90: I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me & Thoughts (Slight Spoilers Sprinkled Throughout Review?)
The Good
Appreciate Black authors exploring different types of horror & fantasy with a variety in settings.
Bringing up issues to ya audience that it brings up – (look at thoughts section)
The Meh
Mismarketing- Almost all of the reviews I saw mentioned that they think the story is misrepresented in the marketing and I agree.
The Bad
I. Beyond the mismarketing did this succeed at what it was? Did I like it for what it was? I could be wrong about its goal, but it did not go hard like it could have.
It did not go that far into the messed-up system of ballet (as much as it talked about it) or racism or many of the interesting themes. There was something there about ballet being their god & the applause is like worshiping I was waiting to hit the surface.
II. Poorly paced – to point I thought it held back just to make a sequel.
III. Repetitive – we were in a wheel of the same actions happening over and over.
(1) Laure finds out about something – sets up for something to move plot forward.
(2) Next chapter or scene we move past it like nothing really happened. No, I do not mean it happens offscreen it’s like they skip addressing reasonable conflict in the story.
IV. Time skips – so you don’t get to sit in moments, and it skips past interesting things.
V. Ballet felt like window dressing after a while because we were told so much about ballet this or that without us really doing much with it.
VI. Doesn’t sit with people so I felt no connection to them -friends, foes, etc.
VII. No, I do not want to spend pages on pages on this boy instead of…
~ exploring the fantasy of the story
~this entity you made a deal with
~ballet world beyond set piece
~who is killing people
~your family
~etc
Thoughts
I. Mismarketing
What subgenre(s) would you say this story falls under?
Fantasy, paranormal romance (unsure about this), slight bit of horror
II. Racism, validation
A. Spaces not build for Black people
~Ballet is feminine/soft/regal
~feminine = white
~Black women are considered the furthest from feminity /softness/regalness.
At the fundamental level ballet is not built (as many spaces) for Black people so of course there is opposition.
C. Using an outside force to circumnavigate the force of racism.
What is cheating or meritocracy when fundamentally things are built for you not to succeed/flourish? If you need help from the beast, were you good enough in first place? What is good enough when your race is on the judging table (you can’t out excel racism)?
~How desperation for equality/equity/notice/be on same playing field can be exploited.
~Validation & racism vs enjoyment of an activity such as ballet
III. Mini-rant
On the deity/entity: Acheron cannot get worship or seen as amazing entity/god when they got whooped and people killed multiple times. I am supposed to be impressed by them like lol.
Do they (characters) seriously not wonder what the entity they are sacrificing themselves to want? Like no one is going to look into it?
Appreciate Black authors exploring different types of horror & fantasy with a variety in settings.
Bringing up issues to ya audience that it brings up – (look at thoughts section)
The Meh
Mismarketing- Almost all of the reviews I saw mentioned that they think the story is misrepresented in the marketing and I agree.
The Bad
I. Beyond the mismarketing did this succeed at what it was? Did I like it for what it was? I could be wrong about its goal, but it did not go hard like it could have.
It did not go that far into the messed-up system of ballet (as much as it talked about it) or racism or many of the interesting themes. There was something there about ballet being their god & the applause is like worshiping I was waiting to hit the surface.
II. Poorly paced – to point I thought it held back just to make a sequel.
III. Repetitive – we were in a wheel of the same actions happening over and over.
(1) Laure finds out about something – sets up for something to move plot forward.
(2) Next chapter or scene we move past it like nothing really happened. No, I do not mean it happens offscreen it’s like they skip addressing reasonable conflict in the story.
IV. Time skips – so you don’t get to sit in moments, and it skips past interesting things.
V. Ballet felt like window dressing after a while because we were told so much about ballet this or that without us really doing much with it.
VI. Doesn’t sit with people so I felt no connection to them -friends, foes, etc.
VII. No, I do not want to spend pages on pages on this boy instead of…
~ exploring the fantasy of the story
~this entity you made a deal with
~ballet world beyond set piece
~who is killing people
~your family
~etc
Thoughts
I. Mismarketing
What subgenre(s) would you say this story falls under?
Fantasy, paranormal romance (unsure about this), slight bit of horror
II. Racism, validation
A. Spaces not build for Black people
~Ballet is feminine/soft/regal
~feminine = white
~Black women are considered the furthest from feminity /softness/regalness.
At the fundamental level ballet is not built (as many spaces) for Black people so of course there is opposition.
C. Using an outside force to circumnavigate the force of racism.
What is cheating or meritocracy when fundamentally things are built for you not to succeed/flourish? If you need help from the beast, were you good enough in first place? What is good enough when your race is on the judging table (you can’t out excel racism)?
~How desperation for equality/equity/notice/be on same playing field can be exploited.
~Validation & racism vs enjoyment of an activity such as ballet
III. Mini-rant
On the deity/entity: Acheron cannot get worship or seen as amazing entity/god when they got whooped and people killed multiple times. I am supposed to be impressed by them like lol.
Do they (characters) seriously not wonder what the entity they are sacrificing themselves to want? Like no one is going to look into it?