The Shadow Glass

Product Information

Shadowglass is the last book in The Bone Witch trilogy, the author did an amazing job concluding this series. There was no loose ends or plot holes. Since this book is a conclusion to the series there were a lot of revelations here, we finally know why Tea got ex

This story is told in my favorite format ever, which is half of it being told in present day from a bard, where you see the ramifications of everything that has happened in the past, where Tea appears to be the villain, but the other half is the past, from Tea’s perspective, where we get to slowly see the events unfold to bring us up to date with current day. Two timelines brilliantly woven together to give us the most epic finale of all time and truly is a masterpiece. I absolutely adore this series and will need some time to recuperate. Tea's story will stay with me for a long time, from the people she befriended, fell in love with, helped during her journey. There’s a stirring sense of adventure, excitement, and terror running throughout. A treat for fans of the movies that inspired it.” — Publishers Weekly Parts of the middle dragged a bit too much. I appreciated the worldbuilding and the development of the lore, but some parts were extremely slow and didn't fit cohesively with the story. How do I read another book after THAT ending?! Sobbing because it was absolutely beautiful seeing Tea's journey throughout the whole trilogy - from a naive and innocent trainee with the ability to raise the dead, to a powerful and revered Dark Asha who can control powerful daeva (demons) from the grave.Ultimately though this is a story of the power of fandom. I love, love, love the way Winning portrayed fandom and our obsessions; the way we collect as much merchandise from the movie as we can - figures, games, posters, novelisations. The way we also collect as much information as we can, always trying to delve that bit deeper. How we band together in our nerdom. Movies, books and games can have such a wonderful impact on our lives. The scene with The Dragon Con illustrated this perfectly and was an absolute delight. The author John Winning is a frequent contributor to SFX magazine; honestly this fact explains a lot about the content and style of the book. It has a very Hollywood fantasy feel to it- to the extent that I had to keep reminding myself that it was meant to be set in England (at book club, someone was sure it was America) as something about the setting just didn’t ring true- this is more surprising from an actually British writer. It’s also stuffed full of crowd-pleasing tropes (although few of them are executed well): the lovable little fluffy creature that turns out to be a giant monster; the reclusive and emotionally distant father figure, tied to themes of legacy and artistic creation; the lovable nerd crew; saving the land with the power of imagination; a misguided human who sides with the baddies… All of these elements are present, but none of them seem to be used to say anything new or interesting, and in some cases (as previously mentioned), their presence is at odds with the rest of the book itself.

In this book especially, the plot is intricate, complicated, and never boring. As this is the finale of the trilogy, many of the plot threads come to fruition in this book: tensions mount then explode, characters face obstacles that they never saw coming, and the both timelines reach their zenith. As I this was my first time reading this book (but definitely not the last, I can feel the tug to reread this book already ), Rin Chupeco's plot twists continue to surprise me. I was legitimately left gasping at so many of the reveals: Althy being the Faceless traitor, the oracle being the last Faceless all alone, as well as the ways the land's history intersect with the plot are all such amazing plot points. I am also, once again, left in awe of the way Chupeco utilizes the two timelines to weave a story so beautifully complex yet understandable. It's truly masterful, and it's something I hope to have the skill to do one day. It keeps the reader guessing and provides more questions than answers. There's also something also beautiful about the way Chupeco never wastes any of the characters that are introduced, utilizing them in the story to create a full-circle quality. It is so well done I am slightly sorry that this enchanting series is over and am curious to see if any of Rin Chupeco’s storytelling calls to me in the way this series did as I’d truly love to read more but tend to be wary of YA (at my big age) and despite aforementioned age Horror genre’s never speak to me 🙈I had a tough time reading this book. I took a bit of a break from it midway because I wasn't that into it (which is really odd considering I gave The Heart Forger 5 stars). Now that I've finished it, I feel quite underwhelmed with it as a conclusion but it's difficult to explain why. There’s no shortage of action in this book and the characters became so real to me it felt like I was fighting alongside them. I don’t know how it’s possible to feel nostalgia for a movie I’ve never seen and doesn’t exist (yet) but here we are. What’s going to stay with me the most, though, is this book’s heart. A somewhat rote fantasy adventure that will live or die on the strength of its nostalgia appeal. Filled with familiar-feeling characters, plot beats and ideas, The Shadow Glass is certainly not pushing anything new or exciting. The result may be either comfortingly familiar or tediously unoriginal, possibly depending somewhat on your relationship to the 80s fantasy movies that we’re playing with here- The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Neverending Story etc. Now I’ve seen all these movies and many more of that era and genre, many when I was younger. And I enjoyed them, and I remember enjoying them and specific parts of them that gave me specific emotional responses, and specific parts of them that were interesting; cool world-building elements or lovable/hateable characters. The issue with the particular flavour of nostalgia found in The Shadow Glass is that it does nothing more than remind you of all of these other works, works that stand on their own merits. It never adds anything fresh to the conversation, never builds on or extends the original works in any way. Ultimately, we end up with Ready Player One, but with 80s films instead of 80s games. As someone pointed out, I really have to applaud Chupeco for her dual narrative -- though it didn't work as well in this book than it did in The Heartforger, the dual narrative offered some great surprises. I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First off... DISCLAIMER:I beta-read this book. Also, Titan Books provided me with an evaluation ecopy via NetGalley (thank you!). Neither facts influenced my review in any way. Since, this is not a full review (hah!) I will not elaborate the intricate plot twists. Overall: The Shadow Glass is the ending I’ve always envisioned for this series particularly for Tea and Kalen. I know it’s justified, I wish there could be more. I know. It was an emotional, bittersweet ending. In book 2 I enjoyed the 'then and now' story format. Tea is telling her story to a Bard so we get to see two very different tales unfolding. In book 3, the two stories are getting closer together chronologically and the constant switches became almost jarring for me. I related to Bobson as he navigated his complicated family legacy, while figuring out who he is and what he stands for. I was fangirling alongside Toby as his passion for Iri made him practically glow from within. Occasionally I empathised with Cutter, as his pain distorted something that was once pure. A story only kept going if people remembered it, if they lived it over and over again. If it was forgotten, it evaporated.The Shadow Glass is a cinematic, tropetatstic master-class in adventure & nostalgia, drawing on enough of the 80s greatest hits to feel immediately familiar whilst still staying fresh and original enough to avoid falling into "tired & clichéd territory". Josh Winning knows (and loves) his 80s movies, and it shows. The story pays tribute to childhood escapism and imagination- a sort of Toy Story for movie lovers - with fun twists on familiar concepts & character names, a couple of nightmarish plays on what it means to be a puppet and an adorkable band of helpful nerds who wouldn't be out of place hanging out with Justin Long's Brandon in Galaxy Quest (not an 80s movie, I know, but another nostalgic love-letter to fandom nonetheless). I also think, story-wise, there were a few moments where it felt like the main characters were invincible; like they were always going to come out of things okay.

I do want to take a minute and talk about the sexual and gender representation in this book! There is a side f/f romance, which you don’t get to see that much of in this installment, but I still love them with the sum of my being! But what I really want to talk about is Likh and her transition. In all three books, we see Likh discovering how fluid gender can be, yet also testing out the waters of new things because of the gender roles, and power imbalances, people place on so many things in the societies all these characters explore, but in this book she decides her pronouns and after that everyone instantly respects her pronouns and her transition and it’s truly beyond words beautiful. It’s fairly common for me to finish a book and immediately want to see the movie adaptation of it, whether it currently exists or not. I need a movie of this book but I also need Bob Corman’s original 1986 movie in my life. ‘It’s real and scary and it’s not safe.’ Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to fall in lub with Iri. The nitty-gritty: An ode to fandoms and the nostalgia of 1980s fantasy films, The Shadow Glass drips with magic, humor, perfect pacing and thrilling adventure.

You’re probably not surprised if I say I can’t really think of anything to criticize about this book because I was already so invested in the series I kinda get blind to any flaws there might be haha. This is why reviewing favorites is hard. Shadowglass was a great book, a great ending and I can’t wait to get my own copy so I can have all three all pretty in my shelf. The fantasy adventure my 80s-loving heart needed! I loved every moment.” — Kat Ellis, author ofHarrow Lake Reread in 2021 via audiobook, ARC review below, but time to see if I'm going to get hurt the second time around. Also, there is a trans character who asks for people to start using their correct pronouns, and everyone does without any fuss, and it's beautiful and respectful and wonderful.