Could not finish it. I tried reading it I promise
It was just a bad book. It was not interesting or engaging. I am going to give it a star rating because I have to but truly does not deserve any stars.

2 Stars
One Liner: Wasted potential

Hannah joins Emily’s troupe as a statuesque in an attempt to climb the social ladder and achieve her dreams. Emily guarantees a perfect match for her troupe members, which leads Hannah into dark waters. Emily’s socialite status gives Hannah a luxurious life. But what does it cost her? Can she have a life of her own and get what she wants?
The story comes from a limited third-person POV of Hannah.

What I Like:
It’s rare for books to have a lead character that makes a living as a live statue. The scenes where Hannah describes her preparation and process to play her role (rather, not ‘play’) were the best part of the book.
The narration gains pace over time, though it doesn’t help much by then. Freddie is adorable, and Xe does what he was meant to do (it does feel like an overused trope, but it still works).
Hannah’s POV makes her sound like an immature girl with her head in the clouds. Since I think that’s what the author was aiming for, this point stays here. If it’s not, I’ll have to move it to the next section.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
The foreshadowing was too much. I still don’t see the need for it, and as much as I like the concept, I don’t want to be hit in the face with a brick in every chapter.
Emily was the farthest thing from a ‘subtle’ manipulator. She was blatantly obvious. Hannah’s lack of common sense cannot be portrayed as Emily’s success at manipulating her.
I knew what would happen (a certain gruesome incident) halfway through the book. It was so obvious that I only had to wait for the climax to arrive.
The excessive foreshadowing made me imagine a dark story and increased my expectations. What I got was a watered-down version with the supposedly important character having almost no role to play.
I was looking for something intense (not to be confused with ‘hyper’, which is what I got at the end), given the introduction and the first chapter, but man, that was the most disappointing part of the book. Why create a character so magnetic when they don’t have a solid role in the story?
The other twist was super easy to guess. All thanks to excessive clues and foreshadowing again. This concept doesn’t work for all plots and overdoing it will ruin the story for the reader.
The ending was (a little too) easy, but I was glad that the book would be over when I saw the remaining page count. There weren’t enough to continue the drama.

To summarize, Statuesque as a plot had great potential, but much of it was wasted (unless the book was never meant to be dark, in which case, the foreshadowing and hints of sensuality were misleading the reader).
Thank you, NetGalley and Butterdragons Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #Stauesque
*****
P.S: I read The Condemned Oak Tree by the author and loved it. This one could have been so much better but ended up diluted.
**
P.P.S: I read my friend’s review after writing mine and saw that the book is a retelling of a classic. Since I had to ask her about it, my review stays the same.

I thought that this book sounded interesting in concept because I'd never read anything about a statue street performer before, but I was severely disappointed in the way this book was written. Based on other reviews I read of it (after I finished reading it), I've seen others say it is a retelling of a classic; if that is the case, I am unfamiliar with it and will readily admit that maybe the reason I didn't care for this book was that it just went over my head.

Truly, I thought the pace of the book was incredibly slow. For something that I thought was to be suspenseful or a thriller, it mostly just followed Hannah's daily life with Emily and the rest of the troupe. The only suspense were frequent moments where Emily behaved in a toxic way to her employees, or times that Hannah felt she had to hide something from Emily. I believe these were meant to be foreshadowing of Emily being secretly manipulative, but it really just came across as blatantly obvious red flags that Hannah continuously ignored.

Furthermore, there was the whole "match" thing. I don't think enough work was done to explain why all the members of the troupe felt that they had to make a certain match in order to progress themselves. As performers, I would think they would be wanting to advance their careers, book bigger gigs, connect with an agent, but instead the focus was put on finding the perfect romantic prospect that could raise them into a richer social class? It was very confusing and added further to why it felt like Hannah should have just left at any time. I think a large part of that problem stemmed from the book being written in Hannah's voice instead of omniscient. In order to achieve the foreshadowing, Hannah would often note that it never seemed like Emily ever did any work to match her employees with anyone, but then she would just shrug it off and continue to let Emily run her life--for months.

I can't even say that it infuriated me to watch Hannah act so stupidly because I also just felt no empathy for her as a character. She was a naive young performer with big dreams of high society life clouding her ability to make decisions. The problem was that there was nothing to make me understand why Hannah continued to make the decisions she did. Why did she feel that Emily could take her places that her old performing group couldn't? What benefits kept her staying with Emily when after months of working for her, no progress had been made in furthering Hannah's goals? What was the end goal, the big dream for Hannah that only Emily could get for her? Because it really just seemed that Hannah put up with a lot of crap for no reason, and it made her come across as a very dumb character. It made me very apathetic about the entire conflict.

There were also problems with the book's prose. Overall, it was pretty flat, nothing to make it remarkable in an already unremarkable story. To top that off, almost every chapter included some kind of description of Hannah that would juxtapose her to a statue, whether it be during one of her actual performances or even just her behavior with Emily, followed by the phrase, "She was truly statuesque." We get it. She's statuesque. It's the name of the book. It loses its profundity when you keep repeating it.

Finally, I'm just going to say it, the animal cruelty scene was just atrocious. Like I said above, I am unsure what classic this is supposed to be retelling (if it is), so if this was inspired by events in another novel, then I concede that I may be missing something, but it really feels like this was executed poorly. The inclusion of that scene felt absolutely gratuitous and unnecessary, and I refused to read any further of the book from that point. I felt I had read enough to know that nothing in the last 20% was going to save it for me.

In a Nutshell: Blown away in many ways, both good and bad. A great retelling of a classic, but I can’t get myself to forget (and forgive) one scene.

Story Synopsis:
Hannah, who performed on streets as a ‘living statue’, gives up her home and her friends when she joins Emily’s performance troupe. Emily convinces her that Hannah will not only be able to climb up the social status but also find the match of her dreams through Emily’s excellent network. Buoyed by Emily’s encouragement, Hannah gives her all to her performances and continues to dream big. But is anything in life ever free? Soon Hannah finds herself bowing to anything Emily says, without even realising it. Where will Hannah’s dreams take her?
The story comes to us in the third person perspective of Hannah.

Where the book worked for me:
😍 I’ve NEVER even heard of a book with a character working as a ‘living statue’, forget about reading one, and that too the central character! Loved Hannah’s unusual work, and all the insights into it.
😍 The basic theme is quite unusual – a troupe who performs at wealthy parties in exchange for finding true love courtesy their eccentric owner who spoils them to bits.
😍 For a long while, I wondered where the plot was going, because I couldn’t see any! There were just seemingly random scenes. At the 68% mark, the bulb over my head lit up! Only then did I realise that this is the retelling of a very famous classic by a beloved author. (Won’t tell you which one, but there are enough clues scattered in the synopsis for you to take a guess! 😉) Once I figured that out, I was awed by how the author had reworked the content to suit the contemporary era. It isn’t flawless, but it is still a magnificent attempt. I can’t believe it took me so long to crack the code!
😍 Once I figured out the connection, I thought that the rest of the plot was easy to figure out. I was only partly right. The author still managed to shake me out of my comfort zone and throw a couple of surprises along my way.
😍 The ending is just right for the story.
😍 Though a character-driven book, the writing is quick-paced.
😍 Hannah’s third person perspective is well-written, with just enough of observations and not much of rambling.
😍 The title is perfect for the story in many ways.
😍 Having an adorable dog in the story surely counts a plus, right? I loved Freddie!

Where the book could have worked better for me:
☹ There is too much of foreshadowing in the initial chapters and also midway. None of these advanced notifications of forthcoming events worked for me in this book.
☹ I don’t think I understood Emily’s motivations even after reading the whole book. Why was she so obsessed with matchmaking her troupe members, and that too with rich/socially connected prospects? Didn’t she worry that they would leave her troupe after that? The idea wasn’t very convincing.
☹ The cover doesn’t suit the book, and doesn’t appeal as well. If I were in a bookstore, I wouldn’t have given this a second glance. I picked it up only for the author.
☹ The timeline is weird at times. Events skip a few days and then go back to reveal what happened in the interim. I don’t mind non-linear storytelling but it didn’t work fluidly in this book.
😭 TRIGGER WARNING, AND ALSO HUGE SPOILER: What happens to Freddie. That was too cruel, Ada! 💔😭


All in all, despite the few points I wasn’t happy with, the book still kept me hooked enough to find out what would happen next. I had read Ada Rossi’s debut work (The Condemned Oak Tree) and was mesmerised by her writing and plot control. As such, I had overly high expectations from this one and that did affect my experience to a certain extent. But I still loved what she did with the classic, giving it a completely original Rossi twist. If you want to read an unusual indie voice in literary fiction, please do give this a go. (Animal lovers: Proceed only after reading the trigger warning.)

3.75 stars.

My thanks to Butterdragons Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “Statuesque”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I really enjoyed reading this, I liked Emily and Hannah as characters and enjoyed going through this journey with them. Ada Rossi had a great writing style that kept me invested in what was happening. It was a great concept and it was executed really well. I'm glad I was able to read this.

"Hannah shouldn’t have worried. No one followed her downstairs to check if she was okay. The party continued on without her. Xe finished his performance to a round of applause, surprisingly, and a guitarist started strumming a slow song. Hannah’s mood sank lower as melancholy lyrics were added."