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A review by renaevsbooks
Nocturne by Alyssa Wees
2.0
Beautiful Cover. Lyrical prose. Dream-like.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballentine for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Nocturne follows an orphan named Grace Dragotta who is save from a life on the streets of Chicago by a woman who runs a ballet company. Now a distinguished ballerina, Grace has caught the eye of a mysterious patron who whisks her away from her home with the ballet company to a mysterious house in Hyde Park where she will dance for him on Sundays. Grace learns though spending time with Master La Rosa that monsters can be beautiful, there can be light in darkness and things are not always what they seem.
I had such high hopes for this book! It promised Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera vibes but had I not gone into reading this book with that in mind, I would not have gotten those vibes. It is like Phantom in the sense that there is a mysterious benefactor at the ballet, much as the Phantom is to the opera house. It may be Beauty and the Beast in the sense that Grace is a captive and he kind of resembles a monster. I don't know. Vibes aside, what readers go into stories wanting is compelling characters and an interesting plot that makes sense. The characters in this book are extremely flat and boring. The plot has pacing issues: I couldn't even tell you what this book was about until deep in Part 2 and even then, I would struggle to tell you.
What this book does well is prose. In the beginning I was very annoyed with all the purple prose. We don't need long descriptions of frost on windows and sacrificing character development for it should be a cardinal sin of writing. However, as I kept reading this story, I could appreciate the lyrical prose. Anyone who loves a more lyrical prose and who loves to annotate their books will probably love this book.
Overall, this book was not for me, but I can appreciate where someone else would like it. I personally prefer engaging characters and plot over prose.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballentine for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Nocturne follows an orphan named Grace Dragotta who is save from a life on the streets of Chicago by a woman who runs a ballet company. Now a distinguished ballerina, Grace has caught the eye of a mysterious patron who whisks her away from her home with the ballet company to a mysterious house in Hyde Park where she will dance for him on Sundays. Grace learns though spending time with Master La Rosa that monsters can be beautiful, there can be light in darkness and things are not always what they seem.
I had such high hopes for this book! It promised Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera vibes but had I not gone into reading this book with that in mind, I would not have gotten those vibes. It is like Phantom in the sense that there is a mysterious benefactor at the ballet, much as the Phantom is to the opera house. It may be Beauty and the Beast in the sense that Grace is a captive and he kind of resembles a monster. I don't know. Vibes aside, what readers go into stories wanting is compelling characters and an interesting plot that makes sense. The characters in this book are extremely flat and boring. The plot has pacing issues: I couldn't even tell you what this book was about until deep in Part 2 and even then, I would struggle to tell you.
What this book does well is prose. In the beginning I was very annoyed with all the purple prose. We don't need long descriptions of frost on windows and sacrificing character development for it should be a cardinal sin of writing. However, as I kept reading this story, I could appreciate the lyrical prose. Anyone who loves a more lyrical prose and who loves to annotate their books will probably love this book.
Overall, this book was not for me, but I can appreciate where someone else would like it. I personally prefer engaging characters and plot over prose.