There is a great gothic fairytale hidden in this book, but it's buried under heaps and HEAPS of hyperbole and mixed metaphors. This book needs a thick, black, editor's sharpie taken to it, Victor Vale style. If all the excess were deleted, there would be a beautiful and tragic story underneath, with many homages to ballet and the theater woven together.

However, the line between Homage and Derivation gets blurry. While Parts 1 and 3 made heavy nods to Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and The Firebird in a way that felt thematic and appropriate....Part 2 felt like a straight up rip-off of A Court of Thorns and Roses, which itself is highly derivative of Disney films and classic fairytales. Death was like a Tamlin-Rhys combo with practically zero personality; the occasional act of aggression or devotion but no banter, no heart. And his duplicity of Grace in order to keep/gain a kingdom is clearly ripped from Tamlin's motives. Also, the descriptions of Death and his secret, beautiful kingdom, where darkness is many-faceted and even comforting, is a clear ripoff of Rhys and Velaris.

Also....has this author seen Princess Tutu?.... Because I have. And the end of the book, where Grace realizes Death and Sleep's feud over Catherine IS the plot of the ballet The Little Bird, and our hero Gracie is completely irrelevant to their story, but chooses to fight with her art regardless....That feels A LOT like the ending of Princess Tutu. "Hey, I might not be in your story, I might not be destined to get the prince, I might just be a little duck...but I won't let evil win! I will Art my heart out, until Evil is driven back!"

I also got Pan's Labyrinth vibes from the final chapter. Our hero becomes the new royal ruler of the afterlife, all the creepy fairytale beasts she encountered were just people in disguise, and in reality the hereafter is beautiful and bright and all her loved ones are there, and it's ok that she's dead! The End!

So, if all the excessive elements were stripped away.... And all of the stolen elements were stripped away... There IS still some original writing here that's good... But it needs a massive rewrite. More Showing instead of Telling. More dialogue and character interactions instead of Grace Explains It All. More characterization of the brothers Death and Sleep. More character growth... A story can't be told in metaphors and homages alone, there has to be a core that people care about, and that core starts at the heart of the characters. I don't feel like I know Death. I don't really pity Sleep. And Grace is vain and dramatic, somebody I want to see humbled; pride goeth before a fall and all that. Give the audience someone to root for, pass or fail.

But that's a bitter pill. Saying "Your book would be amazing, if you completely changed it" is not a ringing endorsement :/. I hope, with editing, this book comes into its own, because it really could be something amazing if given a chance to refine.