Review: I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

If you’ve ever wanted to take a deep dive into the world of Parisian ballet and have it cross over with a blood-soaked underworld, you’re absolutely in luck with a newly released novel.

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me is the debut YA novel of Jamison Shea, who shows off beautiful prose and harrowing, haunting descriptions of a bloodthirsty world.

And yes, that bloodthirsty world is both the Parisian ballet and the mysterious otherworld our main character jumps into headfirst.

The story follows Laure, a Black ballerina who is just finishing up her training and stepping into the larger world of the Parisian ballet, a world dominated by wealthy, privileged white girls, so she is always a step behind despite her overwhelming talent and dedication. Her classmates look down at her and even her best friend sometimes feels like she’s just stringing Laure along.

But then she’s led into a new opportunity. She ventures into the heart of the Paris Catacombs and makes a deal with a primordial river of blood a la Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil, giving away parts of herself for what she desires most: Power.

Because if she can’t compete with their wealth and privilege through her sheer talent, she can compete with their power.

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me gives you a deep dive into the cutthroat world of Parisian ballet. And it is an in-depth dive. I knew nothing about ballet, having only taken a six-week course when I was seven years old, and I feel like after reading this book, I could answer fairly complex questions about it.

Shea also gives the reader an unapologetic look at being blindly devoted to something that will never love you back. You feel Laure’s pain every time someone slights her, all because she doesn’t have the same background, skin color, and financial standing as the rest of her classmates. The talent is there, she’s proven herself time and time again, but no one cares because she’s not the same as them.

The pacing and plot points are another story. The lead ballerina (and Laure’s new mentor) is murdered, yet no one cares and there’s minimal investigation. Things stall out soon after and plot points repeat. More characters show up dead, nothing is done about it. Laure keeps returning to the river of blood (Acheron) to give up more of herself yet nothing changes for her either. It’s unfortunate that the plot finally finds some footing with so little time left in the story and many threads are left unanswered as the book wraps up.

The other issue is that none of the characters are very likable. It’s understandable in a cutthroat world like ballet; however, there still should be a small part of them that makes it enjoyable to read.

Unfortunately, Laure’s too self-absorbed, her best friend is more of a frenemy plot point than anyone substantial, and all of her friends who also made sacrifices for Acheron feel like NPCs in a video game. The only character who resonated with me was Keturah, a late addition to Laure’s otherworldly friends and the only ray of sunshine… mostly because she sacrificed feeling anything to Acheron so she’s emotionally removed from every situation.

Still, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me has solid contemporary world-building and lyrical prose that has me interested to see what Jamison Shea writes next.

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me is out now wherever books are sold.

Will you be picking up a copy of I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me? Let us know in the comments!