My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Summary from GoodReads
Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.
With McLemore's signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.
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REVIEW
I received an e-ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Ah my wonderful Anna-Marie! Who takes words and transforms them into pictures and scents, tastes and otherworldly delights! This is yet another masterpiece inspired the fairytale of The Red Shoes but it also is a tale of racism, phobia and deadly magic.
I won't spoiler the plot but I have to say that the story transpires time as the characters try to survive and live in difficult times when being different was reason enough to be an outcast. Romanis are not an ethnic group you see often in books (apart from history-research books of course) and it was very interesting to read how the magic of the shoes was weaved into the characters and their struggle with their own feelings.
Definitely a great book, which I recommend for its superb writing and glorious descriptions.
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