Available at
A Winter 2019-2020 Indie
Next List Title
A Junior Library Guild
Selection
Starred reviews from
Booklist, Kirkus, BookPage, and Shelf-Awareness
"This novel will
leave an indelible mark on readers' hearts."
--Kirkus Reviews,
starred review
"McLemore's vision
and skill inspire awe in this gorgeously rendered novel."
--Shelf Awareness,
starred review
"Anna-Marie
McLemore has an incandescent talent that burns brighter and hotter with each
novel."
--Alex Brown, Tor.com
"Another gorgeous
novel that reminders readers of the way fairy tale evils and, more importantly,
love have their roots in the real world."
--Booklist, starred
review
"A powerful
demonstration of McLemore's immense talent."
--BookPage, starred
review
"Graceful as a
dancing slipper, complex as a chemical reaction, magical as an incantation,
DARK AND DEEPEST RED is a masterpiece."
--Elana K. Arnold,
Printz Honor author of Damsel and Red Hood
"DARK AND DEEPEST
RED is the sort of book that ruins all other books for you. Lush, hypnotic, and
an absolute feast for the senses, Anna-Marie McLemore masterfully weaves two
love stories across five hundred years and unites them with a fairytale brought
to vivid, sumptuous life. McLemore has once again proved themself to be one of
the finest writers working today."
--Mackenzi Lee, New York
Times Bestselling Author of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
"A story to wreck
your heart, sew it up, and set it free."
--Martha Brockenbrough,
author of Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary
"Lush, bewitching,
and captivating, DARK AND DEEPEST RED shines a triumphant light on the stories
of those who have too long had to be silent or lived only in the shadows of
history. A lyrical, breathtaking dance through the transformative power of
feminist rage, and the power to be found in embracing who you are."
–Robin LaFevers, New
York Times bestselling author of His Fair Assassin and Courting Darkness.
“Prose that sings, a
story that haunts as it elevates, Dark and Deepest Red is one of the
most beautiful books I’ve read in years. McLemore is a master.”
--Susan Dennard, New
York Times Bestselling Author of The Witchlands Series
"Every
Anna-Marie McLemore book is a gift, and DARK AND DEEPEST RED is truly something
wondrous. Eerily suspenseful, achingly romantic, and fiercely defiant, it is a
love story for the overlooked, a fairytale for the outcast, and a triumphant
song for those whose stories go untold. It is a book to savor, to embrace, to
wrap around your heart to keep out the cold. This book will dance your heart to
pieces and then tenderly stitch it back together. "
--Rebecca Speas, One
More Page Books
"In 16th century
Strasbourg, Lala hides her Romani roots from a world that persecutes her
people, especially those looking to explain a mysterious plague that sets
people dancing until they fall dead from exhaustion. Somewhere in our world
today, a town with a magical glimmer shelters Emil and Rosella, two teens who
also hide parts of their identity until a magical pair of red shoes brings them
together. Anna-Marie McLemore weaves a historical mystery together with fairy
tale magic, stitching an enchanting tale of love and identity lost and
reclaimed."
--Cecilia Cackley, East
City Bookshop
"Gnawingly deep
prose. Richly woven magic. And, of course, it's not a McLemore novel if it
doesn't rip your heart into tiny pieces and lovingly put it back together by
the end"
--Allison Senecal Old
Firehouse Books
Two girls.
Five centuries.
One deadly fairy tale.
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.
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.