Amazing First Half
I'm not really a horror reader, but I was absolutely captivated by the beginning of this story and absolutely needed to read it and find out what was happening. The story follows Laure as she navigates her way through the Paris ballet. She is probably the most talented dancer they have, but racism, jealousy and classicism is keeping her from being taken seriously as a ballerina and from being included among her fellow dancers. She makes a deal with a primordial being, Archeron, to give her power to not be overlooked in the company and things start taking off for her professionally, but others who have also made deals start showing up murdered and she has to figure out who and why before she's next.
While I did enjoy the story, I did find myself getting lost a bit. Ballet is not something I'm familiar with so a lot of the terms and descriptions went way over my head. The pacing also felt off--the first quarter drew me in and was exciting and then it slowed way down while Laure was researching Archeron. The villain of the story seemed very obvious and there were a lot of plot points that felt ridiculous. Laure being threatened into leaving or her deal with the devil will be exposed? Who is going to believe that? I also don't think it went far enough. It could've been creepier and more suspenseful and mysterious. Laure's battles with her inner beast could've been more--the book is called, "I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me" after all.
While I did enjoy the story, I did find myself getting lost a bit. Ballet is not something I'm familiar with so a lot of the terms and descriptions went way over my head. The pacing also felt off--the first quarter drew me in and was exciting and then it slowed way down while Laure was researching Archeron. The villain of the story seemed very obvious and there were a lot of plot points that felt ridiculous. Laure being threatened into leaving or her deal with the devil will be exposed? Who is going to believe that? I also don't think it went far enough. It could've been creepier and more suspenseful and mysterious. Laure's battles with her inner beast could've been more--the book is called, "I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me" after all.