There are lots of different narratives in this book and it took A WHILE for my brain to get to terms with who was speaking and to remember what was happening in each of their stories so far. I don’t know why I struggled so much because I don’t usually have problems with different POVs but I struggled with this one, I have to say.

It also took me a while to get into the story. It was different from what I’ve ever read before and as I was reading it, I asked myself whether I was enjoying it. I couldn’t decide if I was or not, and that was a strange feeling.

For a little bit of context, the story is about magic red shoes that when worn by women, they control that person’s mind and make them dance till they can no longer. I hadn’t realised that this was a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Red Shoes. I would strongly suggest reading the author’s note beforehand if you are going to read this book because had I know it was a modern twist of an old children’s story, I probably would have noticed the links and play on events more.

It was a nice story with a great ending and I really enjoyed the LGBT+ characters that shone through this novel. Only a short read but one that I would recommend to fantasy and YA lovers! I’ll say it again, the book is B-E-A-U-tiful!