Such Stuff

by Hannah Morrish

A hypnotic work of fiction exploring an actor’s unraveling psyche in the moments before she takes the stage.

In a theater in London, an hour before the curtain rises, an actor must perform the delicate act of slipping out of her own identity and into another. As she prepares to transform into Miranda, the daughter of Prospero in The Tempest, she struggles to escape her real-life role as a grieving daughter.

Today, on the anniversary of her father’s death, which is also her birthday, the past collides with the present as she thinks back over her life with her father, which has shaped her sense of self and brought her to this moment. While the passions and dramas of her fellow actors play out backstage, she must cast off her memories of the day—where she’s been, what she’s done—to step out of the wreck of herself and become the daughter to another charismatic father.

Gripping and impossible to put down, Such Stuff is a literary feat that manages, in its briefness, to carry an emotional force that lingers long after the final line. It is an utterly original debut by a mesmerizing new voice.

Genres: Fiction

Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 8, 2027

Reviews

[lorenzodulac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it’s just me, but book felt like a very long sentence. I tried to get into it but for the most part I wasn’t even sure what was going on honestly. I mean, I did know what was going on. But I was still so far from caring.
I will say at times, the writing hit me like a truck. Some lines left you like woah, now that was good. There really isn’t much of a plot, so I wouldn’t go into it expecting this masterfully crafted story. It’s very simple, it’s staying in the mind of our main character as she mentally prepares to transform into the character of Miranda from The Tempest.
There is something that reminds you of the original play, but it’s not at all a retelling. I don’t know if I was expecting something like this, I thought there would be more references to it, but this book was exactly as it sounds: an actor preparing to take on a role. It came as a disappointment to me that it was just that, because I love the original play, it’s truly one of my favorites. But I quickly got over that. And I mean quickly, this book is short.
The writing was both the best and worst part of the book. It’s not for everybody, in fact, I’m not even sure it was for me. It was very dense, hardly any punctuation. But anything that’s related to The Tempest, even as loosely as this, I will eat up anyway. I wish the book had been longer though, maybe with some more time to get used to the writing style I would’ve enjoyed myself more.
I would recommend this, but go into it expecting something that’s not all that easy to grasp. I was a bit confused, despite mostly knowing what was going on. I think this didn’t quite stick the landing, but I can still recognize its potential. It’s a 3.25/5⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Brittany Vargas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Advanced copy received from NetGalley for review.

I was intrigued by the initial feedback that was offered in the description and advanced praise. Anything that explores art and the human consciousness is typically up my alley.

What I liked was the main idea of following the mind/thoughts of someone that’s feeling like they have to put on a mask through life. I think we can all relate to that in one way or another. This story navigates grief and loss through the eyes of a performer. She is going through the hardest times in her life while working hard to pretend to be ok, not to just the audience of your life but also to the audience while on stage. It seemed like it came natural to her. I could feel her moving on autopilot, while simultaneously battling intrusive thoughts that have become embedded in her over the past year.

Now what I did not like. Immediately the run on sentences are plentiful and consistent. I felt like I was in the brain of someone with severe ADHD. I know this because this is exactly what my brain sounds like lol! But because it is not my brain, I was lost by the end of almost every sentence because I forgot what the starting idea was. I had to keep looking back and sometimes just gave up. I get the reminiscing, and to some people this may be a way of character building, but it was too much for me to keep up with. I’m talking like 1/2 a page+ would be one sentence.

I want to add- I have zero experience in theatre. Maybe that could have helped? So while overall I love the premise here; I had a hard time getting lost in exploration with the author and kept forgetting the point. I think this has so much potential but the writing style was just not for me.

[Lilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you very much to the author, publisher, and to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such Stuff explores an actor’s interrogation of her selfhood and memories as she prepares to perform the role of Miranda in The Tempest. As the performance coincides with both her birthday and the anniversary of her father’s death, the protagonist is torn between past and present.

Writing is a craft—this is an oft-forgotten fact. Like all art, it is a bold, daring endeavour at transporting its audience from one world into another. Author Hannah Morrish takes this a step further and deposits the reader directly into the protagonist’s psyche. The meandering stream of consciousness is like a tide drawing the reader in and drowning them in the thoughts plaguing the protagonist.

I’m reminded of Wittgenstein’s famous analogy: “If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.” Complete empathy to the degree of full comprehension of another individual’s conscious, lived experience is impossible. However, Morrish comes dangerously close. At some point while reading, I felt my thoughts morphing into those of the protagonist, melding and congealing until I wasn’t sure I was reading at all. It is a profoundly enchanting sensation, and by the end of the book, I couldn’t help but instinctively recite Prospero’s final monologue to myself, as though I were in the room with them.

Such Stuff is a poignant reminder that not all reading should be easy. Often, as readers, we forget that the fundamental purpose of art is to elicit emotion, and that these emotions need not be comfortable ones. In exploring grief, friendship, love, selfhood, and artistry, Morrish provides a master class in deliberate storytelling through language, structure, and even syntax. This is a stunning debut, one that will remain with me for a very, very long time.

[Moonsigh ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge thank you to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[title]: such stuff
[author]: hannah morrish
[rating]: ✩✩✩✩✩

------------------- ⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☾˚｡⋆ --------------------

once a thespian and a current lover of all things shakespeare, this was a must read for me.

this novella is a brief glimpse into the tense, unraveling psyche of a fragile actor just moments before she takes the stage as miranda in the tempest, where the ticking countdown to the performance collides with both her birthday and the agonizing anniversary of her father's death. on the surface, this reads as as a deeply haunting, totally suffocating experience that brilliantly blurs the lines between theatrical performance and raw human trauma. stage adrenaline. frayed memories. transformative art. the past collides with the present, and the narrator confronts the constant heavy grief of her father’s death seeping across the boundaries of the stage. morrish’s breathtaking, hypnotic stream-of-consciousness prose functions like a pulsing, exposed nerve as the narrator desperately tries to cast off the wreckage of her own identity to become another’s daughter. it is a high-intensity exploration of art as both a sanctuary and an undoing, and this story will linger with you long after the final curtain falls.

[Kate Connell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much so a 'nothing happens' novel, told in very long run-on sentences, some paragraphs go on for multiple pages. Completely about the interior life and struggles of the unnamed main character. An interesting quick read on grief and the masks one wears, but it doesn't tread any new ground.

An actress is preparing for a stage performance. It is her birthday, and also the one-year anniversary of the death of her father, a central influential figure in her life. She is a grieving daughter preparing to play Miranda, the daughter of Prospero in The Tempest. Her grief manifests in odd ways, an unlikely hug with the actor playing Prospero, a strong connection to her father's handkerchief, a belief he is here in person to watch her perform today. As her cast members surprise her with a cake and discuss the potential move of the play to NYC, she ruminates on memories with her father. She feels the disconnect that must be clear around her and attempts to put on a show of her own, that she is fine and happy. As the time for curtains approaches, she must determine if she can become Miranda tonight, or if her own baggage will weigh her soul in her body.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.

[Sofia Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for an ARC of this book!

"Such Stuff" by Hannah Morrish follows the internal struggles of an actor preparing to take the stage in a production of "The Tempest". As she gets into character, the actress contemplates the feelings of grief and loss associated with the death of her father, and the general milieu of time past, as the day which the book takes place is also her birthday.

This novel felt like just another introspective tale of a woman coping with the trials and tribulations of life. "Such Stuff" does slightly break the conventions of the "introspective-woman type novel" through it's narrative structure. The book is essentially a countdown to stage time, leading to narrative divisions occurring with the call times. What further differentiates this novel is this process of discovering and becoming a character. I believe people with backstage and onstage theatre experience will be the ones to really appreciate the conventions of this novel.

Ultimately, I thought this book was just okay. Its themes and messaging felt repetitive and conventional within the corpus of this "type novel".

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hannah Morrish is a stage actor, so it is no surprise that her debut novel Such Stuff takes us behind the curtain, to the backrooms of a theatre. It is an hour before the curtain rises, and our narrator must shed her skin to become a character on the stage. It is also her birthday and the anniversary of her fathers death. Through it's brief but intense pages, Morrish peels back the layers of her protagonist to lay bare on the page this woman's soul.

Such Stuff is an exquisite and tender novel, full of honest beauty. Its liquid sentences transported me to her world, and gripped me from it's opening lines on. This is a superb debut which I devoured in one sitting but by it's a end had wished I had taken my time to savour it's grace. I will definitely re-read this one again. If you love a story which gets to the heart of what it is to be human, Such Stuff is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

[Megan Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance review copy.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this title. While I appreciated the literary ambition and the immersive stream-of-consciousness approach, I found the prose style extremely difficult to engage with as a reader. The lengthy, densely constructed sentences and frequent tangential observations made it challenging for me to maintain focus on the narrative itself. Rather than becoming immersed in the story, I often found myself rereading passages in an effort to follow the flow of thought.

I can see this appealing to readers who enjoy highly introspective literary fiction and experimental narrative styles. However, for me, the writing often overshadowed the story, making it difficult to connect with the characters or maintain momentum. After several chapters, I felt I was spending more energy parsing the prose than engaging with the narrative, and ultimately chose not to continue.

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's not a single comma in this whole book. Not one.

Such Stuff is a stream-of-consciousness novella about theater and London and grief. Except I don't know much about theater, or London, and it was hard to learn about those things or focus on any other plot points when there are sentences that take up entire pages. I understand what this was trying to do - I think, at least - but it just made the book dense and confusing. It's not that it was written in a way that didn't need commas, it simply omitted them. Even in my inner dialogue I have pauses in my thoughts. I couldn't possibly think a sentence as long as some of these were.

I really hate leaving a negative review on a book because it doesn't mean other people won't enjoy this. But the writing style was nearly impossible for me to follow, and the narrative was just as difficult. 1.5 rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short novella that brings to life a kind of stream-of-consciousness inner monologue of a stage actor in the moments before and during a performance. It is highly referential - if you know London and theatre and a lot of higher culture references, you will get all of them and it will enrich your reading experience. I have that knowledge, but I think this would be a real slog for someone without a good literary and theatre background and/or London life experiences. I did not love this work, but it's mostly because of the style of writing. However, I appreciate the way the actor/author brings the experience of living your self and your part simultaneously to life. Moreover, there are larger life and death themes that come through clearly and enhance this story. Without those, it would seem a lot more self indulgent, I think. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not my cup of tea.

I get that it was supposed to be a stream of consciousness while the main character, a stage actress, gets into character for a performance on an emotionally difficult day for her. The lack of punctuation made this a lot harder to read and absorb. I will never understand books that eschew commas and quotation marks as a stylistic choice. Does this person not have pauses in thought? A comma or two would have gone a long way instead of paragraph-long sentences.

Maybe the concept was lost on me, but this book did not live up to the blurb for me.

Nonetheless, thank you to Netgalley and the author. This wasn't something I would have picked up off the shelf and read if I had been able to see inside the book.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for the ebook. The action of the book takes place backstage as a company in London gets ready for a performance of The Tempest, but it travels across time as one actress gets ready to play Miranda. It’s also her birthday and the anniversary of the death of her father, an accomplished actor in his own right. It’s a fascinating story of a woman trying to be in the moment, in the play, in the backstage intrigues, but also trying to figure out why she is here in a much larger sense of the word.

[Katie Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this from NetGalley.

I loved the writing style of this. The long sentences and lack of punctuation really made this feel more immersive. It’s similar in writing style to Angel Down, but not entirely the same (this book does have more than one sentence.)

I felt like I was really going through it with our main character. The moments came alive off the page. I was experiencing her emotions, her heartbreak and more. I lost my dad to cancer, too and really empathized with her.

I loved this a lot.

[Iza Cupial · Rating 5 out of 5]

🤍

[Makaela]

back on the arc grind

[sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

thank you to edelweiss for the arc — my heart has been torn open and hannah morrish knows what's inside.