing dark and dangerous. Who are all the dead girls? Who can be trusted?

The ending was a big twist that I did not see coming

I have reviewed The Theatre of Glass and Shadows by Anne Corlett for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk. I’ve chosen the book to feature as a Liz Pick of the Month for June. Please see link to the site for the full review.

When Juliet’s father died, his last words were ‘Madeleine, Mad…e…liene’. Juliet’s stepmother asked her, ‘What’s going on? Did he say something?’ ‘No. I mean it didn’t make sense,’ says Juliet.

Juliet never really connected emotionally with her distant father and her stepmother Clare treated her like an outsider. Her half sisters were always ‘the girls’, never ‘your sisters’. And who was Madeleine? Obviously Clare knew, but she didn’t say anything.

Juliet wanted to be a dancer, but Clare had taken her away from Miss Abbeline’s ballet school, so she could go to secretarial college. Juliet though has other ideas, especially when she discovers that her birth was registered in the Theatre District. I am not going to try and explain this because at times I didn’t really understand. I felt as though I was reading in an alternative reality, but that’s the whole point. The Theatre District is an alternative reality, an alternative London, where the police have no jurisdiction and the show must go on. And it does, in a loop, and performers are queuing up to be part of it. Punters must enter a ballot to secure a ticket, or pay a fortune to buy one.

In the meantime, a girl’s body has been found floating in the river. But is she connected to the District? There have been others, all young women, but the police have been unable to find any definitive links. The truth is not what I imagined – it’s even more sinister. But what is the truth? Because no-one seems to be telling the truth.

The story introduces us to some memorable characters apart from Juliet and Miss Abbeline. There is the Moonshine Girl who died or did she, the Girl in the Silver Shoes who trod the high wire, charismatic Ethan the Shadow Man, DC Lambert, Eugene whom Juliet befriends, and the director Conrad Danes.

There’s a bit of The Night Circus here, a little bit of Neil Gaiman. At times it was quite dark. It took a while to get going, but then it was magical, dangerous and intriguing. It’s beautifully written, drawn from the author’s vivid imagination. A classic in the making.

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and to NetGalley for an ARC.

I read the Theatre of Glass and Shadows over the weekend and it is glorious. Hugely inventive and original. A genuinely immersive book with a dark twist to die for. Deserves to be a big success.

I loved the premise for this book and was so excited to have a proof copy! I thought the Theatre District had such a rich feeling of place, it was a very intriguing location that kept me reading, especially as we meet the characters in The Shipping News who were as interested in working out the mysteries as me. The descriptions of the theatres and performances were also a highlight, but it was the history of the district that interested me the most. I really enjoy books that are set in an alternate past like this, where we can imagine how history might have changed with one or two small additions (like Shakespeare being virtually unheard of).

I did find that our main character Juliet felt quite bland throughout, and some of the more interesting figures I wanted to learn more about seemed to fade out of the story. I also wasn't a fan of the dialogue which seemed a bit unnatural and cliched, as were some of the more introspective portions from Juliet. I also found that the plot felt slightly underdeveloped, the twist was very good but came up all of a sudden and from there it felt like everything happened quite quickly whereas the before this the plot progression had been very slow.
Overall I loved the setting and the concept of the novel and think they were very strong, but unfortunately the writing felt underdeveloped in places. I think the core idea was there and it's clear the author did a lot of research which really enhanced their worldbuilding, so I would recommend this to people who love interactive theatre and the world of theatre. I would be interested to see where Anne Corlett goes next but unfortunately this one didn't entirely do it for me.

Two of my greatest loves are books and the theatre. However although excited to read this book it did not reach my expectations. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

Full of intrigue and darkness, this is a story of mystery and illusion. Juliet’s story seems unremarkable at first until she finds out about her links to the Theatre district and sets out to discover her history and heritage.
Slow to get going, i thought the uncovering of the darkness behind the scenes of the show was cleverly written. I thought the descriptions of the theatre world were detailed and imaginative and gave the feeling of never quite knowing what was happening.
As Juliet learnt more of the secrets it became obvious that the darkness was threatening to spill into danger and I enjoyed seeing her eyes open to the illusion.

I adored this. An exciting storyline with lots of twists and turns. You can't help but root for Juliet as she tries to get answers about her past. I loved the idea of the theatre district, with the mystery surrounding the performers, the audience in their masks, the whole thing was beautifully written and so well thought out. Visually, it's stunning and it would be good to read more about it. I'm not sure if the author is planning on writing any more in this universe, but I would certainly read it. It's quite gothic and dark and feels a little Victoriana, even though it's an alternative London and no real timescale is given. This is a clever move on Corlett's part as it removes any constraints a set time and place would have on the narrative.

If you love books with music, dance and theatre, you will definitely enjoy this one.

Unfortunately a DNF at around 40%. I thought this would be a 5 star when I started it, it had a fun fairy tale feel to it but then it just got so confusing. I kept going because the premise is amazing but it just didn’t get any better. I just didn’t know what was happening.

That could be a me problem and you may like it if you love a different take on a fantasy with fairytale elements. The writing style was good, just not my kinda book.

Set in an alternative London in the 1950’s although to me it felt like it was more Victorian vibes, particularly in the Theatre District. Juliet lives with her father, stepmother and her two half sister but when her father dies she determines to find out more about her birth mother. Learning her birth was registered in the District Juliet leaves home to see what she can uncover. The police came to the house after her fathers death which further roused her interest. Juliet is a good character, somewhat naive but a product of her upbringing and she’s searching for that sense of belonging she’s never had.

Briefly, Juliet discovers her mother was an artiste in The Show. There are people who don’t live or work in the District who are obsessed with The Show and can obtain tickets to watch it any time night or day but the District is a place with its own rules and it’s own laws and even the police have no jurisdiction. It has always been that way. Finding out about her mother makes Juliet feel that this is where she belongs and she joins the insiders as a performer. But she soon find that there are dark forces at large and the thrill of the theatre is not always what it seems.

The is such a dark and atmospheric book, very gothic in nature. The tension is highlighted by the secrecy behind The Show and it’s owners and performers. It is a very slow burn and for me at times a little too slow and confusing but this isn’t a book full of thrills and spills. It’s a book full of dark secrets, scary and unsettling situations, mysterious people and a seemingly untouchable world. A fascinating story.

Utterly bewitching. This absolutely blew me away quite honestly.

Juliet is left somewhat abandoned after her father’s death, and after a visit from the police while her stepmother is out, decides to investigate why she doesn’t know who her mother is, and what the police actually want.

The only clue she has to go on finds her in the Theatre District…and her life takes a turn she never thought it would.

I had all manner of emotions whilst reading this, I felt like I was in the story, I was so invested- every twist and turn I felt alongside Juliet. I’m emotionally drained quite honestly.

Incredible, just utterly incredible. What a story. I need a lie down.

My thanks to Netgalley and Black & White Publishing for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Theatre of Glass and Shadows tells the story of a young woman who is trying to find the place she belongs and get some answers about her past. The setting feels magical and as soon as we got to the theatre district, the labyrinthine 24hr immersive theatre show, I was drawn into the story and couldn’t put it down. It isn’t all fantastical though, at its heart there is a mystery which I found intriguing and the way the theatre district has been imagined, I could completely believe that a place like that could exist - maybe with a little suspending disbelief that there would be a part of London where the police have no control! I liked Juliet, the main character, and although she seemed naive or even selfish at times, I could really empathise with her and understand why she made some of the decisions she did. I thought the plotting of the book was well paced, and when I picked it up I found myself reading ‘just one more chapter…’, which is not something I feel often.

I was given the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is my first ARC, so I am glad I enjoyed it so much!! Many thanks to the publishers.

I love a good novel with darkness and shadows and this was just perfect. There's something about theatres and backstage that is creepy and very dark and this novel brought that out. The author creates a lovely world that creeped me out but I really wanted to stay there. Recommended!