Nocturne takes place in 1930s Chicago, and it has all of the atmospheric presence you’d expect a book set in this time and place to have!

Some things I enjoyed:

🩰 This feels very much like a Beauty and the Beast type story, with all the tragedy and whimsical mystery and infuriating trauma of the original story.

🩰 The artistic expression (both through music and dance) was quite lovely!

🩰 Parts of the book kind of felt like a delicious fever dream, like the ballroom scenes from the movie Labyrinth or the book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.



Some things I didn’t:

🩰 I picked up this arc because it sounded so whimsical, but it has a lot of those dark romance vibes, and that’s definitely not my kind of book. I think that maybe I wasn’t the target audience for it, and that’s okay! Dark romance just isn’t for me.

🩰 I was torn on the prose. Much of it was beautiful and evocative, but it did feel like there were overly-drawn out descriptions and larger-than-necessary words used in places where simplicity may have been better for the story.

🩰 The ending felt a bit confusing, and it went from feeling like a Beauty and the Beast retelling to some sort of Phantom of the Opera situation, but more tumultuous and macabre. It didn’t feel in sync with the rest of the book, though I can’t really put my finger on why.


Overall I thought it was a decent story even though it wasn’t really my style. If you’re into dark romance retellings, you’ll probably enjoy it!

Thanks to Del Rey and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

'Nocturne' is a book with immense potential, potential that ultimately ought to have been honed with another round of editing and revision. The story idea is superb and directly appeals to a specific audience of 2010 girlies who love their ballet motifs and Phantom of the Opera callbacks (I know I do). The cover art is gorgeous and the themes running throughout the book made me instantly want to read it-- props to both the artist and the writer for knowing how to catch someone's eye.

Where it becomes a let-down, however, is in the prose. Unfortunately, first person perspective writing has over-saturated the young adult/fantasy genre, and I feel as though the chosen perspective does a disservice to the story. The writer exhibits clear talent with gorgeous imagery and a grasp on what kind of story she wants to tell-- but where it falls flat is the execution.

There is little indication that this story takes place in the 1930s or even Chicago, as the dialogue sounds extremely anachronistic (beyond occasional attempts at period-specific racism, I suppose) and the city itself is given little flavor beyond occasional setting name-dropping. Speaking as a Chicagoan, there's a world of potential that could've been utilized in making the setting important (not to mention the long and interesting history of ballet in Chicago as well). As it stands, I'm not sure why Chicago is important as a setting, or why Grace's Italian immigrant backstory is important beyond providing a tragic catalyst.

Tropes are not bad; after all, there's a reason humanity adores fairytales so much. And I wanted to love this fairytale deeply, as it seemed specifically written for me: a working-class Chicagoan who loves ballet and the violin, who thinks Hades & Persephone-esque pairings are the bees' knees. But this book needed a few more drafts and a bit of polishing-- as it stands, there's a good idea in there. It just needed more time.

My library has purchased a copy of this novel based on my recommendation. We are looking forward to providing it to our college students on the lending shelf.

This is probably best for a reader who is coming in with a plan to enjoy the words on the page and the languid journey sentences can take. Someone who is here for the "mysterious man in love with a fragile woman" and can appreciate the parallels between different stories ( Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, etc) without being lost in those parallels and expecting those stories to be told. Someone who is charmed by the bizarre. I personal love those many wrappings, but in a way it distracts too much from the story being told. It was easy to be lost in these trappings, which is what I want from a book sometimes.

This book drew me in with its beautiful cover and interesting synopsis, but unfortunately left me wanting more from it.
Nocturne is beautifully written, with very lush imagery. However, I feel like all the time spent writing beautiful scenery could have been better spent developing the main character a bit more.

Our heroine, Grace Dragotta, is a young woman chosen to be the next Prima for her dance company as their former one retires to get married. Shortly after being promoted, she learns that she has caught the eye of a very mysterious patron. In order to keep the company running, her teacher basically sells Grace to this man that she's never actually met. She is to live in his mansion with him and dance with him once a week.

I wanted to like Grace as a main character so badly. But I feel like she was written as a very frail main character, and she doesn't really take any action to change circumstances that upset her. Even in her backstory, she just wandered into the ballet studio and stood there, and the teacher decided, "Why not? Let's adopt her!"

The story was also a little dull at times. The writing was so beautiful, and I was intrigued enough to continue reading, but I read it at a horribly slow pace, which is abnormal for me. I didn't find myself getting super invested until about 65% of the way through, which isn't very ideal.

I loved the parts of the story that felt inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Fairy tale inspired books are some of my favorites. I also enjoyed the relationship between the Master and Grace. However, it began to feel repetitive after their 3rd meeting together. It would have been nice to have some variety in their meetings.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, just not as much as I'd originally anticipated. I feel like it is a fun book to read if you want to sit down and enjoy something at a slower pace. But it definitely isn't a fast-paced story. Maybe someday I'll give it a reread and see if my thoughts change. The final quarter of the book did make the slow beginning worth it, in my opinion.

3 stars

This book had strong beauty and the beast theming but the story itself was very unique. I found the writing to be amazing and perfectly descriptive. It captured my attention and I couldn't stop reading and thinking about the plot which was haunting but also full of romance and emotions. I ached for Grace and all of her loses and for the tough situations she was placed in. This is a story that will stick with me for a long time.

Thanks to NetGalley & Del Rey for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I lost interest in the book at 60% of the way through.

I really enjoyed the first half and then it just got really confusing. The prose was blurring the lines between fantasy and reality and I really had no idea what was going on at that point. It's set in the 1930s but the time period didn't make much of a difference, it could've been set in the 1980s, 1750s, and it would have been the same. It's a shame, because I ended up enjoying the first half of the book with all the ballerina stuff but it just got bizarre.

I enjoyed this book, although I found it to be a bit meandering in parts. The concept was very interesting, and the characters felt well-developed for the most part. I do think the protagonist could have been a bit smarter. It was pretty obvious who Sleep was! I saw this advertised as kind of a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I got Phantom of the Opera vibes from it instead.

This was a very mysterious and magical read. Though parts of it felt a bit slow, the story it told was pretty amazing. I loved the tie in of ballet, Chicago in the 20s and the characters of Sleep and Death. It was very well told and very atmospheric. I really enjoyed it. Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

"With learning the language of magic, of the cracks in the face of the world where fantasy lived and breathed, of monsters and the maidens who loved them, often in secret."

There are two parts to this review and they consist of the part of me that fell in love and the part of me that struggled to enjoy this. I absolutely know how that sounds too.

To start, this felt like a mixture of elements found in the Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast and the myth of Persephone and Hades. Unique? Yes. A bit all over the place? Also yes. The setting is during the Great Depression in Chicago and Grace is an orphan with the prima ballerina role given under interesting circumstances. This is where the narrative changes from a girl dealing with life's hardships to something magical and folkloresque. Enter the Master La Rosa and the revelation of what he is. This is the part I fell head over heels for. I loved the magic, the lores and the soul of this part of the book. I felt this is where character depth made an appearance and the descriptive writing flourished.

However, this is listed as a 240p novel and after I started the digital copy I almost dnf'd 15% in. The descriptives are overpowering and they take a lot away from the plot pace and character depth. What was only a few chapters felt like a push through War & Peace. With that said, when I grab a copy for my shelf (yes, you read that right) there will probably be a dozen or more tabs on every page. It is THAT descriptive but also THAT quotable.

But I digress. I had reached the point of debating if I could continue and then the glorious PRH Audio team had the audiobook in their review lineup. Because I wanted to love this, I grabbed it. The audiobook is read by Zura Johnson with a softly "hushed" stage voice. Expressive and melodic, she lifted the persona of Grace and completely brought my attention back in. Let me also note that this kind of narrative voice is extremely hard for my ADHD mind to latch onto at the highest speed I can go in the app. Yet, here I was utterly engrossed. That says a lot!

By the end I felt the beauty of this novel's heart. It's a thought provoking, prose-deep ode to our deaths and how they shape people. The hidden and estranged love between a maiden and monster. At least that is what I took away in the end.

I think those readers drawn to the more classical descriptive writing styles and who love magic and fantasy will enjoy this fever dream story. Thank you Random House Publishing/Ballantine/Del Rey and PRHAudio for the gifted copies in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. True rating 3.5/5.

I'm clearly the right Reader for this book. This story is set in 1930's Chicago and seamlessly blends Historical Fiction with Dark Fantasy and light Romance.

Our main character is Grace Dragotta, who after being orphaned, ventures out on her own and joins a dancing company. A life she dreamed of. When we meet Grace, she is a teen and on the cusp of being elevated to prima ballerina within her company.

Unfortunately for Grace, raising to this rank is bittersweet. She only gets the role after her best friend, Emilia, leaves her spot as prima to be married. Grace is losing the closest person to her in all the world. She doesn't know how she'll get by without Emilia's comforting presence.

Not long after her ascendancy, Grace receives word from her Mistress that she has caught the eye of a mysterious, wealthy patron. In order to keep her dance house afloat, the Mistress essentially sells Grace to this man. Grace is forced to live at his estate, only traveling back to the studio to train and perform. There's a lot of whispers about her new life, but Grace tries her best to just get on with it.

As she learns the shocking truth about her patron, it's clear that the life she dreamed for herself will never come to be.

Y'all, I really enjoyed this. It's not a complicated story. It's pretty straight-forward, well-written and the concepts are easy to understand. I should note that I grew up in dance and playing the violin, the two artistic pursuits that the main character engages in. Having my own personal experience and passions in those two areas did increase my connection to the story. I loved Grace and learning about her life.

This feels very much inspired by Beauty and the Beast. I loved those elements. I wasn't expecting them and every time I would come across something that made me think of that classic tale, it would make me happy.

The relationship between Grace and her Master, was lush and evocative. I really enjoyed the truth of him and what he was offering her. Additionally, I enjoyed the evolution of her feelings for him and her place in his world.

Wees writing is quite beautiful and I liked the way she wrote the initial set-up and then progressed the plot. I thought the pacing of this was fantastic, it kept me engaged the entire way through.

Overall, I found Nocturne to be lyrical, dark and enchanting. Wees successfully swept me up and away into a whole other world. In a way, it felt like a love letter to the healing power of artistic expression. I'm so glad I finally made time for it.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Del Rey, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This was gorgeous and I look forward to reading more from Wees in the future!

Nocturne is a story that sticks with you in all of its fantasy and drama. It's a beautiful tale full of evocative scenery.

I felt like this book... tried too hard. It was overdescriptive and convoluted in many parts. It was confusing, and didn't give much aid to the confusion, even though the descriptions were thorough. The writing style is beautiful, but it just didn't mesh well with me.

To be entirely fair, I ran into some health problems during the time I was reading this, so maybe I will give it another chance soon.

3/5 stars because I enjoyed it, but the writing style was not for me.

This was a gothic mix of Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast. Had a nice mix of historical and mystical. I enjoyed the twist in the plot.

I was in the mood for a shorter book that I could finish quickly; instead, I got a book that was short in terms of pages but immensely long in terms of everything else. Don't misunderstand--the writing is beautiful and, as the description says, lyrical. But it was so rich and so florid that it became difficult to read. The story itself was lost behind long passages of tediously poetic prose without even short chapters to provide easy times to breathe. If something could be described once, it was described three times, as if the author couldn't decide which option to choose and believed including all of them would be best. This method could have worked if employed sparingly, but it wasn't--it was applied to everything throughout the book. Dialogue was sparse. Because of these things, I found myself pushing myself to keep reading just so I could finish the book.

This author absolutely has a very poetic way of writing, but I would have enjoyed this book more if it hadn't been like walking into a perfume store every time I opened it. However, it even making the book more readable wouldn't have improved my rating beyond 3 stars because I was unsatisfied with the ending.

Note: Writing too rich to be enjoyable. Very, very, very mild occurrence of sex (no description).

Overall I liked it. It had the dreaminess of a fairy tale with that touch of darkness that lets you know something isn’t quite right. The prose was so-so for me, at times it was gorgeous but at other times it fell a bit flat. I had to suspend some disbelief that Grace didn’t put the pieces together sooner than she did because of the play being staged but I can overlook that.

I might’ve enjoyed it more if I had an interest in dance as the fantasy aspect of it (with Death and Sleep) was much more intriguing to me. When we were with those characters was when I was most engaged.

Unfortunately, the ending was just alright. This is totally personal preference but I wanted it to go a certain way, I felt like the magic explanation was there to make it work, but it went a different direction that left me disappointed. So, this part is all on me. Other people might love the end! It’s such a quick read that there’s no reason not to give this one a try.


Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

Haunting, dramatic and dark. This was easy to love and quick to read. I really loved the mix of fantasy, ballet and fairy tales. If you enjoy The Phantom of the Opera, chances are you'll love this one too.

I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Nocturne is set in Chicago in the 1930s. Grace Dragotta has always wanted to be a ballering. This dream was created when she once peered through the windows of the Near North Ballet Company. Grace becomes orphaned and decides her home will be with ballet. The Great Depression is now going on in the world, but Grace's world is ballet and in her company. Grace has now become the prima ballerina. But, Grace realizes that the dream of clawing her way up in the ballerina world is not wholly what she envisioned. Grace attracts the attention of Master La Rosa and he becomes her personal patron. Grace will come to learn that others hold secrets and that the world is different than she truly thought.

I first received an dro from NetGalley and truly tried to read it, but I struggled to get into the book. I kept putting off reading more of this book and decided to mood read in the month of February. Then, I got covid right before this book released and as I got more sick and feeling more like crap, I decided to give up on wanting to read more of Nocturne and to just request the audiobook on Libby.

Once I got this audiobook, I thought it could be promising, but I started to notice myself getting bored, which caused my mind to wander off a lot.

As I got more into the book, I found the plot to be confusing since it felt like it truly did not know what truly it wanted to be; this goes for Master La Rosa's character as well. I found the romance in this book to be lacking and that the characters were one dimensional.

As I am writing this review, I hopped onto Goodreads and noticed I read The Waking Forest by this author back in 2019. I happened to give that book 2.5 stars too and I say that the world and writing is beautiful, but at the same time really lacks depth. I go or to defining lack of depth as the character development and world building were utterly one dimensional.

Furthermore, in that review I say it has a promising plot, but if the author focused on building more of the world and work on fleshing out the characters plus not focusing on writing beautiful prose, then it would be a great book.

For Nocturne, I will echo all that I said in my The Waking Forest review is exactly the problems that I had when reading Nocturne.

I am just going to say that Alyssa Wees is not an author for me.

Thought this was a beautiful story but was a bit confusing at times. It took me a little bit to get into the story, but once I started reading I found the writing to be lyrical and I couldn’t stop reading. Also enjoyed the dark romance aspect.

Review from Goodreads

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

3 and a half because I feel like I didn't quite understand the ending, but rounded up to 4 because I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit. More than anything, I enjoyed the atmosphere of this novel. It felt like a winter fairy tale. I loved the lyrical writing and the artistic passion of the characters. I also loved the strong friendship between the two main female characters. Overall, this was right up my alley and the length ensured that the story didn't overstay it's welcome.