Earn The Shadow In The Glass Curated By J.J.A. Harwood Offered In Physical Book

is one of those books thats been mismarketed to its detriment, While sold as a fairy tale retelling, the Cinderella connection is quite loose its actually more of a psychological thriller, with much of its tension generated by questions about how far its protagonist will go and what secrets shes hiding from the reader.
Set in Victorian London and with its fantasy elements minor/arguable, its also perhaps better classified as historical fiction than fantasy.
That said, I enjoy historical fantasy and can appreciate a good psychological thriller, and loved many elements of this book, though it falls apart a bit at the end and fails to reach its full potential.


We meetyearold Eleanor in a desperate situation: an impoverished orphan, she was taken in by a wealthy lady who is now long dead.
The ladys husband has relegated Eleanor to working as a maid, and Harwood has clearly done her research into conditions of servitude at the time: its exhausting, backbreaking, and demeaning.
Not only that, the master of the house is a sexual predator with a history of raping his teenage maids, then allowing his housekeeper to throw them out on the street pregnant and destitute.
Without any social safety netand with their employer refusing to provide references to any of the maids, lest they sensibly leaveif they have no family or friends willing to take them in, they face a choice between begging or starving on the streets and entering the workhouse, essentially a prison labor camp most people will do anything to avoid.
But just as her employer turns his attentions on Eleanor, a demon appears to offer her seven wishes in exchange for her soul.


The book has a tensionfilled plot that takes its time to develop the reality of Eleanors situation, and her dreams for a better life, without ever feeling slow.
Its one of those books where you can never relax because the protagonist is never safe and youre always waiting for another shoe to drop.
The characters come across as realistic in their strengths and flaws, and I particularly appreciated the portrayal of Eleanor as someone who has realistically adapted to her marginalized life, picking up the sorts of survival strategies powerless people actually use but fictional protagonists rarely do.
Shes not a perfect person, she wants a life of luxury for herself and her few friends rather than, say, to reform the entire system, but thats exactly how a real teenager in her position is likely to be.


The book itself can be read as a condemnation of the system that put young lowerclass women in this situation, though Im not entirely sure that was intended and had an “aha” moment upon seeing in the acknowledgments that the author had begun work on this book by the age of, though it took heryears to complete.
Its outlook is an odd combination of a teenagers blackandwhite moral judgments which take no account of context and assume Good People can always do the Right Thing and those doing the Wrong Thing are Bad People, with an indepth exploration of Eleanors context, the general mercilessness of her society and the lack of good choices available to her.
Eleanors friend Leah, in particular, seems to exist as the nightmare example of what would happen to Eleanor if she failed to fight back with whatever weapons are available to her.
And indeed, Leah and her child are only saved at the cost of Eleanors soul.
Its a bit dissatisfying here but leaves me hopeful for the books Harwood will write entirely in

adulthood.


The larger issue with the book, though, is that it sets up some delicious ambiguity about whats really going on, only to largely allow it to fall apart at the end.
As the book goes on, we learn that Eleanor has a history of dissociation, at times involving violent behavior, ever since the traumatic death of her mother and shes also mysteriously blacking out at the time of the violence resulting from her wishes.
There are at least three ways this could be interpreted, One is that theres actually nothing supernatural going on at all, the demon is a delusion and Eleanor is doing it all herself, but dissociating and therefore unaware of it.
Two is that the demon exists, but is only tempting and lying to her, giving her permission to do what she wants to do anyway.
Three is that the demon is in fact an active participant and deciding how the wishes will be carried out, but puppeting Eleanor as the tool for doing so.
The book also raises some intriguing questions about what a soul is and what it means to sell yours, seeming to suggest that Eleanors bargain isnt about losing her life, but her humanityin the same way that several people around her Mr.
Pembroke, Lizzie seem to have lost theirs,

But in the end, the book doesnt engage with this mystery as much as it could, and the end seems to foreclose alternate readings of the text, while still leaving Eleanors ultimate fate frustratingly ambiguous.
It winds up feeling likeabove is the only reading that really works, in light of Eleanors ultimate disappearancefor which no possible readings other than “the demon took her” are suggestedand the fact that Eleanor had no way of knowing Mrs.
Cleary intended to leave her anything, which indicates that her murder must have been the demons choice.
Sinceis also the most surfacelevel reading, this isnt very satisfying, and left me wondering why we had all these clues about Eleanors troubled psychiatric history to begin with.
And after all those questions about what losing ones soul really means, in the end the book just goes with the triedandtrue “the demon will eat you now.
”

Ultimately though, I was very engaged with this book while reading it, finding it compelling, dark, and twisty, with believable characters in a claustrophobic but wellrealized setting.
The problems, while significant, are likely related to the authors youth and inexperience, leaving me interested in what she writes next.
Unfortunately, this books marketing seems to do it no favors, in emphasizing the ultimately insignificant Cinderella connection right down to referring to the protagonist as “Ella,” which the book itself makes clear is a nickname forced on heras nicknames are used for all the maidsto reinforce her subordinate status, while she always thinks of herself as Eleanor.
Those looking for a fairy tale are likely to be disappointed, but those interested in something darker and more realistic should appreciate it better.
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