In depth review on my YouTube channel! (@BookTribe)

My thoughts are so incoherent and chaotic right now, but I just have to say that this is one of the best books I’ve ever read and I need y’all to go preorder it, request it from your library, do whatever you have to do to make sure you get this in your hands when it releases.

A (possibly) coherent review to come.

🖤🩸✨Coherent review✨🩸🖤

Laure Mesny, Black ballerina at the top of her class, but constantly overlooked, is tired of being powerless. So, she bathes in a river of blood and makes a deal with an eldritch god for power. But is the power worth everything she has to sacrifice for it?

I have SO MANY thoughts about this book that it’s so hard to narrow down what all I’m going to say, but, long story short, this is definitely my FAVORITE book of the year and it is also one of my favorite books of all time! I need everyone to preorder it, request it from your library, do whatever you have to do to make sure this book gets in your hands on August 29th!

There are countless things that I loved about this book! Our main character, Laure, is one of my all time favorite characters. I will defend her to the very end! She can do no wrong! We LOVE monstrous Black girls over here! I relate to her so much because after being powerless for so long, it’s easy to become a “villain”. (I use the term villain loosely because, as I already said, my good sis can do no wrong!) And every character in the story was developed very well. You either loved them or hated them, but you were indifferent to no one and understood everyone’s motivations and personality!

I also have to mention how GORGEOUS the writing is! I think this is the most I’ve ever annotated a book. I honestly could’ve highlighted the whole book (I almost did🤭) There is absolutely no way that this is Jamison Shea’s debut. The writing style is so engrossing, it’s so descriptive, I would even say the writing is straight up CINEMATIC! And speaking of cinematic, this needs to be adapted into a movie ASAP.

Everything about this book was just so amazing: the story, the characters, the writing, the cover, the HORROR of it all, the way the story came full circle at the end, just everything! This book just left me speechless, but simultaneously, I wanna say EVERYTHING about it! I need more people to read this, so that I can gush about it with others! MAGNIFIQUE✨🖤🩸

P.S. knowing that I will be getting more of this magnificence when the second book in the duology comes out makes me so happy🥰🥰🥰

Thank you so much Macmillan Children’s/Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: racism, classism, parental abandonment, ritualistic self harm