Reviews - I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me

1.72k reviews for:

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me

Jamison Shea

3.77 AVERAGE

01abparsons's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Content Warnings

nappingfrog's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

starrysteph's review

4.25

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

How freeing would it be to simply … lean into monstrosity? To make that dangerous bargain? To unapologetically and unwaveringly hunger for power?

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me is a wonderfully fanged & clawed & bloodthirsty villain origin story. And you won’t ever stop rooting for her.

Laure Mesny is a brilliant ballerina. But despite being top of her class and as talented as the rest of the dancers, she’s overlooked time and time again. Parisian ballet just isn’t willing to let a Black girl shine.

When Laure discovers a powerful entity in a river of blood beneath the city, she strikes a deal. She’ll get godlike powers and become undeniable … but power always comes with a cost. And her violent ambition makes her a target to everyone.

“I didn't see a world for me without my art in it, where I didn't live this beauty and torment every single day.”

Laure agonizes over her need for art and a cutthroat world that pushes her down again and again. She’s had to work twice as hard as any of her peers, has to be perfect just to be seen. And she’s furious about it.

I was viciously hooked from the start. The prose is rich and relatable, and while the dance world isn’t always portrayed completely accurately, the themes of sacrifice for success and destroying yourself for your art will ring true for any creative.

Laure faces prejudice - both racist and classist - from her peers and from the oppressive institution itself. They’re always demanding more. More loyalty, more sacrifice, more unpeeling yourself. And when she starts to bite back, it’s so satisfying. (Let her do it all!!)

I did think that sometimes we got lost in the richness of the writing, and I wanted a bit more information and context, specifically around the gods and powers and bargains. The vibes were consistently delicious, but I wish there was a bit more to solidly place us in this reality. But the atmospheric horror of the violence and the rivers Acheron and Leche were so, so good. The QUOTES I could pull from this!

The ballerinas were (mostly) rancid and the eclectic group of fellow bargainers who become a bit of a found family were all fleshed out well and quite unique. I lowkey felt like this could have been SO much more sapphic and I thought we were heading in one direction (Laure is bi), but we mostly left that energy on the table.

Overall, I loved this and really want to dive into the sequel! If you’re into “good for her” rage and girls becoming monstrous gods to find their freedom, please pick this one up.

CW: murder, death, blood, body horror, racism, toxic friendship, gore, classism, body shaming, bullying, injury, self harm, abandonment, fatphobia, misogyny, fire, gaslighting, grief, vomit

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khazbin's review

4.0

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

legacyx's review

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

cozypete's review against another edition

2.5

The story was good but the writing style was so frustrating to read. Just extremely repetitive and overexplained EVERYTHING. At first it wasn’t so bad it felt more like “yeah ok this is YA so you gotta do some hand-holding for the younger audience” but by the end I was physically rolling my eyes every time we got a description of EXACTLY what laure was feeling for the hundredth time in one chapter. The majority of this book is just her inner monologue saying some variant of “i deserve this but i feel guilty” like yes WE KNOW