'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.'
I'm going to make the easy comparisons straight away, the thing that I'm sure that every review of this book is going to mention. The Shadow Glass feels like a love letter to the films of Jim Henson, to Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, and other 80's dark fantasy stories. As such, if you're a fan of these kinds of stories this is a book that I would absolutely recommend you read as soon as you can.
The book begins by introducing us to Jack Corman, a man in his thirties who's struggling to find work, who's facing not being able to pay his rent, and is having difficulty finding the thing that he wants to do with his life. Jack's father, Bob, has just passed away, and Jack finds himself in possession of Bob's home and everything inside it; things that could help him to find enough money to survive on. You see, back in the 80's Bob made a movie, the puppet fantasy extravaganza The Shadow Glass. Whist the film was never a huge hit it did find a cult following, enough that it kept Bob and Jack comfortable over the years, and enough so that Jack could come to hate the fans.
You see, as the years wore on Bob would keep coming back to the world he'd created, the fictional land of Iri, would obsess over it, would show himself up in interviews and at conventions. As Bob and Jack's relationship became more and more strained over the years Jack would come not only to hate his father, but the film that he'd created to. The Shadow Glass went from something that Jack used to love to embodiment of his ruined relationship with his father. But now Bob is gone, and Jack is able to sell the puppets stored up in the attic to try and get enough money to get by.
However, as Jack is readying to sell the star puppet from the film he learns that his cousin, who followed Bob into films, is preparing to make a Shadow Glass sequel, and wants Jack's help finding the titular prop. But it turns out that it's not just Amelia who wants the prop, as living puppets pour out of the attic room, searching for the fabled artefact. Jack is confronted not only by the villains of the film, the evil Skalion's, but two of the heroic Kettu, fox-like warriors who protect the land of Iri. With the living puppets out in the world, searching for the prop from the movie, Jack must face the shocking revelation that the world of Iri is real, that all of the crazy things Bob used to say were true, and that if he doesn't help the brave Kettu warriors find the Shadow Glass the entire world could suffer.
The Shadow Glass was a strange book to read, not because it was confusing, or odd, but because it felt so weirdly familiar in a lot of ways. I don't think that you'd be able to read this book without thinking of films like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, The Never Ending Story, or Return to Oz. The book feels like it belongs with these dark, twisted fantasy stories of the 1980's; and because of that it's strange how quickly you get drawn into the world of The Shadow Glass. In essence, this story is a sequel to the film that Bob made in the 1980's, and because we only ever get snippets of information about that story you'd think it'd be hard to get invested in this one. But that's very much not the case.
With very little world-building on Josh Winning's part, with just small snippets of scenes from the fictional film or extracts from interviews, you begin to get invested in the world of Iri. Not long after meeting the living Kettu puppets of Zavanna and Brol, of seeing the villains storm out of the attic room sowing chaos, you begin to get drawn into this quest. It might sound strange, considering that during the course of the book we never learn everything about the fictional Shadow Glass film, and see relatively little of the world of Iri, but by the end of it I'd became as enamoured by it as the films from my childhood that did mean something to me. I felt like I could see parts of Iri in my head, I could picture the puppets and the sets, I wanted plushies of the adorable lubs, and I'd give anything to get to watch the film.
I honestly don't know how Winning does it, but by the end of the book it feels like this is a sequel to a film that actually exists. I came away feeling like I knew the Shadow Glass, like I could close my eyes and picture it all so clearly, that I could hear the music and watch scenes play out in my head. It takes a certain level of skill for a writer to get you invested in the story you're reading, but getting you invested in a story that isn't even a part of the one you're reading, that doesn't exist at all is a level of achievement I'd never thought possible. I hope that Winning has the story of the Shadow Glass film written down, or planned out in his head. I want that to be released, as either another novel, or a comic series, or anything really. I want this world that only exists as a tiny corner of this book to get its chance to exist outside of it, because this world that Winning has created within these pages is honestly wonderful.
But I can't talk about this fictional film for the entirety of my review, as there's so much more to this book too. The Shadow Glass is a story about learning to overcome trauma, as so many of those 80's films were. Jack grew up thinking that his father hated him, that a fictional world meant more to him than his own son. There are reasons for this, and over the course of the book we learn more and more about their relationship and we see how Jack came to this conclusion; especially after one absolutely heartbreaking scene. Over the course of the novel Jack has to face the past that he's buried away, the feelings that he's ignored his entire life.
Jack doesn't just hate his father, but he hates the film that he created too, something that he once loved as a child. For Jack, Bob and The Shadow Glass have become so linked, so entwined that when people talk about how much they love it it feels like they're condoning Bob's behaviour, that they're belittling the trauma Jack has gone through. We see that across the book, how he instantly hates fans of the film even without knowing anything about them, how he has to leave the room if the film is playing because it makes him feel physically sick. Jack's going through complex PTSD, he's associated this film with his trauma, and over the course of the book he has to confront that.
As someone who's been through trauma, who's been diagnosed with PTSD, who's had certain things become associated with my trauma and has had anxiety attacks and depression spirals triggered by the most innocuous things I completely understood Jack's reaction. I could see parts of myself reflected in him. It would have been easy to have him stay hating The Shadow Glass for the entire book, or to be completely cured of his hatred for it come the end, but Winning has Jack having to fight through those feelings throughout the book, and there's even a sense that whilst he's dealt with a lot of this come the end he's still not completely done with his healing journey by the time the book's done. I loved this, I loved that trauma was shown to be this hard, complex journey, one that doesn't always make sense, one that requires work to get through. It felt like we were getting an honest portrayal of a complex mental health issue that often gets overlooked; and I really appreciated that.
Jack isn't alone in his journey though, as he soon gets a group of new friends helping him along the way, both puppet and human. The group that forms in the book are a great collection of individuals, who showcase some very different personality types. For the puppets, there's Zavanna, who's a very reserved and almost stoic warrior, one who doesn't care about making friends or being nice, simply getting the mission done; and there's Brol, who's more open and kind, and is filled with a sense of wonder at getting to discover new things. Both of these warriors feel like the typical archetypes you get in these kinds of 80's fantasy stories, the two kinds of leads that you'd see. One is so dedicated to the mission that she can't see how she has time to stop and appreciate the small moments, whilst the other understands that those small wonders are what they're fighting to protect. Both of them are wonderful characters, and I adored getting to know them as the book progressed, seeing how the events changed them and altered their views of the world as they fought to save both Iri and Earth.
There are also some interesting human characters who end up helping Jack, in the form of some Shadow Glass mega-fans. This group of people are folks who love the movie, who watch it regularly, who read the books, who collect the merch, and who make it a large part of their personality. They're the kind of people that Jack instantly hates. However, they're the perfect people to help Jack on his journey, not just because they know the world of Iri and The Shadow Glass so well, but because they're the perfect people for Jack to be around to help him through his issues regarding the movie. There are some wonderful people in this bunch, with a good mix of personalities, but I absolutely adored Toby, who kind of becomes Jack's right-hand man. Toby is the perfect stand-in for many of us readers, the kind of mega-fan who would love to meet our heroes, and to see the worlds and creations we love be real. I also assume he's called Toby as a nod to Labyrinth, which makes me love him all the more.
I absolutely adored reading The Shadow Glass. I loved how quickly I became invested in this fictional world, and this story within a story. The book appealed to me as a fan of this kind of 80's fiction, as someone who's a geek. I hope that we get to see more of this stuff from Winning in the future, whether that's more stories like this, or getting to find out what the Shadow Glass film was like. This has quickly become not just one of my favourite books, but one of my favourite fictional worlds.
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