Shadows on the Stage: A Performance of Prose & Poetry

by Nadine Brito (Contributor), Claire Wallace (Contributor), Salvör Sólnes (Designer)

198 pages, Paperback

Published June 20, 2025

Reviews

[Tyson Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for the future of genre fiction, you may well find it in Shadows on the Stage. There are several layers to this book deserving of commendation, so it is a bit difficult to know where to begin. First of all, the design and layout of the book will immediately capture your attention. It may seem odd to celebrate layout, but this book, divided into several acts with an intermission and a curtain call experiments with the format of the book and uses the pages to their maximal purpose. Any book that has an intermission which consists of a recipe for a cocktail is a winner by my consideration.

Then, we get to the content itself. As with any collection, there are highs and lows, but the highs here outnumber the lows by quite some amount. Having been lucky enough to discover the works of the editors ahead of time, it was my pleasure to read their stories to begin with. However, the interactions between old and new narratives was still a surprise, Nadine Brito utilizing Greek mythology and Claire Wallace Abrahamic mythology. These two stories alone show why these two women were the best choices for the creation of this book.

Even with that, a collection is only as good as its stories and this one is chock full of them. Another included author that I have had the pleasure of reading before, Sofia Reyes Valencia, wrote possibly the scariest work in the collection, her words making my heart beat faster and my grip on the pages tighten. Beyond these three authors, I also discovered others that I will surely seek out, among them Lis Maestrelo, Rory MacCallum, C.H. Lei and Alice Eaves. As much as I would like to go into more details, I fear I would be writing a novel by then. In short, this is a collection that is worth your time and money. Pick it up and enjoy!

[Ailsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased in my review as one of the contributors, but I LOVED this anthology, the editors did such a good job of selecting stories and poems that gelled beautifully together without feeling too samey. Almost every story left me with a lingering emotion and thought to mull over, until it felt almost wrong to go right on and read the next one instead of sitting with that feeling. A beautiful book and I was honoured to be a small part of it!

[Elliot Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I always worry with a collection of stories by so many authors that I’ll struggle with some of the writing styles. All the stories and poems in this were excellent though! My standout favourites were: Mins, The Fairies of the Forest, The Unkindness of Ravens and, After the Rescue. However I would happily read every single one of these again.