Hello and welcome back!
Hope September is treating you well!
Coming back to you with a favorite 2026 read of mine today…Sheepishly asking for similar book recs if you know of any!
A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann
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.
Caraval meets One Dark Window in this lush and dark fantasy.
My Thoughts:
Once I finished reading this, I spent a lot of time contemplating what prompted Shannon to write this. And I think it comes down to two main ones. What if you discovered that all you know of your life was a lie? That you’re simply a puppet whose strings are controlled by a greedy man? Would you submit and accept this “reality”? Or would you fight back with everything that you have for a way out no matter how slim the hope is?
The beginning was a bit weird to get into, but after around the 2nd chapter, I realized this book was written like a play. which is actually so fitting considering what the story is about. I’m not familiar with how it usually goes, but it was done in a seamless and clever way, if I do say so myself!
One of the main things I absolutely adored was how immersive the setting is. I felt like I was there, Riven (the FMC) and me were one person. I would feel the worry, anger, indecisiveness, the dilemma between two bad choices. It felt like I was living the story alongside her. Coming back to reality was quite jarring.
Another thing that was done brilliantly is the plot twists! When you think you figured out where things are going, hah NO YOU DON’T, THINK AGAIN! Every second of it was gold <3
Hands down, one of the best books I’ve read this year. I loved the worldbuilding, the characters (sooo well written), the plot twists….I could go on and on.
If I were to compare it with other books, I would say that it’s a bit between Legendary by Stephanie Garber and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
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