Deep and Darkest Page Turner: a review of Anna-Marie McLemore’s Dark and Deepest Red

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of the beautiful Dark and Deepest Red that I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

With a talent for weaving a story that rivals that of Neil Gaiman, Anna-Marie McLemore has created a dazzling and heartbreaking fairy tale with her newest book, Dark and Deepest Red. 

Starting with the fascinating story of the dancing plague of 1518, McLemore crafts a tale that challenges the idea that the past ever leaves us alone. 

Emil is a scientist, Rosella a strong willed artisan, Lala a girl who loves with all the loyalty and fire she can muster. Despite two timelines that keep their worlds separate, the three lives intertwine as each struggles to find their own spot within their culture, family, and community. Faced with the same question, each must come to their own question: should they deny what makes them unique in order to blend in to their communities, or should they reclaim their own roots to fulfill their own destinies? How do you save yourself from the curses of the past? 

The novel Dark and Deepest Red is one that will stay with me— fitting for a novel that teaches the importance of history. Pushing all that aside, straying from ideas of themes, all I can say is that this was the most beautifully written, breathtaking story I might’ve ever read. Anna-Marie McLemore’s lyrical, poetic language dances alongside the victims of the fever, capturing you more and more with its spell. I couldn’t stop reading it. At times, I couldn’t stop the tears. I was so invested in the fates of these characters that at times, I could barely catch my breath.

Despite the praise I’ve lavished upon the text, I won’t say that it’s perfect: the more modern timeline is ever so slightly less compelling than that of the 1518 Strasbourg timeline. But that’s almost not worth mentioning and resolves itself in time. How can you really care about that when you have a novel that takes one of the most fascinating phenomena in history—the dancing plague—and weaves it into a gut wrenching fairy story of love and passion? Short answer: you can’t. It’s beautiful. Buy it now.