Published by Titan Books
Age Group: Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: 1980s, Action, Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Animal Companion Characters, Magic Users, British Authors, Gay Authors, LGBTQIA+ Authors, Gay Characters, Horror Thriller, Monsters, Mythological Creatures, Physical Disabilities, Pop Culture, Quests, Various Magic, London
My Rating:
Published on: 22nd March 2022
Pages: 400
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Forbidden Planet / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones / BookBeat Audio
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A thrilling race against the clock to save the world from fantasy creatures from a cult 80s film. Perfect for fans of Henson Company puppet classics such as Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and The Never-Ending Story.
Jack Corman is failing at life.
Jobless, jaded and on the “wrong” side of thirty, he’s facing the threat of eviction from his London flat while reeling from the sudden death of his father, one-time film director Bob Corman. Back in the eighties, Bob poured his heart and soul into the creation of his 1986 puppet fantasy The Shadow Glass, a film Jack loved as a child, idolising its fox-like hero Dune.
But The Shadow Glass flopped on release, deemed too scary for kids and too weird for adults, and Bob became a laughing stock, losing himself to booze and self-pity. Now, the film represents everything Jack hated about his father, and he lives with the fear that he’ll end up a failure just like him.
In the wake of Bob’s death, Jack returns to his decaying home, a place creaking with movie memorabilia and painful memories. Then, during a freak thunderstorm, the puppets in the attic start talking. Tipped into a desperate real-world quest to save London from the more nefarious of his father’s creations, Jack teams up with excitable fanboy Toby and spiky studio executive Amelia to navigate the labyrinth of his father’s legacy while conjuring the hero within––and igniting a Shadow Glass resurgence that could, finally, do his father proud.
This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!
Content Warnings:
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The Shadow Glass Review
Attracted by the intriguing figure on the cover of The Shadow Glass, the synopsis captured my attention fully with its promise of 1980s pop culture and fantasy movies. Everything about this book sounded great, almost too good; would it hold up to my expectations or flop like the film it’s about? Only one way to find…
The Shadow Glass is more than just a book about the eighties or pop culture; it’s a complete experience. This is pop culture metafiction in all its glory, and Winning hasn’t just written a book about a film; he’s created an entire franchise and community and then written about it. The amount of effort that has gone into The Shadow Glass makes it well worth reading just for that experience alone. In between chapters, Winning has neatly slotted what I’m going to refer to as bonus material, as you would find on a DVD. Incidentally, I believe bonus material from a DVD is one of the things included. There are extracts from the script of the film “The Shadow Glass”, interviews with the creator Bob Corman and other crew members, as well as additional content such as an encyclopedia. There are even transcripts of Comic-Con appearances. Each one is short, no more than one to two pages each time and not information dumps in any way. They’re quite the opposite, in fact, offering a fun way to give context and provide the reader with information rather than having a character sit and explain everything.
These are just one of the ways that Winning’s vast experience in the entertainment industry shines through in the novel. There is so much insider information snuck in through the plot and descriptions, as well as the character creation. It’s clear that it isn’t just Winning’s professional life that has affected his writing; this is the work of someone who loves pop culture and, more importantly, the community of being a fan. At least the positive side of it, anyway. He doesn’t shy away from the nasty side of fandom, such as the fans who believe that their view of a fandom is the only way. I don’t know if a certain part was a nod to a lawsuit-happy lawyer during the nineties and noughties, but I’m an old enough Internet user to remember the days when fans didn’t talk openly with authors or cast members and lived in fear of getting cease and desist letters for fanfic. It was much appreciated that Winning included both these situations in The Shadow Glass, and I like how he worked one of them into his world-building.
Moving on to the world-building and the plot of The Shadow Glass itself, I’m going to straight up say that it has a very tropey redemptive hero storyline, and that’s absolutely fine. It works because that is part of the whole eighties vibe. While it is tropey, Winning’s writing and character development are anything but, and the story is fantastic with all the elements of an eighties fantasy adventure quest that you could want. It’s also filled with all the complexities of real life, and what it’s like to have a difficult father that many people adore and put on a pedestal. They didn’t have to live with him, though, did they? Jack has enough to deal with already when he returns to his childhood home, and then the puppets COME ALIVE.
It is as off the wall as it sounds, and Winning does a fantastic job of injecting reality and humour at every turn. There is a huge twist at one point,t which has to be one of the funniest plot twists I’ve ever witnessed, and I’m going to be laughing over that for a long time. There’s also a level of terror which you don’t realise until you’re reading the story, because it’s not just the good and the cute puppets that have come alive… and when you think about it, there are some pretty awful and disgusting creatures in puppet movies. The Shadow Glass has a whole level of horror that kind of came out of nowhere for me.
The full cast of characters is great, and nerds will love the full nerd squad, a group of friends who love The Shadow Glass film and end up becoming involved in the quest along the way. Winning has successfully encapsulated a group of friends who are bonded over their love for a fandom, and I’m going to bet that this comes from experience again. I recognised a lot of familiar personalities amongst the nerd squad, and it gave me a nice fuzzy feeling as I recognised my people.
In many ways, The Shadow Glass is a love letter to geeks, to pop culture and the communities it creates. There’s a moment at the small convention that Jack recognises the impact his father has had on people’s lives, and he reflects that his dad had helped people find an escape, a safe place. What particularly caught my attention was Jack’s next insight: “This wasn’t about using nostalgia as a shield, it was about celebrating the things that defined them, the characters that spoke to their heart’s truth, the things that made them different and unique and powerful in their own special way. It united them”.
And if that doesn’t sum up what the geek/fandom/pop culture community is all about, I don’t know what does.
The one thing that I didn’t like about The Shadow Glass was that it leaves you wanting more. It isn’t just a great book, it’s a whole experience, and it gives you a glimpse at a film that doesn’t exist but leaves you wishing it did. You’ll fall in love with the fierce some kettu, and the adorable lub. You’ll want to know the full story of Dune and Dorr.
This is a fantastic book which you need to check out.
About Josh Winning
Josh Winning is a nostalgia nut, book/film lover and author of The Shadow Glass, which is like Labyrinth meets Stranger Things, and Burn the Negative, which is like Scream meets My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
He is senior film writer at Radio Times, writer at Total Film, SFX and Den of Geek, and the co-host of movie podcast Torn Stubs. He has been on set with Kermit the Frog (and Miss Piggy), devoured breakfast with zombies on The Walking Dead, and sat on the Iron Throne on the Dublin set of Game of Thrones.
Josh lives with his cat Penny and dreams of one day convincing Sigourney Weaver to yell “Goddammit!” at him.
Over to you
Thank you for reading my book review for The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning!
What creature from a film would you love to see come alive, and which would terrify you? Let me know in the comments! <3
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