Book: Specters & Spotlights by Shade Zarling
Reviewed by Suzy Wickedly Good Reads
Rating: 4/5
Shade Zarling is a new author and she is pulling out all the stops for her debut!!! Going into Specters & Spotlight, the description had me expecting something fairly lighthearted and cozy. That is not quite what I got. And I'm really glad. This one leans much further into the spooky and atmospheric side of a ghost story, making it an absolutely perfect read for this time of year.
Elise has recently left a difficult relationship and taken a job with a theater company as its wig mistress. She's determined to keep her head down, focus on her work, and rebuild her life. There's just one little complication.
Elise can see and talk to ghosts. And everyone knows theaters have ghosts. Luckily, not every spirit haunting Elise's life is terrifying. Her rather harmless ghostly sidekick provides some much-needed comic relief when things start getting darker. But what really stood out to me was the atmosphere. There's an almost Phantom of the Opera quality to the story- not because this is a Phantom retelling, but because the theater itself begins to feel like another character. You can almost feel yourself wandering backstage, surrounded by costumes, wigs, darkened corridors, old dressing rooms, and all the history and superstition that seem to cling to the walls. Zarling has a background in theater, and it shows. Those details give the setting an authenticity that completely pulled me into Elise's world.
The writing itself is beautifully descriptive, although I will say the first half is fairly slow and heavily atmospheric. It reminded me a little of the experience I have reading Stephen King or Anne Rice- the beginning is front-loaded with description, setting, and world-building before you really reach the meat of the story. But once you get there? Good luck putting it down. Everything that was established during that slower beginning starts paying off, and suddenly I needed to know what was happening in this theater.
The romance is also very much a slow burn, so don't go into this expecting the romantic relationship to take over immediately. Zarling gives the characters and the mystery room to develop first, which worked especially well with the gothic atmosphere. Spooky ghosts, theater superstitions, a beautifully realized setting, a little ghostly humor, mystery, and a slow-burn romance all wrapped together into one wonderfully atmospheric debut.
If you're looking for something seasonal that falls somewhere between cozy paranormal romance and genuinely spooky gothic ghost story, this is a great one to pick up. A fantastic debut from Shade Zarling, and I'll definitely be watching for whatever she writes next. As for this story- it's perfect fall reading. 👻🎭🖤