A review by heavenbythesea
Nocturne by Alyssa Wees

emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.0

I had such a weird time with this book.

grace's relationship with the master was easily the weakest part of it. I'll admit that hades and persephone-type relationships are always kind of a hard sell for me, because you have to make me root for a man who would kidnap a woman. but this book was totally uninterested in dealing with that, so you end up with a relationship that feels very flat and unearned. (you also get dissonant moments like grace angrily thinking about her ballet mistress as the woman who sold her, then on the next page she's happily back with the master, you know, the man who....bought her....? don't think too hard about it)

all of that said, there were things I enjoyed here. the writing was beautiful, poetic without being overwrought, enough to propel me through the story beats I didn't like. grace's relationship with her friend emilia was so touching, probably my favorite aspect of the whole book, and I really liked the ending. even though this book didn't totally work for me, I would absolutely read more from alyssa wees.