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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
dark
tense
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed the story, I think if you love a dark, creepy, descriptive tale this is for you. Laure as the protagonist and narrator is complicated in a way I feel is very familiar. Her character is the classic super hard working and talented but overlooked and battered woman who through stumbling upon a force darker than her own finds a way to get what she feels she owed. She has a not so clear background with parents she’s clearly estranged from but I don’t think I got too clear of an idea of what caused it. I think if another book was to be written I’d love to know some more about her background with her parents and how her life led her to Paris. I did find Laure slightly annoying mainly because of her connection with Coralie. It’s like she understood she was a better ballerina than her and knew Coralie was a shit friend but her desperation writhing their friendship always seemed confusing. I feel like Laure never leaned into the power she was given to truly give herself the things she wanted. It’s like she didn’t feel she deserved it in some ways while also crying that she did. It almost like she’d been punishing herself the whole way through because maybe punishment meant she really did what she needed to deserve the things she wanted. I think Laure also understood that at the end of the day, the Paris ballet company was 1. never made for people like her and she’d have to contort herself to fit in fully and truly, and 2. The reason for the downfall of all of the people who put their all into it. Even if Coralie and Rose-Marie never found out about Laure’s favor, the nature of the academy pushes women past their breaking point and even the most successful of them will come to their own demise purely from trying to keep up. The very thing they loved and hoped for the most was always going to be their downfall.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Laurence Mesny is a ballerina in her last year of school before apprenticeship and despite being the best in her class, she's getting overlooked for her skin color and financial status. When the étoile, Josephine, approaches her and offers her a deal, Laurence takes it. With her new power, she easily takes what she deserves at the ballet, but when Josephine turns up dead and her deal mark is burned off, Laurence worries shes next. This is a beautifully written story of how one girl can use her power to be great. Laurence is vicious and ruthless while maintaining her grace and ballerina poise. My only problem was that it drags so much in the first half of the book.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
4.25
loved the story but our girl Laure should get checked for masochism lol
i was not expecting any of the directions that this story was going and this author is one of the few that aren't afraid to kill characters off to progress the plot which is something that i love to read about.
not only was i hooked from the start to the end, i also read the entire book in a day. although this review is a little late i just want to say that this book is so worth it! i'm not sure what genre it's marked as but it's more horror realism than fantasy if you ask me and i cant decided if it adds or takes away more from the story.
was also not expecting the bout of romance that we got but that's not to say it was a bad thing, totally loved it in the end.
Laure is one of the most self destructive characters that i've read in a while and i have to say i was not disappointed with how unhinged this book was.
loved the story but our girl Laure should get checked for masochism lol
i was not expecting any of the directions that this story was going and this author is one of the few that aren't afraid to kill characters off to progress the plot which is something that i love to read about.
not only was i hooked from the start to the end, i also read the entire book in a day. although this review is a little late i just want to say that this book is so worth it! i'm not sure what genre it's marked as but it's more horror realism than fantasy if you ask me and i cant decided if it adds or takes away more from the story.
was also not expecting the bout of romance that we got but that's not to say it was a bad thing, totally loved it in the end.
Laure is one of the most self destructive characters that i've read in a while and i have to say i was not disappointed with how unhinged this book was.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
It was a bit repetitive
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
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
This has one of the best titles of the year and an eye-catching cover. I also am intrigued by a YA book with a villainous protagonist. Unfortunately, this book suffers from first book syndrome where there was a lot of room for improvement. I'm not interested in reading any other books in this series - Laure bores me - but I think Shea has a great future book in them.
Laure (Laurence) is a black ballet dancer at the Ballet Academy of Paris. She is dedicated and focused, dreaming of being one of the sparkling etoiles of the Parisian Ballet. Partly due to her impoverished background, partly due to her skin color, and partly due to the cutthroat world of ballet - where an inch of height or an inch of shoulder width can mean the difference between your career advancing or stagnating - Laure struggles with securing the future she dreams of. Then one of the ballerinas brings her in on a secret - she can make an ambiguous deal with a demon/god/whatever in a bloody river and gain a power. Laure makes a pledge without a second thought and gains the power to command people (and somehow also stop their hearts. And also superhealing! Multiple superpowers for the price of one oath!). Laure spends a lot of time worrying, craving adoration (it is clear that she doesn't want to be a great ballet dancer, so much as to be worshiped and her name carved into history). She also a crush/strange romance with someone who made a deal with the same demon. Absolutely no one seems worried about any consequences of their bargain, and are oddly incurious about the demon and what it wants from them. That's a long way to say - this book was too repetitive and the characters were flat.
When there is a villainous protagonist, I want them to be clever and strategic. Laure's entire personality is her ambition, so you'd think that she'd use her literal manipulation powers to...properly manipulate people. Instead, she mostly just uses it when she's throwing a tantrum. It is shocking that she lets people continue to bully her - she either takes it or lashes out wildly. But she doesn't systematically climb the ballet ladder. Later in the book, the head of the ballet gives her a lukewarm deal - and Laure has the ability to command her to give her exactly the position she wants. And she just...doesn't. Laure's "best friend" is Coralie, a lazy ballerina who is browbeaten by her famous ballerina mother. Despite how often Laure and Coralie say they are best friends, neither of them seem to actually like each other. Or understand each other. Coralie doesn't believe that Laure is obsessed with being an etoile and dedicates her entire life to this task. And Laure doesn't seem to understand that Coralie's driving force is avoiding her mother's disappointment. When Coralie is being cruel to Laure, Laure just...doesn't use her powers. At all. I kept waiting for Laure to use her powers with calculation and precision and she never does. She never even develops a plan - she is all reaction, no real action.
I was also shocked that this book was set in Paris. It is one of the most American books I've read, and France is more of a green screen than a realistic setting. Race is a large part of this book, and it is worth exploring the mix of racism/classism and the ballet. The ballet in France certainly has issues with racism. It was not until 2023 (!) that the Paris Opera named a black etoile.
But this book has a very American view of race. France has its own issues with racism, but the way they express it is different. I do not have any personal experience with this - 0nly what I've read and heard from others - but this book did inspire me to watch Youtube videos about being black in France.
There's also odd moments of characters talking about "vocal fry" and lots of eating of ramen. Do they have French vocal fry? Is the cheap food to eat really ramen in France? I am not French, so I cannot say, but these just struck me as also...very American.
I don't understand why this was set in Paris, except that Paris is exotic and sexy. This book would have made a lot more sense if it was set in NYC. Shea tries to justify the very American tone of this book by giving Laure an American mother. She does not explain, however, how an American from Georgia ended up having a child with a Parisian man, and then leaving the child in France. Or how Laure is "American" even though she was raised mainly (entirely?) in France.
Laure's background is in fact quite thinly sketched. She apparently taught herself to be a master pickpocket as a child (?!?). Her mother was into ballet (but was not a ballerina), which is how Laure became interested in ballet. When did she start lessons? Was it something her mother wanted for her? She didn't go from pickpocket to the top ballet school in Paris with no intermediate steps. Why/when did her mother leave? What happened with her father between her mother leaving and Laure moving in with Coralie's family? This was something else I was hoping would be made clear in the end, but it never was.
Laure (Laurence) is a black ballet dancer at the Ballet Academy of Paris. She is dedicated and focused, dreaming of being one of the sparkling etoiles of the Parisian Ballet. Partly due to her impoverished background, partly due to her skin color, and partly due to the cutthroat world of ballet - where an inch of height or an inch of shoulder width can mean the difference between your career advancing or stagnating - Laure struggles with securing the future she dreams of. Then one of the ballerinas brings her in on a secret - she can make an ambiguous deal with a demon/god/whatever in a bloody river and gain a power. Laure makes a pledge without a second thought and gains the power to command people (and somehow also stop their hearts. And also superhealing! Multiple superpowers for the price of one oath!). Laure spends a lot of time worrying, craving adoration (it is clear that she doesn't want to be a great ballet dancer, so much as to be worshiped and her name carved into history). She also a crush/strange romance with someone who made a deal with the same demon. Absolutely no one seems worried about any consequences of their bargain, and are oddly incurious about the demon and what it wants from them. That's a long way to say - this book was too repetitive and the characters were flat.
When there is a villainous protagonist, I want them to be clever and strategic. Laure's entire personality is her ambition, so you'd think that she'd use her literal manipulation powers to...properly manipulate people. Instead, she mostly just uses it when she's throwing a tantrum. It is shocking that she lets people continue to bully her - she either takes it or lashes out wildly. But she doesn't systematically climb the ballet ladder. Later in the book, the head of the ballet gives her a lukewarm deal - and Laure has the ability to command her to give her exactly the position she wants. And she just...doesn't. Laure's "best friend" is Coralie, a lazy ballerina who is browbeaten by her famous ballerina mother. Despite how often Laure and Coralie say they are best friends, neither of them seem to actually like each other. Or understand each other. Coralie doesn't believe that Laure is obsessed with being an etoile and dedicates her entire life to this task. And Laure doesn't seem to understand that Coralie's driving force is avoiding her mother's disappointment. When Coralie is being cruel to Laure, Laure just...doesn't use her powers. At all. I kept waiting for Laure to use her powers with calculation and precision and she never does. She never even develops a plan - she is all reaction, no real action.
I was also shocked that this book was set in Paris. It is one of the most American books I've read, and France is more of a green screen than a realistic setting. Race is a large part of this book, and it is worth exploring the mix of racism/classism and the ballet. The ballet in France certainly has issues with racism. It was not until 2023 (!) that the Paris Opera named a black etoile.
But this book has a very American view of race. France has its own issues with racism, but the way they express it is different. I do not have any personal experience with this - 0nly what I've read and heard from others - but this book did inspire me to watch Youtube videos about being black in France.
There's also odd moments of characters talking about "vocal fry" and lots of eating of ramen. Do they have French vocal fry? Is the cheap food to eat really ramen in France? I am not French, so I cannot say, but these just struck me as also...very American.
I don't understand why this was set in Paris, except that Paris is exotic and sexy. This book would have made a lot more sense if it was set in NYC. Shea tries to justify the very American tone of this book by giving Laure an American mother. She does not explain, however, how an American from Georgia ended up having a child with a Parisian man, and then leaving the child in France. Or how Laure is "American" even though she was raised mainly (entirely?) in France.
Laure's background is in fact quite thinly sketched. She apparently taught herself to be a master pickpocket as a child (?!?). Her mother was into ballet (but was not a ballerina), which is how Laure became interested in ballet. When did she start lessons? Was it something her mother wanted for her? She didn't go from pickpocket to the top ballet school in Paris with no intermediate steps. Why/when did her mother leave? What happened with her father between her mother leaving and Laure moving in with Coralie's family? This was something else I was hoping would be made clear in the end, but it never was.