Thank you to both Random House and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I think this book sits at a healthy 3.5 stars. The thing about it was that if I read this at a different point in my life, it might have gotten 4 stars. But I am oversaturated with purple prose, and while this book does it well without actively being grating, it felt unbalanced in how lush it was. But that also may be a personal preference.

I also think (and this is perhaps unfair to the book, though it does often reference Koschei and Marya Morevena) that having read Deathless in the last year left me constantly looking at it in comparison to this. There are a lot of parallels in the structure and plot beats, but again, the thing I kept returning to was the prose. Deathless always kept me guessing in terms of how it was written, short little bursts that broke through placid beauty to shock me into alertness and left my jaw opening. This remained at placid beauty, and while, if that is the sort of prose you are after, is very well done, and again, not egregious, I often felt myself drifting through the book like a dream, and not a memorable one at that.

But again, it is well written and well executed, and the ending was just the kind of thing that delights me, which ultimately bumped it up from three stars to three and a half. It is, in many ways, something that is good to read if you need something that isn't kind, but also probably won't set your brain on fire. Anyway! Had a lovely time reading it but I do not know how much I'll be dwelling on it in the future.

3.5
The blurb is actually pretty accurate, which I don't see that often. It's slightly overwritten, but I think that actually works to fill out the slightly too thin story.

~NET GALLEY REVIEW~

Nocturne is Night Circus meets Mexican Gothic. While it was overly descriptive at times, I enjoyed the places Wees took me. I loved that it was about ballerinas, death and sleep. Friendship and romance. Grief and eternity. I felt cold when Grace was cold and warm when Grace was warm. I could clearly visualize the dances. The language was powerful. It does sort of get stuck in the middle and I would've liked more interaction between the brothers but it was a fun, twisty/turny read.

Thank you to the publisher, Del Rey snd NetGalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I finished the book early this morning and am torn between 3 stars to 4. I enjoyed the story overall. But I didn’t really get the Beauty and the Beast aspect of it other than the fact that our main character, Grace was send to live with someone against her will. Every time Master La Rosa was referred to as a beast, I felt it was a bit forced to further make that comparison between Beauty and the Beast and this story. I’d probably likened him more to a monster than a beast. This story had more of a Hades and Persephone meets Phantom of the Opera vibe than B&B.

The book doesn’t have romance as a descriptor on Goodreads and it makes sense as there wasn’t much romance between the Master and Grace. I would have enjoyed seeing their relationship develop more throughout the story.

I did find myself racing to the end to find out where the story world go. but I tried to finish it after a long day at theme parks and a long drive home and late at night so maybe that’s why the ending was a bit confusing to me? I May have to go back to reread it again.

The first half of the book did have a lot of descriptions but it felt excessive. One or two sentences would have been fine but sometimes I felt like it dragged on. I only noticed this in the first half of the book. Writing style over all was very pretty.

An enjoyable read that I feel could be even better with additional editing before publication.

I am a sucker for any book with a ballerina in it (as the artistic director and choreographer of a ballet company, I know a fair bit about ballet :)) but I didn't love this.

At first blush, the story appears to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast but we realize soon that it's not. To be honest, I struggled not so much with the depiction of ballet and its technique or study or performance, but mostly with the main character. Grace wasn't a convincing character to me: as a dancer, she should have been all-consumed by the art form. That would have been the only way she could have gotten into the company at an advanced age. Also, she had zero agency at all: she was not nearly angry enough at Master LaRosa for sponsoring her "prima" position and she felt a bit too fond of him so very fast. Had her "purchase" been to help her mother or brother, I could have understood her reluctance to do anything but both of them are dead.

Once Master LaRosa was revealed to not be who we think he is (just a wealthy patron of the arts), the plot got confusing. There was Noctem, a magical underworld, and the notion of marrying LaRosa so he could take her heart (literally not figuratively) which also confused me.

Part of me felt like this book wanted to be more YA than it was and instead got "aged up." So much of this story might have held for me if Grace had been fifteen rather than 20. Considering everything she had gone through, she should have been more mature and more feisty than she was.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

Thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I still don’t know how I feel about this one. Reading it sometimes felt like a nightmare. It had a lot of fairytale elements that I loved, and I really enjoyed the first half especially. I think the second half lost me a little bit, and I wish the plot had been more clear. The writing was beautiful but sometimes overwrought. Overall though, it wasn’t like anything I’ve read in a while and it was definitely worth the read.

Thank you, Net Galley and the author for giving me a chance to read this book in advance, in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of both Beauty and the Beast, and The Phantom of the Opera, I feel this novel needs a bit more help with editing to drive the plot through properly. Many passages had too much information that did not invite the reader to form a proper idea of imagery or concept of characters. While elements of folklore from what felt to be Greek mythology appeared, I felt this added way too much when this book is being marketed as a retelling of Phantom of the Opera.

It was generally hard to keep pushing through this novel and get to the ending, as there needs to be more editing and talks about the actual theme of the novel. I found myself getting more lost, and not understanding what exactly I was supposed to care about when I couldn't even get a firm grasp of what to even like about any of the characters. I believe this novel could very well make it higher in the ranks of YA if the author and editor re-read the novel and cut out a lot of excess imagery and marketed it to a younger audience.

Sadly, this novel lost its potential and grace somewhere about a 1/4 way into it, and I can only hope the author an editor take note to please make the plot more clear and concise (AND PLEASE KILL YOUR DARLINGS).

This book gave me everything! It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I absolutely loved it. I know it is marketed as Phantom of the Opera, but it reads as Beauty and the Beast. I loved the entire book. It's magical and it transported me to a completely different universe.

This book was absolutely beautifully written!

With a unique take on beauty and the beast (my FAVORITE), this book introduced readers to an orphaned girl who became a ballerina. Grace now has been selected as the Prima Ballerina for the next season. This selection was due to a mysterious patron who donated money to the ballet as long as she was the star. The mysterious Master La Rosa provides her gifts and makes an offer for her to live with him and join him.

Can she trust him? She believes him to be a beast, but not like any beast she could ever know. Can she trust him?

I fell in love with this book right away. The mystery behind Master La Rosa and the secrets he shares with Grace were so well written. I loved the ways in which the author made connections to Beauty and the Beast in multiple ways that made it even more magical. I was also surprised by the ending!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for an advanced copy to read and review!

To begin, just by the description and cover alone takes you on a journey. The writing, although very descriptive and had me pick up a dictionary a few times, was so beautiful and transported unlike many books I have read as of recent.

I give this a solid 3.5 rounded up to a 4 rating! If you go in blind it will definitely read as a Hades/Persephone or a Phantom of the Opera retelling with a slight Beauty & The Beast influence. If you love any or all of those you will certainly love Alyssa Wees' work.

I am definitely a situational/vibe/mood reader and I think I could have enjoyed this book more in some aspects. I would definitely purchase this to have in my collection and reread again. I think this is definitely a winter read because it definitely has moments where the writing is physically chilling!

This book is being marketed as a ballet version of Phantom of the Opera, but it bears hardly any resemblance to that story at all. It feels most similar to Beauty and the Beast. There are also elements of Greek mythology and fairytales that just felt like a mishmash of too many ideas for me. Grace, the protagonist, even has a scene where she attempts some kind of religious reconciliation between her own Catholic faith and the Greek mythology she seems to be living.

The premise of the story was okay. I thought the execution was very choppy and disjointed. In many moments, I was confused about why things were happening or what a specific flashback had to do with the story. Unfortunately, I also thought that the entire book felt very “low stakes.” Even when some tension had successfully been built, problems were resolved quickly and simply. The only big consequence was during the climax of the story.

On top of the flawed storytelling, there were too many descriptions of things that didn’t add to characterization or mood, while at the same time, there were virtually no descriptions of the characters themselves. And I found that there was an excess of similes using “like” on each page. They honestly weren’t there to clarify any difficult or nuanced ideas, so I can only imagine the author used them to try and make her prose more beautiful.

I don’t think this book was terrible, but I did feel that it was incredibly juvenile. Why this is being marketed as “adult fantasy” is beyond me. Disregarding Grace’s age, this would fit very snugly within the YA fantasy category. And to be honest, Grace referring to herself as a “girl,” as well as her thoughts and actions, made me think she was very young.

A Mezerming tale of Dance and Death , .It was like reading a beautiful lullaby depicting a orphan, a love of ballet ,and a master of disguise ,reminded me of The phantom pf the Opera and the Beauty and the Beast ,no other way to describe this absolultly Amazing tale.

This book has so much going on, but none of it feels fully fleshed out. The love interest feels more like a concept than a character. The 1930s Chicago setting consists of a few mentions of Al Capone and not much else. The author uses her knowledge of ballet to throw in a bunch of dance terms in passing, but doesn’t actually give any meaningful descriptions of the kinds of choreography they did, the way they conducted ballet class, the clothing they danced in, or the contemporary choreographers or ballet stars of the time.

It’s being marketed as “Phantom of the Opera” inspired but it’s actually that plus Beauty and the Beast… and Russian folklore… and Greek mythology. Honestly, it’s too much.

Overall this felt like the author had a lot of interesting ideas but never really figured out what story she wanted to tell, and I found the result to be disjointed and unsatisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in return for my honest review.

This book has been called haunting, lyrical, and fantasy. It is all of that and more. The setting is 1930’s Chicago. Grace Dragotta has grown up here. In Little Sicily and she has had a hard life full of wanting and very little getting.

She wants nothing more than to dance. To become a ballerina like the girls she sees in the windows of the ballet company. But dreams are for others. Until her mother dies and she is an orphan. An orphan who is taken in and taught by the strict mistress of the theatre. And a dear friend, who will help her in ways she doesn’t yet understand.

She dreams of being prima and in a twist of fate she suddenly has a patron and he is giving her the spot of prima. Only she has to live in his house and dance in the company and also for his own pleasure.

There is something otherworldly about the Master. What does he want from her? Why did he choose her? So many questions but she is always too tired to ask them. And when she does, the answer will surprise us all!

I was not sure of this one when I began to read it. But I was soon caught up in the world of dark and light. Of death and sleep. When I looked deeper, I found a lot of truths about us all.

NetGalley/February 21, 2023, RHPG

The synopsis gives nothing away...and I won't either. I'd say if you're a Neil Gaiman fan, this book will intrigue you. It's both too short and too long; the flashbacks make sense towards the end but they sort of drag the story down when it needs momentum, and it speeds up when more exploration is needed. But it's an urban fantasy take on well worn human themes in a completely new way; and the friendship at the heart of the story is lovely in that it shows the various forms true love can take. I look forward to more by this author.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

This book has a lot of potential. I had a hard time becoming invested in the characters, but the story unfolded in a way that I wasn't expecting.

Nocturne is a great debut novel. Grace Dragotta has experienced more than her fair share of death, being left an orphan at thirteen. However, with a combination of sheer force of will and luck, she has found a place for herself in the corps of the Near North Ballet. Grace's best friend, Emilia, is the current prima donna but she will soon be leaving the company to get married. What she had dreamed of, but never thought would happen, happens, and she is named the new prima ballerina assoluta. She is also informed that she will be dancing the role of the Golden Firebird, the lead role in Stravinsky's breakthrough ballet, The Firebird. At the reception following the successful opening night, she is approached by a strange man, who gives her a gift from Master La Rosa, who regretfully was unable to attend the reception. It is then that she learns that the ballet, which is desperately in need of funds (it is the late 1930s and the Great Depression still looms large), and more specifically, Grace, has a new patron, Mr. La Rosa, who specifically picked Grace to dance the role of the Golden Firebird.

The gift that she receives via Mr. La Rosa's assistant, Russo, is a violin, which is particularly meaningful. However, the significance of a violin is not something that Mr. La Rosa should know. More significantly, this particular violin should not exist. I will leave the reader to discover why that is. Mr. La Rosa remains a mystery throughout the remainder of the ballet's performances of The Firebird. On the night of the final performance, Grace will discover what the patron demands of her in exchange for his patronage. Her fairy tale has become a nightmare, and she is caught in a world that makes no sense to her, but from which she cannot escape. The Master has commissioned a new ballet based on a story about a conflict between Death and Sleep over the fate of a young woman. Grace will discover that there is more truth to the story than seems possible, and she will be forced to make the most consequential decisions of her life.

The story is full of passion, intrigue, mystery, yearning, and want. The author has created fascinating characters in Grace, Emilia, Mr. La Rose, Mr. Russo, and others. The plot is complex and compelling, and the imagery is vivid and masterfully done.

The story does not lend itself well to a sequel, so a sophomore novel by Ms. Wees will likely feature new characters, but I am hopeful that "Nocturne" will be a success and curious to see what Ms. Wees has in store next for readers.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. This is my honest review

I had a difficult time connecting with the characters, particularly the MC, Grace.
She wavered between independence and acquiescence which was difficult to fathom.

This had the makings of an interesting read, but was bogged down with overblown prose and unnecessarily lengthy descriptions.

There is a great gothic fairytale hidden in this book, but it's buried under heaps and HEAPS of hyperbole and mixed metaphors. This book needs a thick, black, editor's sharpie taken to it, Victor Vale style. If all the excess were deleted, there would be a beautiful and tragic story underneath, with many homages to ballet and the theater woven together.

However, the line between Homage and Derivation gets blurry. While Parts 1 and 3 made heavy nods to Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and The Firebird in a way that felt thematic and appropriate....Part 2 felt like a straight up rip-off of A Court of Thorns and Roses, which itself is highly derivative of Disney films and classic fairytales. Death was like a Tamlin-Rhys combo with practically zero personality; the occasional act of aggression or devotion but no banter, no heart. And his duplicity of Grace in order to keep/gain a kingdom is clearly ripped from Tamlin's motives. Also, the descriptions of Death and his secret, beautiful kingdom, where darkness is many-faceted and even comforting, and Death has wings in his shadow... All clear ripoffs of Rhys and Velaris.

Also....has this author seen Princess Tutu?.... Because I have. And the end of the book, where Grace realizes Death and Sleep's feud over Catherine IS the plot of the ballet The Little Bird, and our hero Gracie is completely irrelevant to their story, but chooses to fight with her art regardless....That feels A LOT like the ending of Princess Tutu. "Hey, I might not be in your story, I might not be destined to get the prince, I might just be a little duck...but I won't let evil win! I will Art my heart out, until Evil is driven back!"

I also got Pan's Labyrinth vibes from the final chapter. Our hero becomes the new royal ruler of the afterlife, all the creepy fairytale beasts she encountered were just people in disguise, and in reality the hereafter is beautiful and bright and all her loved ones are there, and it's ok that she's dead! The End!

So, if all the excessive elements were stripped away.... And all of the stolen elements were stripped away... There IS still some original writing here that's good... But it needs a massive rewrite. More Showing instead of Telling. More dialogue and character interactions instead of Grace Explains It All. More characterization of the brothers Death and Sleep. More character growth... A story can't be told in metaphors and homages alone, there has to be a core that people care about, and that core starts at the heart of the characters. I don't feel like I know Death. I don't really pity Sleep. And Grace is vain and dramatic, somebody I want to see humbled; pride goeth before a fall and all that. Give the audience someone to root for, pass or fail.

But that's a bitter pill. Saying "Your book would be amazing, if you completely changed it" is not a ringing endorsement :/. I hope, with editing, this book comes into its own, because it really could be something amazing if given a chance to refine.

Recommended for fans of "Deathless" by Catherynne Valente and "Keturah and Lord Death" by Martine Leavitt.

In 1930s Chicago, Grace is an orphaned ballerina elevated to prima for a production of The Firebird. Believing that her dedication has finally made a difference, she’s undone when she learns that a mysterious patron pulled the strings for her success. After the production finishes, Grace is sent to live with her patron. During the day, she returns to the studio and prepares for the next role her patron demands of her: the beloved of brothers Death and Sleep, forever torn between them. Every Sunday at midnight, she must dance a single waltz with her patron.

I struggled to understand the characters, and I found Grace to be particularly confusing--I never knew what her motivations were or felt like her behaviors made sense. When she first beholds the house of Master La Rosa, she falls to her knees, plants her face in the snow, and makes her body go limp; she has to be carried across the threshold. Her initial return to the studio involves her shouting cryptic, gloomy nonsense at the other ballerinas; she spends the downtime sulking in a corner by herself and rushes out of the studio once rehearsal has ended.

The writing felt clunky and disjointed with occasional bursts of brilliance. I itched to pull out a red pen and start trimming the fat. The story has potential but gets bogged down in overwritten passages like the one below:

"Mobsters were thieves and murderers, violent and corrupt; Lorenzo was neither, never had been, but desperation scraped away his goodness like paint from a wall, chips and cracks over time until he was nothing but bones and teeth, raw and irascible beneath. He was still kind on the surface--how can someone kill and be kind? I don't know, I don't know--but in the night he was bootlegging, and even if he was not the one physically pulling the trigger on his rivals--the Poles and the Germans, Irishmen, Chicago law enforcement--he was still aiding and abetting the outfit's extortions, still taking their money and digging himself deeper and deeper."

The flashes of brilliance do exist, however. Take this bit a couple pages later:
"I wanted stars that would burn the death out of me; I wanted skies filled only with light."

Overall, "Nocturne" does a good job of feeling authentic to the time period and the occasional pearls of beautiful writing are worth noting.

Thank you, Random House Ballantine for providing me with a free digital copy!