Fresh off the press today is one highly anticipated dark fantasy! Shannon J. Spann’s debut novel, A Stage Set for Villains, is an incredible, carefully plotted novel with a twist that had us questioning everything.
A Stage Set for Villains follows eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper, who has been cursed ever since her encounter with a performer from the infamous Playhouse. The Playhouse announces auditions for a competition, where one mortal has the chance to become a new Player and steal the immortality of a current Player.
Riven uses this opportunity to finally put an end to her curse. But the more she learns about the Playhouse, the less she understands about her own life. We can’t give away the twist, but we can talk about three things we loved about A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann!
Book Overview: A Stage Set For Villains
Content warnings: death, murder, blood, violence, illness, torture, mentions of suicide and poison, imprisonment, starvation, loss of autonomy, burning, graphic language
Summary: The gods are dead. All that’s left are the Players…
The performers of the Playhouse are as worshipped as they are feared, their enchanting shows bending hearts, minds, and even reality itself. Vicious, godlike, lethal. Eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper knows the dangers better than anyone, after her own encounter with a Player resulted in a curse that is slowly killing her.
When the Playhouse announces the spectacle of a lifetime—a chance for one mortal to steal a Player’s immortality—Riven sees her last chance to live. Desperate for answers, she infiltrates the competition. There, she finds Jude, the Playhouse’s brilliant, merciless Lead Player, whose charm is as dangerous as his Craft, and strikes a deadly bargain to save her life.
But with time running out and the Playhouse’s secrets unraveling into a disturbing picture, Riven faces a grim possibility: she might not be the hero of her story after all. In fact, she may be the villain.
Because the Playhouse doesn’t just tell stories. It rewrites them.
And Riven’s might end in blood.
The Playhouse
As we know, A Stage Set for Villains is a dark fantasy novel, and we love spotting Gothic elements wherever we can. The Playhouse is an amazing example of a Gothic house. It has walls full of secrets and dark shadows lurking around every corner. Though the Players use their abilities to move the Playhouse from place to place, it also has a life of its own. The setting thus comes alive through the Playhouse. And once those dark, well-kept secrets make their way to the surface, everything about the house unravels and collapses.
Riven’s Grit
We can’t think of a better protagonist for A Stage Set for Villains than Riven Hesper. She has the grit and determination it takes to be a main character, and we applaud her for it. Despite being ostracized by the North because of her curse, she still tries to find a way to actually fix it and live. Then once inside the Playhouse, she continues to fight. Riven eventually learns and practices new skills from her assigned Player, Jude, and the show director, Sil. These skills help serve her purpose in successfully beating the competition and making it out.
The Formatting
Another thing we love about A Stage Set for Villains is the formatting. The novel is made up of three acts and one intermission. Instead of chapters, we get the act and scene numbers. The dialogue often indicates the speaker’s name at the beginning. It was easy for us to get lost into the story, reading it as if it were happening directly in front of us. We already said we’d avoid spoiling the twist, so we won’t go too in-depth. So, question everything. But just know that after the twist, the chapters (sorry, scenes) will start to feel very meta.
An intricately plotted and formatted dark fantasy debut, A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann threw us for a loop. You might want to brace yourselves for the twist.
A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann comes out February 3rd, and you can order a copy of it here!
What did you think of Shannon J. Spann’s highly anticipated dark fantasy debut? Are you planning to read A Stage Set for Villains? Let us know on Twitter! You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram!
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