Thursday, May 21, 2020

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore (audiobook)

genre: young adult fantasy

In Strasbourg, France in 1518, a strange sickness seems to come over the citizens of this town - a compulsion to dance, whatever the cost - even until death.  Of course, there MUST be a reason for such a plague and one MUST find someone to blame, right?  Who would be more likely to begin such maddess than someone OTHER - than those Romany who left the countries who shunned them and snuck into Strasbourg?  It must be witchcraft, yes?

In the modern day, Emil and Rosella have their own connection to this mania, one that seeps into the deepest magic and seems to be a curse of its own.  A story where "otherness" is both celebrated and appreciated, Dark and Deepest Red takes readers on a journey that illustrates how intricately the past can be woven in our present.

I liked this and yet it frustrated me a bit.  We switched back and forth so often between time periods and narrators that I had a hard time becoming super invested in the characters - although, I connected most with Lavinia in Strasbourg.  The magical realism in this story worked enough for me to believe it and go along with it, even though I didn't LOVE it and fall all in.  It's an interesting twist on a fairy tale that gives readers who might feel like they have to be different to belong a reminder that actually, being exactly who you are will always take you to exactly where you are supposed to be (and who you are supposed to be with).

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