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giamsanchez's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I honestly liked that it wasn’t actually similar to the story of Cinderella but gave enough tiny comparisons. At first the story was very hard to want to keep reading. Eventually once the devil woman “fairy godmother” comes into play that’s when the story is way more compelling. I was surprised that there was a love interest/plot line. It would’ve gotten a higher rating if it wasn’t so demonic. It started to become very obvious that it was never gonna be a fairy godmother but it did get the rating of 3 because it was compelling and like I said an interesting twist on Cinderella. I also didn’t appreciate the ending, it ended on a cliffhanger. Considering the book isn’t a series I didn’t quite understand why leave it off that way. I decided to interpret the ending as the demon lady having to give Eleanor her wish of being above all laws and letting her live happy ever after. But most people interpret it as her killing herself before the demonic lady even has the chance to take her soul
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism
nonotyoshi's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
The mc is so stupid it physically hurts this isn’t a gothic Cinderella retelling I pulled up my thesaurus and still couldn’t find the right words to describe how infuriatingly godawful this story and this fmc is I’m going insane it could’ve been so good but crashed harder than the Titanic
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
alilbitofeveryth1ng's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault
haljonesy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual assault and Classism
Minor: Sexual content
amalyndb's review against another edition
3.5
I need to remember that I do not enjoy Gothic novels in November with SAD.
This is very much a Gothic novel, the slow descent from reality into unraveling. It is well done, just not my cup of tea
This is very much a Gothic novel, the slow descent from reality into unraveling. It is well done, just not my cup of tea
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Classism
rachaelvo4's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The ending was expected but also disappointing nonetheless. After awhile I just thought Eleanor was irritating but she is a great character to analyze, I do understand that she had so much going on w her circumstance, and it’s hard to have self control when you’re given the option between your greatest dreams and living hell. She does not deserve any of the love that Charles gave her. I love the historical time period accuracy. The relationship w the characters was a little hard to see how they reflected on the main character, felt like it was mostly to give more storylines and keep plot moving. Probably wouldn’t read again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
emily_bg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment
books_in_wales's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
secre's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The Shadow In the Glass is marketed as a dark re-telling of the Cinderella fairy tale. And whilst I can certainly agree that it is dark - trigger warnings include off-page rape, child abuse, abuse of power, physical abuse, miscarriage/abortion, alcoholism and drug use - I'm not so clear on the link with Cinderella. Faustus yes, but not really Cinderella. There's a tenuous link with a pair of shoes and that's about it.
Ella was once destined for greatness. Adopted by a wealthy couple when her parents died, she is brought up as a bonus daughter, moulded into what society expect of young women. But when her benefactor dies, Ella is left with the lecherous widower and finds her fortunes much changed. Thrown into the life of a servant, Ella spends much of her life trying to avoid Mr Pembroke's attentions, knowing all too well what happens to the girls he sets his eye on and inevitably gets pregnant.
So when a strange and forbidding woman appears out of a book one night - and of course it's Faustus - Ella finds herself offered a deal. She gets seven wishes. But once that seventh wish has been granted, she loses her soul. Talk about a deal with the devil. But Ella soon discovers that every wish comes with consequences, few turn out exactly as she would have wished and a trail of dead bodies soon litters her life. You'd have thought she's have got the message by the second wish. But nope, Ella is clearly not particularly good at using her brain cells.
Whilst I was interested in seeing how the story would pan out, I couldn't help but get frustrated at the characters - particularly Ella. There's a whole lot of 'I can't make a wish because someone might die', followed by 'I have to make the wish and someone might die', the guilt of her being responsible for these deaths is overshadowed by the fact that she just keeps on bleeding doing it! The first time she didn't realise the consequence, the second time it was made abundantly clear to her. After that there's no excuse and yet she is full of every excuse in the book.
I did enjoy how the historical context was woven together with the supernatural fantasy elements. Harwood does an excellent job at describing the stark and abject misery of a young serving girl under an abusive Master. It did help to round out the dilemma's that Ella kept finding herself in, but never quite justified the means.
I suspect my main complaint with the book comes down to the lack of subtlety. We all know that Ella is going to keep on making wishes, we all know - including her - that those wishes come with steep and tragic consequences. There's no grey area here. For Ella to continue behaving in the way she does, for her to keep using the wishes despite witnessing the cost, is frankly unforgivable. And so she's a difficult character to empathise with. If the consequences had been a little more grey scale and less absolutely horrific, maybe there'd be some wiggle room... but there isn't.
Either way, I did quite enjoy this and would be interested in reading the authors future works. But it lets itself down by making everything so starkly black and white. I also wasn't a fan of the ending, which felt like a cop out.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.
Ella was once destined for greatness. Adopted by a wealthy couple when her parents died, she is brought up as a bonus daughter, moulded into what society expect of young women. But when her benefactor dies, Ella is left with the lecherous widower and finds her fortunes much changed. Thrown into the life of a servant, Ella spends much of her life trying to avoid Mr Pembroke's attentions, knowing all too well what happens to the girls he sets his eye on and inevitably gets pregnant.
So when a strange and forbidding woman appears out of a book one night - and of course it's Faustus - Ella finds herself offered a deal. She gets seven wishes. But once that seventh wish has been granted, she loses her soul. Talk about a deal with the devil. But Ella soon discovers that every wish comes with consequences, few turn out exactly as she would have wished and a trail of dead bodies soon litters her life. You'd have thought she's have got the message by the second wish. But nope, Ella is clearly not particularly good at using her brain cells.
Whilst I was interested in seeing how the story would pan out, I couldn't help but get frustrated at the characters - particularly Ella. There's a whole lot of 'I can't make a wish because someone might die', followed by 'I have to make the wish and someone might die', the guilt of her being responsible for these deaths is overshadowed by the fact that she just keeps on bleeding doing it! The first time she didn't realise the consequence, the second time it was made abundantly clear to her. After that there's no excuse and yet she is full of every excuse in the book.
I did enjoy how the historical context was woven together with the supernatural fantasy elements. Harwood does an excellent job at describing the stark and abject misery of a young serving girl under an abusive Master. It did help to round out the dilemma's that Ella kept finding herself in, but never quite justified the means.
I suspect my main complaint with the book comes down to the lack of subtlety. We all know that Ella is going to keep on making wishes, we all know - including her - that those wishes come with steep and tragic consequences. There's no grey area here. For Ella to continue behaving in the way she does, for her to keep using the wishes despite witnessing the cost, is frankly unforgivable. And so she's a difficult character to empathise with. If the consequences had been a little more grey scale and less absolutely horrific, maybe there'd be some wiggle room... but there isn't.
Either way, I did quite enjoy this and would be interested in reading the authors future works. But it lets itself down by making everything so starkly black and white. I also wasn't a fan of the ending, which felt like a cop out.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Abortion
Minor: Rape
pertlek's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I really wanted to love this book. I tried so hard to honestly the whole gothic twist on Cinderella is what drew me in but in reality it’s this poor girl who just wants some basic human needs like safety and shelter and the only possible way she was able to get those things was by trading in her soul. <spoilers> I honestly really wanted her to be happy in the end not necessarily with Charles but to see her go and travel with her friends. But instead her want of basic needs left her dead after she used her last wish and she was never able to be truly happy. I k ow that not all books end happily but this book truly didn’t have a second of hope attached to it. <\spoilers>
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Blood, and Classism