This book was an anticipated release for me, so when I was granted access to the advanced copy, I was thrilled to get into it. Its marketing as an ethereal, ballet-focused Hades and Persephone meets Phantom of the Opera sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, in my opinion the book ultimately did not succeed in what it aimed to do. 

Starting with what I thought was successful: It was clear from the start Krystle wanted to present a setting rooted firmly in the coquette aesthetic, and I think the descriptions of the island achieved that goal. I think there is something in this basic narrative that could appeal heartily to an early YA audience. It’s glamorous, it’s emotionally charged, it’s got romance and drama. The prose is flowery and descriptive and seeks to feel very decadent and lush 

I think though, the emphasis on these things took too much priority over things like plot, cohesion, characterization, and believability. What didn’t work in these cases really didn’t work. I felt that many of the characters were one-dimensional, and the reader was told how to feel about them rather than the book allowing for discovery. Lila’s deep wound was a totally reasonable thing to feel self-loathing for, but I struggled to understand why it even came to pass and how she was going to heal and address it. It was simultaneously the most important thing about her and the most neglected thing by the plot. The rest of the cast of characters weren’t given enough depth or action on the things that were their primary traits to really justify their existence. I was often confused and irritated by the lack of depth in terms of worldbuilding; this ethereal island is…off the coast of Virginia? But somehow totally lacks any connection with the contemporary world. There is an attempt at an explanation, but the pseudo-mythology the book hinges on also feels deeply underdeveloped and too simple to hang a plot on. The main protagonist is simply ‘the Devil’ but it’s unclear if it’s the same devil we are familiar with, as he is beefing with a moon goddess that is supposed to be incredibly powerful, but also has no tangible presence in the narration. The mystical angels of the island feel intriguing, yet their grandeur is undercut by their complete impotence. They have no true or tangible power in the narrative outside causing some drama in a pageant that is functionally a ritual sacrifice of a minor every seven years. When this is revealed to yes, in fact, be a very bad thing, the angels are never challenged for their complicity in this, either. 

I could go on for hours on this. I’m so deeply disappointed, and I hate, hate to give negative reviews on books when I know how many hours and how much work goes into them, but this one just didn’t work for me.