Summary:
In 1937, American circuses are trying to recoup the losses they incurred during the Great Depression while competing with newer forms of entertainment like movie theaters.
Kate Montgomery travels to the small town of Brixton Hill to scout a new act for her father’s struggling circus. Lewis Oswald, a trainer and friend of Kate’s family, introduces her to the Shadow Dancers, three young girls who can make their shadows dance independently of their bodies.
While the act would revive her family’s circus, Kate is horrified by the young women’s dismal training and living conditions. She wants to help them escape their dreadful situation, but when the Shadow Dancers take matters into their own hands, she’ll have to save herself.
Review:
*I read this novella as part the judging group The Secret Scribes for the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS) finals phase. The following review is strictly my personal thoughts as each novella will be reviewed by multiple judges to be as objective as possible.*
The Shadow Dancers of Brixton Hill is a wonderful little supernatural horror novella that kept me on my toes, turning page after page, not knowing where the story would end up. And where it did end, I wasn’t exactly expecting!
Heading out to Brixton Hill on behalf of her ageing father’s circus, Kate meets with a former performer and current circus trainer, as he’s got a new act that will blow everything they ever seen away: three young women/teens can make their shadows dance without moving their bodies. At first mystified and amazed, Kate takes a personal interest in the training methods as the young ladies seem out of sorts. Oswald repeatedly tries to convince Kate everything is fine, but Kate becomes more and more determined to learn the secret. What happens next would be quite spoilery, but needless to say, some spooky shit goes down!
As far as the cast, both Kate and Oswald are serviceable characters. Kate’s fighting an uphill battle as she’s a woman in the early 1900s doing work men have previously done, so most of her sources of tension come from Oswald trying to goad her into the deal, invoking how her father would have done things, fully knowing she is trying to carve her own path. Oswald is a trickster, conman/showboat, swindler type, trying to get as much money possible out of the deal. And that’s about all there is to character arcs. Then we have the three shadow dancers and since they are basically walking bodies, they don’t have much character to them outside of the ending.
But none of that takes away from how compelling this story is. The plot is very engrossing and the hints of supernatural are superb. Even the cover gives away some part of the plot, gasp a 4th shadow, ok that’s not a spoiler for those who can count and read the blurb, but the fourth young dancer does play a part in the story and adds to the mystery. Once the shadow dancers are introduced, the story really gets chugging along and while the ending might be a bit murky, the sense of eerie never lets you go. There is just something dark at play, something a bit sinister, something otherworldly. It’s just spectacular.
The prose is excellent. Since the story is told via Kate’s 1st Person POV, we truly are able to feel the spookiness of the shadow dancers and the nefariousness going on. Willson’s writing is very evocative and quite purposeful. Again, once Kate gets to the shadow dancers, this story never slows down and there is quite a lot of tension that builds expertly.
For a horror novella with a touch of supernatural, The Shadow Dancers of Brixton Hill is definitely one to check out!
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