Release Date: March 22nd 2022
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 400
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Synopsis

Jack Corman is failing at life. Jobless, jaded and facing the threat of eviction, he’s also reeling from the 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, but the film flopped on release and Bob was never the same again.

In the wake of Bob’s death, Jack returns to his decaying childhood home, where he is confronted with the impossible — the puppet heroes from The Shadow Glass are alive, and they need his help. Tipped into a desperate quest to save the world from the more nefarious of his father’s creations, Jack teams up with an excitable fanboy and a spiky studio exec to navigate the labyrinth of his father’s legacy and ignite a Shadow Glass resurgence that could, finally, do Bob proud.

Review

The Shadow Glass is a fun fantasy adventure that tells the story of Jack Corman. Jack is struggling to make ends meet and is trying to cope with the death of his father – the director of the cult film classic The Shadow Glass. Jack returns to the family home he hasn’t been to in many years, planning to sell off one of the film props to a collector and clear his debt. What Jack finds is the puppets from the film are much more than they seem. Jack soon finds himself embarking on an adventure to save the world if Iri and everything his father loved.

The Shadow Glass is the sort of book you can’t help falling in love with. It’s an action-packed adventure and really well-paced. I sat down to read a few chapters one evening and before I knew it I had been sitting there for hours, completely sucked into the story. The story is very nostalgic of 80’s movies like The Neverending Story and I thought it was executed perfectly.

The Shadow Glass features some really great characters and I loved seeing them go on this epic adventure. Jack is a really fascinating protagonist – he’s coming to terms with what happened in his childhood and is starting to let people in again. The characters in The Shadow Glass are the sort you can’t help but root for. I also thought the villains in the story were well crafted too and while I liked all the characters, Toby was my favourite.

The Shadow Glass is definitely a new favourite and a book I can’t wait to reread in the future. If you’re a fan of old fantasy films, this is an absolute must-read and I’m already looking forward to what Josh Winning writes next.