yeoroll 's review for:

Nocturne by Alyssa Wees

2.0

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i’m not sure how to rate this because it goes both ways for me. i feel like i kinda got increasingly uninterested during the second half, and i grew more disconnected from the story. i found myself skipping the incredibly descriptive paragraphs in this book. i don’t know if i’d say it was overwritten, because there still were some beautifully written sections in this ! i’m not sure if i’d consider this a beauty and the beast retelling, because it was like a mixture of so many different things. a bunch of random plot points started happing during the last 10% and also just so much happened during the second half. i felt like a lot was going on, and i wanted more of some characters and less of others. still, i enjoyed the themes and plot of this story. the beautiful cover drew me in as well as the description (ballet, magical realism, and just everything). it had darker themes than i thought it would, and i wasn’t as fond as the themes of death (plus the portrayal of death personified) and such in this book (also just the dude’s name being master la rosa, i don’t know why). overall, i would give this 2.5-3 stars. i could see someone else really enjoying this. this just wasn’t for me, and that’s okay !

thank you to netgalley and ballantine for providing me with an eARC of this book !!