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!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an early copy to read and review. All of these thoughts are my own.

I want to start off by saying the book wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t good. I feel like the main character Grace literally had no personality. I feel like throughout the whole book she didn’t want to deal with her issues especially getting over the death of her mom and brother and she seemed borderline obsessed with her best friend. Yes, death is sad and you can grieve but literally the whole books, she whined about it. I also feel like it didn’t have much of a plot. It talked about death and sleep being against one another and then at the end death dies?? And then she becomes death?

It didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. I feel like this book should have been edited better as well. Someone should have tried to find a stronger plot, added more emotion to the characters, and stopped using fill in words. A lot of the wording in this book wasn’t even needed. I felt like needless words were just put into the book to make it longer. More thought should have went into this because I feel like the potential was good.

I liked the magical element it was trying to have. I liked the idea of death trying to find love with a mortal. I just didn’t really like much else about it. I mean them being ballerinas was cool and all but I just don’t think the story and everything that happened, went well together.

Thanks again for the review. 2.5 stars rounded to 3!

Dancing dreams come true but come with unexpected consequences in Nocturne by Alyssa Wees.

Grace’s life has been filled with various hardships and losses, but she’s still kept her dream of being a ballerina alive and after being orphaned she chooses to make a home for herself in the Near North Ballet Company in Chicago. Through years of training and catching up to be as skilled as the rest in the company, Grace is happily surprised by the bittersweet news when she becomes the new prima ballerina, taking over the role from her best friend who is leaving the company. But Grace’s dream comes with strings attached in the form of an enigmatic patron, Master La Rosa; bargains were struck on Grace’s behalf for her to live with Master La Rosa with a weekly midnight dance appointment with him, yet she will still dance with company in a new production. While within the walls of La Rosa’s house, she begins to pick away at the secrets he’s keeping to satiate her curiosity and discontent with being essentially trapped by his whims and, in doing so, discovers that darkness that frightens contains a beauty all its own, realizing that there may be another way to attain what she’s always sought.

Written with ample description in flowery language throughout the text, the basics of the story’s frame are presented with frequent forays in to memories of Grace’s past to fill out the narrative from the outset; once Grace’s position in the company is established and the relationships she has with the others outlined, a significant portion of the book is complete without progressing character beyond barest sketches and there’s not much action of note, leaving the entire book feeling like a rather expository attempt to combine other fabled tales. Once Noctem is introduced fascination for the fantastic, mythic aspects of the story was piqued, but there was a disappointing lack of development in this area and instead it was presented cursorily among a rather hazy blur of Grace’s practice and sleep; a further exploration of this realm, as well as fleshing out the dynamic and history between Death and Sleep, and how Grace factors in their interactions to more thoroughly address the underlying why of her involvement in their bargain, would likely have yielded a more interesting and satisfactory story.

Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nocturne is a story about a young ballerina that gains the prima position in the midst of losing her closest friend in the dance company. She also finds out she has a mysterious patron and their relationship remaining in good standing is the only thing keeping the company afloat. But, she doesn’t even know who he is.

The prose is described as lyrical in the description, but, for me, it was too much. Nocturne was very wordy when it didn’t really matter—it was wandering and lyrical for no real reason. I’m a big fan of lyrical prose when the prose packs a punch, but I didn’t get that from Nocturne.

I also didn’t like that Emilia was romanticizing Master La Rosa when they first find out about him. Grace is only, what, like 20? And if he knew her from her time on the streets and fell in love with her then (seven years ago) she would have been 13. That’s a hard no from me.

Some timing when Grace first arrives at the house is confusing. She says dinner and dancing is only on Sundays, but she slept through the first Sunday so she had to dine and dance on a day that wasn’t Sunday. Presumably a Wednesday, since it was the day before she went back to rehearsal and she says that there is only one more day before the weekend. The dining and dancing on a not Sunday and then her saying later that the dining room is only open on Sundays seemed weird to me.

The last 25% of the book was great! The pacing, the twists, the ending—they were all perfect. I’m glad I stuck with it because it turned out great, but I was hard to get through the first three quarters.


Thank you to NetGalley, Del Ray, and the author, Alyssa Wees, for the opportunity to read and review Nocturne. All thoughts and opinions are my own. It gets 3/5 stars from me. I would recommend Nocture to fans of Robin McKinley and Erin Morgenstern.

This book was a cross between a fairy tale and a nightmare. I was intrigued by the premise. Grace is an orphan who has been supporting herself as a ballerina during the depression. She longs for more in the world even though she has become the prima ballerina of the Near North Ballet. She is excited but afraid now that her best friend and the former prima, Emilia is leaving the company. Grace also needs to secure a patron for the ballet to make sure the company is successful. Only when a patron is secured Grace's life is going to change forever.

The writing is interesting in this book and not at all what I was expecting. It is a short read and flows quickly. However As I was reading the first third of the book I could not tell that it was a fantasy. When Grace finds her patron the book takes a dark turn and is full fantasy. I liked the beginning but honestly the book just got a little strange for me. I would recommend this for anyone looking for something different and unlike other novels.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’m an absolute sucker for any kind of fairytale retelling and this felt like a cross between beauty and the beast and phantom of the opera to me. The writing in this is absolutely beautiful, and really set such a gorgeous scene of Chicago in the 30’s. As someone who danced most of their childhood that really resonated with me. I very much enjoyed this.

An enchanting and captivating retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with enough twists to keep the ending a revelation. The magic is set in 1930's Chicago, though the city is only a walk-on character, not integral to the plot. While I am not well versed in ballet, I assume the terms are being used correctly and a reader familiar them could better visualize the action and be even more drawn into the magic. Overall a very enjoyable read.

I really, really wanted to love this book, but in many ways, it fell flat for me. A Gothic "romance," <i>Nocturne</i> follows a (quite likeable!) protagonist named Grace Dragotta, a ballerina, who has captured the attention of a mysterious patron. I saw comparisons to The Phantom of the Opera, and I was ECSTATIC. Unfortunately, this did not end up offering the same draw to me.
To start, I can at least say that the prose was stunningly beautiful. There were so many sentences I had to stop and reread because they were written in such a beautiful manner. This was extremely atmospheric and found such a hauntingly beautiful setting in '30s Chicago. I could read prose like this for hours.
That said, the prose was the best thing about it to me. In fact, I DID read the prose for hours, and it felt like all I was really gaining from the novel was beautiful use of language but slow pacing and an underdeveloped plot.
The fact that the plot was slow isn't necessarily what deterred me from loving this; it's more that this book felt like it was entirely exposition, and I kept waiting to learn something more, something integral about these characters. I've finished this, and I still feel like I'm waiting for it to really pick up speed. The last 10% contains the bulk of the action, but it doesn't feel like the culmination of an entire novel should. Though part of me would be content to read the way Wees writes for hours on end, objectively too much page time was devoted to imagery and detail. I'm all for a slow read if the characters draw me in, but I don't think they were fleshed out enough.
I'm giving this three stars because, while it's not for me, this book is definitely not without merit. There is absolutely an audience for this book. There's so much about this to draw readers in that the weaknesses within this story don't make it undeserving of a chance.
Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I was very happy to see I had received this arc! Nocturne hit the spot for me. I’ve been craving a more classical kind of story, and I enjoyed reading Grace’s story. This is a quick read and sometimes I think I read too fast… in the middle especially, it’s easy to start skimming because the pacing feels slow and I was eager to get back into the action. But overall I really liked this and I think fans of Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera will love it!

In Nocturne, Alyssa Wees tells the story of a newly-appointed prima ballerina, Grace Dragotta, with a mysterious patron. Part ballet and part fantasy, Nocturne evokes at times the Hades/Persephone story, at times Beauty and the Beast, and at times Phantom of the Opera.

Wees writes with beautiful prose, and moments of Nocturne are very artful, but in the end, this novel focuses a lot on aesthetic without fully developing its character or story. There are pretty setpieces that lead to nothing, and the story includes many scenes that feel inexplicable. As a result, the characters do not feel fully realized. Ultimately, I think that Nocturne would have been better as a novella, where its mythic, fairytale qualities could be cut and polished to a brilliant shine. As a full-length novel, though, Nocturne gets lost in itself..

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of Nocturne. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballentine for the advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book had some strengths, but also a lot of weaknesses. The prose in this book was hauntingly beautiful. I have so many quotes underlined that I would love to share, just because of how beautifully it is written. I was completely immersed in the world and able to picture it in vivid detail. Not only was the world described, but the character's feelings and thoughts as well.

However, the writing was the only intriguing part of the book. The plot was unoriginal, an odd mix between Beauty and the Beast, Hades and Persephone, and Phantom of the Opera. The characters had no depth, which made it hard to care about what was happening to them. The romantic plot line fell flat, ironically the most unbelievable part of the magical world. It felt like the author wanted to just write beautiful descriptions, but pretty writing is not enough to make a book great.

i’m not sure how to rate this because it goes both ways for me. i feel like i kinda got increasingly uninterested during the second half, and i grew more disconnected from the story. i found myself skipping the incredibly descriptive paragraphs in this book. i don’t know if i’d say it was overwritten, because there still were some beautifully written sections in this ! i’m not sure if i’d consider this a beauty and the beast retelling, because it was like a mixture of so many different things. a bunch of random plot points started happing during the last 10% and also just so much happened during the second half. i felt like a lot was going on, and i wanted more of some characters and less of others. still, i enjoyed the themes and plot of this story. the beautiful cover drew me in as well as the description (ballet, magical realism, and just everything). it had darker themes than i thought it would, and i wasn’t as fond as the themes of death (plus the portrayal of death personified) and such in this book (also just the dude’s name being master la rosa, i don’t know why). overall, i would give this 2.5-3 stars. i could see someone else really enjoying this. this just wasn’t for me, and that’s okay !

thank you to netgalley and ballantine for providing me with an eARC of this book !!

When I saw the cover of this book, and read the description, I was over the moon. Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast are some of my absolute favorite classics. The cover of this book is beyond gorgeous. Unfortunately, there was something about the writing style that I just could not get into. And the overall story just didn't hold my attention. I'm a huge fan of all things macabre and bizarre so I'm not sure what exactly about the story was difficult for me to connect to. I really thought I was going to love this one to Death (pun intended) but it fell a little flat for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.