Book Review: The Shadow in the Glass by J.J.A. Harwood
Genre: Fantasy Horror
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
I was really looking forward to this – a gothic fantasy retelling of Cinderella, in which Ella meets a fairy godmother who grants her seven wishes, but each comes with a price. A gothic fairy tale retelling where magic has a price instantly grabbed my attention, but the actual book left me feeling flat and disappointed.
I could go on a whole rant – and it’ll likely be a future article! – about the dilution of ‘gothic’ in recent years, and how it now seems to be more about aesthetic than anything else. The Shadow in the Glass is set in generic historical London, where our main character Ella is the daughter of a servant. Her mother befriended her mistress, so when Ella’s mother dies, the mistress semi-adopts Ella. But when her ‘adoptive’ mother passes, Ella is left at the mercy of her stepfather, who has a habit of raping the maids he employs. And he only employs maids – quite a lot of them, like…a ridiculous amount of all-female staff for this kind of house.
There were quite a lot of holes in the story throughout – there was no real reason why Ella was adopted, no hint towards why the book was in the house, and the whole storyline with Ella’s kind of adopted brother (the son of the master and mistress) just felt weird. Also he was a completely pathetic character who could never actually seem to do anything.
One of the appeals of the Cinderella archetype is that we, as an audience, understand that the situation she is in is cruel and unfair, that we see her kindness for others compared to her stepsisters, and, overall, we want to see her succeed. None of these are present in this retelling. The other maids dislike Ella because she acts above her station, and in all fairness, she actually does. Yes, it’s harsh she was demoted to maid, but it also kind of makes sense considering the circumstances. She’s incredibly selfish yet righteous, and it was hard to find a reason to want to see her succeed.
I wouldn’t recommend this one – it doesn’t work as a gothic novel, and it doesn’t work as a Cinderella retelling, either. Instead, I felt largely let down by the time I’d finished.
I read The Shadow in the Glass for the Quoth the Raven – Gothic prompt in our DHR Reading Challenge – check out our Challenge page to find out more and see how you can take part.
Purchase at Amazon UK / Bookshop UK
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this ebook from HarperVoyager via NetGalley for review consideration.
