Thank you to the author and Readers First for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Well I've finished it and now I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was just completely different to my expectations - you would think based on the blurb and the cover artwork and title that it would be a horror story, and it does try to be but it just doesn't end up quite sitting there for me. I'm not quite sure what was missing but it did sadly fall short in my opinion. I would classify it more as a gory fantasy. I did find the concept very interesting and it is a great exploration into exposing outdated and often racist views in the international ballet arena. I have never really been that into ballet but I went for this book thinking it was going to be interesting to view the dance from a horror angle. I think the characters are well-rounded and believable and our female protagonist is quite a strong character that at times I was rooting for, it was just it took a long time to build a bond with her. I think perhaps just too slow of a burn for me, the pacing wasn't quite the speed it needed to be for it to work out the way I think the author intended. I still found it interesting, but it took me a long time to get through it which was a shame.