So, as I am trying to catch up on reviews, I thought I would review the last two books I read which both happen to be Dark Academia set in the world of the performing arts. One book is set at an elite Parisian ballet academy and the other book is set at a prestigious performing acts school in Edinburgh.

One book tackles white privilege, race, classism and the desire for power through the eyes of the only Black ballerina at this academy and the other book tackles beauty standards, eating disorders and self-image through the eyes of a young woman living in the shadow of her celebrity mother.

Both books include LGBTQ+ main characters.

One book was a 4 star read but the other book was a 2 star read. Let’s get into it.

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me

• Series: IFHTTBATBIM #1
• Genre: Horror
• No. of pages: 352
• Dates read: 20.10.2023 – 22.10.2023
• Star Rating: 4 stars

Plot: Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood. The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom. But even as undeniable as she is, Laure is not the only monster around. And her vicious desires make her a perfect target for slaughter. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is—monstrous heart and all. That is, if the god-killer doesn’t catch her first.

Netgalley and Hot Key books sent me a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book hit my performing arts soul with a piercing arrow. The accuracy in this book of depicting the toxic side of performing, the cut-throat environment, how everyone is your friend and your enemy, the stress of auditions and performing at your best, the nature of one wrong move and your career is over. It was just so well done. Even the exploration into the complicated friendship between Laure and her best friend Coralie felt accurate to me – wanting to support your friend while also vying for the same positions as them and how that can be damaging to any kind of relationship.

All of this is intense and hard to navigate but then adding being the only black girl in a sea of pink and white tutus is a whole other level of white privilege, racism and also, in the specific case for Laure, classism. I supported every single moment of Laure’s female rage and Black female rage in this book. I separate these two due to elements of Laure’s rage having specific ties to her experience as the only black ballerina, like out-performing your peers and getting the main role but still not being the right “look” for the company, and other elements of her rage other ballerinas would be able to relate to regardless of race, cut-throat friends, rumours spreading etc. Every decision she made, no matter how dangerous, had me acting like that one meme of the older lady with the wine saying ‘good for her’.

The scenes where she displays her power and how it affects her were written so well. It had my palms sweating and my heart pounding. I love that we got to see a protagonist who doesn’t shy away from her power but embraces it. It made for such a complex and dynamic character and an amazing reading experience.

A super atmospheric novel that delved into the descent into madness that happens when you get given loads of power and how systems are built on oppressing talent that doesn’t fit into their very white lense.

Every Exquisite Thing

• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Fantasy/Thriller
• No. of pages: 326
• Dates read: 23.10.2023 – 25.10.2023
• Star Rating: 2 stars

Plot: Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out . . 

The only reason this book didn’t get one star is due to the fact that I thought the conversations around beauty standards, eating disorders and alopecia were handled well. Having had alopecia when I was younger it was nice to see it represented. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was not great.

In terms of writing – I found the writing to be a weird mix of clunky but beautiful. There were some great lines and insightful moments partnered alongside cringey dialogue and way too many cases of mentioning brand names. The amount of times I was pulled out of the story due to the character talking about her Hermes bag or Valentino dress.

The mystery itself started off super strong but ended up making no sense as the author went down a route that I frankly thought was absurd and out of nowhere. There was no set-up and the murderer was unbelievable and disappointing. You spend 2/3 of the novel being told it’s one specific character (when it’s so obvious that it’s not) and who you do get is underwhelming and confusing. Literally none of the last third of the book made sense to me both in terms of characters and plot. So many unanswered questions, plot holes etc.

The enemies to lovers, I kept hearing about, was under-developed. Genuinely, had me shocked that it was even considered. They had one nice conversation after weeks of being genuinely awful to one another and then they were kissing. It felt unbelievable and treated like one big throwaway. All the relationships the main character has felt very surface level or under-developed except for Catalina. I liked Catalina a lot. She was by far the saving grace of this novel.

Overall, great premise but underwhelming and confusing execution that had me wondering what the author’s intentions and plans were for this novel.