📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ The Theatre of Glass and Shadows by Anne Corlett

 

Black and White Publishing

24 May 2024

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Sometimes the greatest spectacle hides the darkest secrets . . .

In an alternate London, the city's Theatre District is a walled area south of the river where an immersive production - the Show - has been running for centuries, growing ever bigger, more sprawling and lavish. The Show is open to anyone who can afford a ticket but the District itself is a closed world; even the police have no jurisdiction within its walls.

Juliet's mother died when she was a baby. Brought up by her emotionally distant father and even more distant stepmother, she has never felt wanted. It's only when her father passes away that Juliet - now nineteen - learns her birth was registered in the District. Desperate to belong somewhere at last, she travels to London where she hopes to unearth the truth about her identity, her mother's death and her father's years of silence - and claim her birthright.

But in the District, there is only one central truth: the Show must go on. And in a world where illusions abound, and powerful men control the narrative, Juliet has no idea of just how far some will go to ensure certain stories are never told.

📖 My Review..

In mottled glass and smoky shadows lies the Theatre District where things are not as they seem and where truth and lies merge. This immersive theatre complex has been beguiling visitors for centuries but once its secrets are uncovered there’s no going back and yet for Juliet Grace her time there has only just begun.

A life filled with indifference has made Juliet wary but deep down she knows that, with her father’s death, the life she has known is over and as the overwhelming lure of the theatre calls her into its depths so she hopes for answers to her questions and that her heart’s desire will be fulfilled. Beautifully immersive, this view of an altogether different London emerges, and as the story starts to pull so the fragments of your imagination get carried along until you’re part of the scenery, watching as the dance unfolds and as each character emerges so you begin to question where the truth ends and the lies begin.

It’s been a long time since I was gorgeously immersed in an alternate world of a clever author’s imagination but The Theatre of Glass and Shadows fulfilled a need I didn’t know I had and I absorbed every word with as much anticipation as if I was a voyeur in this land of shimmering glass and deep, dark shadows.

Richly atmospheric, and utterly absorbing, I have no hesitation in making The Theatre of Glass and Shadows my Featured Book of the Month for June.

About the Author

Anne Corlett has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and has won a number of awards for her short stories, including the H. E. Bates Award. She works as a criminal solicitor and freelance writer, and lives with her partner and three young boys in Somerset.

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