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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this was just the right amount of creepy to recommend to some of my students. Ballet not normally my thing, but this was fascinating. looking forward to the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Laure Mesny is an unrecognized talent in her Parisian ballet school. The only Black girl attending the school, she's done far better than any of her peers, and has the scars to prove. But she is constantly not given her due, overshadowed by the other jealous students and her teachers' choices. That is until her fellow ballerina Joséphine Moreau takes her to the catacombs beneath Paris and reveals to her a crimson river in a secret cave. There, an unseen, eldritch being called Acheron grants her a promise: she can excel further in ballet and command anyone to do whatever she wants; if she fails, she dances no more. Laure is on the path to being the best ballerina in France, but then Joséphine's death and the rising animosity within the ballet school sets her down an even darker path, one that she's more than willing to traverse.
This was a very good YA horror novel! For once, a female character's descent into villainy done right! You hear all across publishing these days about books, both Adult and YA, with a morally grey female protagonist or one that's beginning on her path to villainy. Frankly, not many of those have actually taken off nor hit the right spots for me. Some of them have just poor development, unconvincing characters, and, worst of all, try too hard to convince your of the main character's moral greyness or villainy. I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me, thankfully, avoids all of that. Jamison Shea has given us a fully developed character in Laure with believable emotions and stakes and choices and manages to handle that "descent" masterfully well. Perhaps this is because of how Shea handles the situation of Laure being the only Black girl in her ballet school.
Other than Laura stating that she's the only Black girl--there is a Black boy there two, but I believe he is biracial and light-skinned--at the school, there is no heavy-handed messaging or beating you over the head with what's really going on at the school. Laure never experiences any explicit racism; no one ever says anything derogatory to her or the like. However, you still know what's going on as you read along. There is a sense that Laure is not welcomed at the school because of her race, and her lower economic status which isn't as much touched upon or inferred to but still fairly present. She doesn't look like a traditional Parisian ballerina and although she is far more skilled than her peers even before Acheron's pact, and even though those same peers suspect something of Joséphine's amazing talents, the hostility towards Laure from them is massive. Again, this is something never outright said by Laure herself through the first person narration, but you still can get the idea. Shea gives us enough without bashing us over the head to make us realize what's going on. The rivalries Laura encounters go to some hateful areas, someone even puts razor blades in her slippers. Coralie, her friend and daughter of one the ballet school's great teachers, even gets combative with her over her success, whereas she has glided easily through life and expects everything handed to her on a silver platter. Laure and Coralie's relationship dissolves over the course of the book, and I have some thoughts about that, but I will come back to that later.
All of this aforementioned struggle within the school, makes it very understandable for why Laure would make a pact with Acheron and her descent into "villainy." I put villainy in quotation marks because, yes, to the eyes of those around her she is acting evil, but personally I thought she was justified in a lot of--not all--of her actions. I mean, Laure was genuinely being dealt an unfair hand throughout the book. Still, one criticism I have is that when Joséphine first introduces Laure to the river and Acheron, she is not very shocked. I would've liked a little more shock on her part. Anyway, Laure's descent is done well and is added by the book's proper pacing. The beginning of the book is a little slow, but it picks up, but is thankfully no too fast that the descent feels rushed or not believable. When Laure first begins using Acheron's powers and pact to her benefit, it is merely for making people do simple things like letting her dance or getting them to move out of that way. She feels, rightfully, robbed and Acheron's power lets her feel finally satiated. It is only after Joséphine's sudden death at the hands of someone else with eldritch powers and the growing animosity at the ballet school do Laure's thoughts turn darker and her using her powers gets more violent. She eventually wills for another ballerina to fall and break her clavicle. At this moment, Laure feels a mixture of shock, guilt, but also delight. Eventually, the middle emotions erodes. And this is where I assume that most people will start to take issue with Laure's descent. Laure begins to feel less and less guilty towards some of the people she persuades and hates; I'm sure there will be protests towards this being "too edgy" or "too dislikeable." Personally, it did not come off as edgy to me. Shea is one of the few YA authors that actually does the evil main character well. It doesn't come off as pretentious, edgy, or forced. A lot of other YA authors fumble this, because you can tell they're trying to go "Oh, look how evil and edgy I am! I am a teenager on the path to evil, not like a normal YA hero. Muahahaha!" Laure's thoughts and emotions fell naturally developed. Of course there is the sense that it is perhaps Acheron influencing her to these darker thoughts, but Laure was already pushed to these conditions, it makes sense she'd go this far. Now, she doesn't go on a warpath against everyone at the school, there's some collateral damage at the end and she demands people worship her in way, but Laure, though delighting in the fall of those who did her wrong, isn't a sadist. She also does have a tender side that she tries to keep buried. She eventually only reveals to Joséphine and to other contracted allies Andor and Keturah. Thankfully, Laure is a multi-faceted character and so is Andor and Keturah and Coralie. The rest of the side characters aren't as much, but they serve their purpose nonetheless.
What also aids I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me in this aspect is the prose. The prose manages to atmospheric, tinged with some dark beauty, but without going full purple prose. Again, this is another part where lesser YA authors fumble. Sometimes they try too hard to make their prose pretty or unique and it just ends in similes and poetic descriptions that are more laughable than endearing. Hell, I've done it. Shea has a great hand on their prose. It's pretty and atmospheric enough that I think that the targeted older teen audience won't feel isolated from it.
What they will also not feel isolated from is the Lovecraftian elements of the book. Now, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me is not heavily Lovecraftian, but you can still clearly see the influence. It does not have the excessive prose nor lean too far into the "it was so terrifying I can't describe it" mantra of Lovecraftian horror. The infernal river Acheron and its pallid twin Lethe (both rivers in Greek mythology, by the way) and the pocket dimension Elysium where they both reside are Lovecraftian in that they are clearly ancient, but their origin is unknown. Not all of cosmic horror or H. P. Lovecraft's horror consisted of eldritch gods with monstrous anatomy, sometime it was just something ancient and unknowable. Shea utilizes that latter quite well and they didn't overcompensate.
As I said, Laure is a fully developed character. She's also bisexual and her attraction to both boys and girls is displayed on page, which I absolutely love! If you're writing a bisexual, show the attraction to both genders, please, thank you. She is clearly attracted to Andor, the monster boy, and Keturah the tattooed lesbian. Whenever she speaks with or is touched by these two, you can feel how introverted to love she is but also much she wants it. She has an ex-girlfriend too, but their interaction is brief. And then there's her relationship with Coralie, which brings me to my next criticism. Laure and Coralie are friends, though I don't believe this. As the novel progresses, Coralie shows that she really doesn't care about Laure's happiness and that she's jealous of her success and likewise Laure gets tired of Coralie's B.S. Towards the end of the book, someone points out that Laure loves Coralie. However, I don't believe any of this. Laure and Coralie never really felt like friends, even though they shared a dorm room. They felt more like amicable acquaintances that eventually fell out and grew to hate each other. At the climax of book, when, without spoiling too much, there's a showdown between the powers of Acheron and Lethe, and Laure is briefly saddened by Coralie's fate. Obviously, this shows that Laure still has a softer side, but I do not understand why she was sad over it. Again, I felt very little comradery between Laure and Coralie and Coralie deserved her fate.
But besides that, this was a very good book. Can't wait to read [b:I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call|75189268|I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call (I Feed Her to the Beast, #2)|Jamison Shea|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1716510591l/75189268._SY75_.jpg|100409421]!
This was a very good YA horror novel! For once, a female character's descent into villainy done right! You hear all across publishing these days about books, both Adult and YA, with a morally grey female protagonist or one that's beginning on her path to villainy. Frankly, not many of those have actually taken off nor hit the right spots for me. Some of them have just poor development, unconvincing characters, and, worst of all, try too hard to convince your of the main character's moral greyness or villainy. I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me, thankfully, avoids all of that. Jamison Shea has given us a fully developed character in Laure with believable emotions and stakes and choices and manages to handle that "descent" masterfully well. Perhaps this is because of how Shea handles the situation of Laure being the only Black girl in her ballet school.
Other than Laura stating that she's the only Black girl--there is a Black boy there two, but I believe he is biracial and light-skinned--at the school, there is no heavy-handed messaging or beating you over the head with what's really going on at the school. Laure never experiences any explicit racism; no one ever says anything derogatory to her or the like. However, you still know what's going on as you read along. There is a sense that Laure is not welcomed at the school because of her race, and her lower economic status which isn't as much touched upon or inferred to but still fairly present. She doesn't look like a traditional Parisian ballerina and although she is far more skilled than her peers even before Acheron's pact, and even though those same peers suspect something of Joséphine's amazing talents, the hostility towards Laure from them is massive. Again, this is something never outright said by Laure herself through the first person narration, but you still can get the idea. Shea gives us enough without bashing us over the head to make us realize what's going on. The rivalries Laura encounters go to some hateful areas, someone even puts razor blades in her slippers. Coralie, her friend and daughter of one the ballet school's great teachers, even gets combative with her over her success, whereas she has glided easily through life and expects everything handed to her on a silver platter. Laure and Coralie's relationship dissolves over the course of the book, and I have some thoughts about that, but I will come back to that later.
All of this aforementioned struggle within the school, makes it very understandable for why Laure would make a pact with Acheron and her descent into "villainy." I put villainy in quotation marks because, yes, to the eyes of those around her she is acting evil, but personally I thought she was justified in a lot of--not all--of her actions. I mean, Laure was genuinely being dealt an unfair hand throughout the book. Still, one criticism I have is that when Joséphine first introduces Laure to the river and Acheron, she is not very shocked. I would've liked a little more shock on her part. Anyway, Laure's descent is done well and is added by the book's proper pacing. The beginning of the book is a little slow, but it picks up, but is thankfully no too fast that the descent feels rushed or not believable. When Laure first begins using Acheron's powers and pact to her benefit, it is merely for making people do simple things like letting her dance or getting them to move out of that way. She feels, rightfully, robbed and Acheron's power lets her feel finally satiated. It is only after Joséphine's sudden death at the hands of someone else with eldritch powers and the growing animosity at the ballet school do Laure's thoughts turn darker and her using her powers gets more violent. She eventually wills for another ballerina to fall and break her clavicle. At this moment, Laure feels a mixture of shock, guilt, but also delight. Eventually, the middle emotions erodes. And this is where I assume that most people will start to take issue with Laure's descent. Laure begins to feel less and less guilty towards some of the people she persuades and hates; I'm sure there will be protests towards this being "too edgy" or "too dislikeable." Personally, it did not come off as edgy to me. Shea is one of the few YA authors that actually does the evil main character well. It doesn't come off as pretentious, edgy, or forced. A lot of other YA authors fumble this, because you can tell they're trying to go "Oh, look how evil and edgy I am! I am a teenager on the path to evil, not like a normal YA hero. Muahahaha!" Laure's thoughts and emotions fell naturally developed. Of course there is the sense that it is perhaps Acheron influencing her to these darker thoughts, but Laure was already pushed to these conditions, it makes sense she'd go this far. Now, she doesn't go on a warpath against everyone at the school, there's some collateral damage at the end and she demands people worship her in way, but Laure, though delighting in the fall of those who did her wrong, isn't a sadist. She also does have a tender side that she tries to keep buried. She eventually only reveals to Joséphine and to other contracted allies Andor and Keturah. Thankfully, Laure is a multi-faceted character and so is Andor and Keturah and Coralie. The rest of the side characters aren't as much, but they serve their purpose nonetheless.
What also aids I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me in this aspect is the prose. The prose manages to atmospheric, tinged with some dark beauty, but without going full purple prose. Again, this is another part where lesser YA authors fumble. Sometimes they try too hard to make their prose pretty or unique and it just ends in similes and poetic descriptions that are more laughable than endearing. Hell, I've done it. Shea has a great hand on their prose. It's pretty and atmospheric enough that I think that the targeted older teen audience won't feel isolated from it.
What they will also not feel isolated from is the Lovecraftian elements of the book. Now, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me is not heavily Lovecraftian, but you can still clearly see the influence. It does not have the excessive prose nor lean too far into the "it was so terrifying I can't describe it" mantra of Lovecraftian horror. The infernal river Acheron and its pallid twin Lethe (both rivers in Greek mythology, by the way) and the pocket dimension Elysium where they both reside are Lovecraftian in that they are clearly ancient, but their origin is unknown. Not all of cosmic horror or H. P. Lovecraft's horror consisted of eldritch gods with monstrous anatomy, sometime it was just something ancient and unknowable. Shea utilizes that latter quite well and they didn't overcompensate.
As I said, Laure is a fully developed character. She's also bisexual and her attraction to both boys and girls is displayed on page, which I absolutely love! If you're writing a bisexual, show the attraction to both genders, please, thank you. She is clearly attracted to Andor, the monster boy, and Keturah the tattooed lesbian. Whenever she speaks with or is touched by these two, you can feel how introverted to love she is but also much she wants it. She has an ex-girlfriend too, but their interaction is brief. And then there's her relationship with Coralie, which brings me to my next criticism. Laure and Coralie are friends, though I don't believe this. As the novel progresses, Coralie shows that she really doesn't care about Laure's happiness and that she's jealous of her success and likewise Laure gets tired of Coralie's B.S. Towards the end of the book, someone points out that Laure loves Coralie. However, I don't believe any of this. Laure and Coralie never really felt like friends, even though they shared a dorm room. They felt more like amicable acquaintances that eventually fell out and grew to hate each other. At the climax of book, when, without spoiling too much, there's a showdown between the powers of Acheron and Lethe, and Laure is briefly saddened by Coralie's fate. Obviously, this shows that Laure still has a softer side, but I do not understand why she was sad over it. Again, I felt very little comradery between Laure and Coralie and Coralie deserved her fate.
But besides that, this was a very good book. Can't wait to read [b:I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call|75189268|I Am the Dark That Answers When You Call (I Feed Her to the Beast, #2)|Jamison Shea|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1716510591l/75189268._SY75_.jpg|100409421]!
dark
mysterious
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
Deeply enjoyable read! Laure is a fascinating protagonist that had me rooting for her even as she becomes the “villain.”
I grew attached to each character in her little found family and found myself hating and resenting her colleagues at the ballet right alongside her. I was pulled into the world of competitive professional ballet and the supernatural elements in equal measure.
I hope the second installment delves a little deeper into world building because it’s very intriguing but there were definitely a few missing pieces for me.
Book Bingo: “Good For Her” Horror
I grew attached to each character in her little found family and found myself hating and resenting her colleagues at the ballet right alongside her. I was pulled into the world of competitive professional ballet and the supernatural elements in equal measure.
I hope the second installment delves a little deeper into world building because it’s very intriguing but there were definitely a few missing pieces for me.
Book Bingo: “Good For Her” Horror
dark
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
tense
fast-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 was HOOKED by this book!! it was so fast-paced and had me wanting to keep reading, no matter how late it was. also, some things made me physically cringe (see: body horror), which almost never happens when reading so... slay
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Racism
tense
slow-paced
The first half of this one was really slow and boring to me but i’m glad I pushed through it started getting more gothic and dark which I loved!
*This book was received for free as a part of a Goodread’s Giveaway*
A very delicious (haha) thriller. It was really easy to read through, and I was eager to read more as I went on. I was overall satisfied with the read!
While I adore the premise and the exploration of it in the book, I do feel like there wasn’t much time for the protagonist to have some ‘fun & games’ before she spent much of the time worrying about a serial killer and passing out at the end of every other chapter. The ‘Black Swan’ comparisons are accurate to a point, but don’t expect the book to be much of an introspective one.
I love the protagonist’s exploration of her own power and the scenes where she embraces how it’s turning her into a monster, although I’m not entirely sure how the in-universe mechanisms of the supernatural aspects beyond that work.
I understand the ‘demon god gives powers for blood sacrifice’ thing, but I got lost at the supernatural areas with bright lights/poisonous plants that the characters kept returning to just to chat with each other.
Overall, I’m glad I got to read this, but I kind of wish it was more focused on the protagonist’s own life and world instead of juggling that with supernatural aspects and other characters that aren’t explored to a satisfying degree.
A very delicious (haha) thriller. It was really easy to read through, and I was eager to read more as I went on. I was overall satisfied with the read!
While I adore the premise and the exploration of it in the book, I do feel like there wasn’t much time for the protagonist to have some ‘fun & games’ before she spent much of the time worrying about a serial killer and passing out at the end of every other chapter. The ‘Black Swan’ comparisons are accurate to a point, but don’t expect the book to be much of an introspective one.
I love the protagonist’s exploration of her own power and the scenes where she embraces how it’s turning her into a monster, although I’m not entirely sure how the in-universe mechanisms of the supernatural aspects beyond that work.
I understand the ‘demon god gives powers for blood sacrifice’ thing, but I got lost at the supernatural areas with bright lights/poisonous plants that the characters kept returning to just to chat with each other.
Overall, I’m glad I got to read this, but I kind of wish it was more focused on the protagonist’s own life and world instead of juggling that with supernatural aspects and other characters that aren’t explored to a satisfying degree.