PIHM Book Review: I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
Genre: Horror
Age: Young Adult
Format: ebook
If you don’t often pick up Young Adult because you’re under the misconception horror can’t be done in that age range or all YA is the same-old, same-old, well, I could write a whole essay about why you’re wrong, but I do highly recommend you read I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me to see how wonderful, weird, brutal and dark YA Horror can really be.
Laure fights for everything she has. She knows when it comes to ballet, she is perfect, better than her best friend, handed everything and near guaranteed a spot because of her mother. There is much more against Laure; the other ballerinas have money, privilege, and are white, but Laure is determined to prove herself, even if that means making a deal with a river of blood.
Laure gains new allies and a climb to stardom, but something dark is growing inside her, and the more she issues her commands, the more others suffer. Yet Laure doesn’t fight against the darkness; she embraces it, determined to gain the prestige she deserves, no matter the tensions between her and her best friend, or the broken bodies she leaves behind.
Laure is an excellent character, and this book deserves to be highlighted for the character work behind it. Laure is angry and ambitious, she takes to petty thievery to even get herself close to the standards of the others around her, and when she gains her power, she gives little thought to the other ballerinas she hurts. And you know what? There’s a wonderful, monstrous beauty here (and I’m not talking about Andor), because we can totally understand and I bet likely relate to the way Laure feels, to her reasoning behind every step she takes. She does what she does because she knows she’s a perfect dancer who gets pushed to the side so the stereotypically pretty, white, privileged dancers can take centre stage.
We see things unfold through her eyes, but we get a really solid idea of how others – other ballerinas or the Academy’s board – view Laure; as an orphan, charity case, someone they feel pity for, and don’t ever suspect will succeed. The treatment compared to her peers is blatant racism, but Shea really does a great job of emphasising how this is an institutional problem, one that is fed by the individuals who benefit from and reinforce it as much as Laure feeds her ‘beast’.
This is a book you kind of have to sit with a bit – there’s a lot going on that’s not explicitly stated, and the language used adds to the sense of this, where Laure speaks in a way that shows you how much she lives, breathes and speaks ‘ballerina’. The beauty of the language contrasts with the ugliness Laure both faces and inflicts, in the same way the beauty of ballet contrasts with the ugly treatment ballerinas face, the toxicity they must fight through and the damage inflicted on their bodies in the name of art.
It’s an excellent read, and an absolutely great YA Horror. One for the slightly older range, and definitely something that should be read by adults, too.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
www.elleturpittediting.com
I received this ebook from Hot Key Books via NetGalley for review consideration.