Maddie Fisher's Reviews > I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me

This is YA Black Swan meets The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, with a thriller-esq subplot and a slow burn monster romance…and I ate it up!

I loved the setting in the Parisian ballet, and the sinister magic lurking in the catacombs beneath the city. Likewise, the characters were interesting and engaging, and the tone was creepy and moody, without being too grim and haunting.

The promise was well-established in the beginning, introducing us to Laure, a perfectionistic aspiring ballerina, who must manipulate her body, mind, and soul to be all that is expected, and is never enough. No wonder she is willing to go to any lengths to gain power over her circumstances.

As the story progresses, and Laure begins to accomplish her goals, new characters are introduced and some go missing, only to turn up dead. Laure struggles with priorities as she balances pursuing her professional goals, navigating her tense relationship with her roommate, and getting to the bottom of the mysterious deaths of her friends. She questions herself as she discovers aspects of herself that conflict with her pursuit of perfection—anger, want, hunger, loneliness. As her chaos manifests, she must learn temperance and acceptance. And she cannot do it alone.

The payoff is really satisfying and plays to well-established themes throughout: power, rejection, loss, loneliness, betrayal, surrender and retribution.

A solid debut novel!

(This book was sent to me by the publisher. I am being compensated for an honest review on another platform. This review is not being compensated.)