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A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. SpannPublished by Entangled: Mayhem Books on February 3, 2026
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Format: eBook, Physical
Source: Library
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.
Trigger & Content Warnings: death, blood, violence, illness, torture, imprisonment, starvation, loss of autonomy, murder, burning, suicide (mentioned), poison (mentioned)
A Stage Set for Villains was so brilliantly crafted, and I’m so glad I pushed through to the end because it was absolutely worth it, but it also had its flaws (okay, part of it was my eBook and physical copies coming in at the same time and being due days within each other).
Spann’s debut has a great concept: it’s set in a world inspired by Greek mythology where the Gods are dead and the world is run by the Players who are worshipped and feared by the people of Theatron. It explores the power of storytelling and words: what happens when they’re taken away and what happens when they’re controlled by a limited number of people, but also what happens when they’re embraced.
“History is easier to change than you think. All you need is enough people to believe it. And you will make them believe it.”
The novel follows Riven Hesper, who ends up in the Playhouse’s competition where a mortal has the chance to steal a Player’s immortality; she’s desperate to figure out this curse of hers that’s caused her to wither away and be outcasted by her peers since she first encountered a player when she was 8, and she sees this as a chance to find out some answers. So when she ends up in a bit of a wrong place, wrong time situation and is offered a deal from the Lead Player, Jude, she’s not too keen on it at first since it goes against everything she’s been taught growing up.
A Stage Set for Villains is a love letter to acting and theater: the story is set in various acts and written like a script, and while the consistency absolutely bugged me at first, I absolutely loved it and thought it was brilliant once I figured out what was going on. I’m sure there’s more terminology that I’m not familiar with. Like okay, I see what you did there.
It is very confusing though; there’s a lot going on in the story, which I think part of it might just be my limited background in theater (though I know there’s a lot of moving parts to a play), so someone who’s more familiar might feel differently. I felt like a lot of the focus is on the plot and story progression along with unveiling the various twists, which while I personally felt it was predictable, it’s always fun for me to see how things play out and Spann absolutely delivered.
With a lot going on, I felt like the character development was lacking in favor of the plot; I absolutely loved the banter between Jude and Riven, but I feel like there’s a distance with the characters and I barely remember them. It’s possible this is intentional since in reality the actor behind a character is going to be different from the character they play and there’s always going to be a certain distance between reality and fiction, and I feel like that might be exactly what’s happening.
I also feel like while the world is immersive, it could’ve had more depth especially in regards to the magic system and how Craft works. However, I really loved how Craft is a play on artistic craft and the skillset to bring a story and performance to life that enchants an audience. It’s also possible I’m overthinking it way more than I should.
A Stage Set for Villains is a solid debut; I had a fun time with it despite feeling mostly confused on what was going on, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Spann writes next.
Hannah has a penchant for chaos, which is probably how she ended up blogging since 2012. That, and she was probably too expressive for her parents to handle, so it had to go somewhere. She can be found occasionally at The Arts STL. If you’d like to fuel her boba addiction or just enjoy her posts and want to support her, stop by her KoFi or Buy Me a Coffee!