3/5 Stars

I have to say I liked this different paranormal YA mystery! I kept trying to guess who the killer was and what was truly going on throughout the story.

The world building was good and most of it was there once Paris and the time period was mentioned. However, there were certain parts that felt overly described and made me want to fast forward the book a bit. I felt the reader was constantly being reminded the story was set in Paris through the mentioning of every known Paris attraction. This caused the pacing to be a little slow than what I'm used to in a young adult book. I felt certain characters and parts could've been cut to speed the reading along which is honestly how the story lost stars for me.

My favorite parts within the story consist of the main characters, the overall story and the odd paranormal parts within the story. I really liked Nathalie and her position as a newspaper woman even if in disguise. The morgue columnist position was different as well and seeing how bodies were displayed within that time period was very intriguing. The way Nathalie slowly but surely finds out about her abilities, how she possibly came about the abilities, what was truly happening and certain story twists were definite story highlights for me!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this story if you love historical fiction, paranormal mysteries, murder mysteries, Paris, girls in disguise (somewhat), minimal to no romance, and a single point of view.

Thank you so much to publishers at MacMillan and TorTeen for allowing me the chance to read and review this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I truly appreciate it and I'm looking forward to more by this author!

3.5 Stars - This book gave me a lot of same vibes as YS Lee's The Agency series... historical setting (this time gilded age Paris), intrepid girl professional (this time a reporter on the morgue beat... yeah, that's a thing in this time period), and MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY (this time a serial killer). There's also an element of the supernatural, which I thought was handled well. Additionally, I appreciated that this is the rare YA novel that truly feels aimed at teens in terms of reading level and writing style - not to say it is simplistic, but I do think that it is not one of those YA's that is specifically written with an adult audience in mind. All in all, enjoyable, but be ye warned -- there is quite a cliff hanger at the end of this one

Spectacle was a huge disappointment for me. It was super slow and I was never really connected to the characters. I did love our MC though and her decision to be a journalist in a time where women weren't allowed careers outside of the home.

The mystery didn't feel connected or foreshadowed at all. When one part was solved, another three questions showed up, but they never seemed to relate to anything prior. I wanted satisfaction when I found out the killer, but instead, I was blindsided. A good mystery leaves clues that you notice later and the clues that are gone over when the mystery is solved seemed so consequential and minor.

I loved the idea of the Insightfuls and the idea of manufacturing magic in people. That part of the novel never felt fully developed though. I also couldn't believe that there were so many of the magic touched people in one area. If he only did experiments on so many people before his murder, how are so many of them in the same area?

The pacing was a huge problem for me too. I never felt the speed or thrill of a murder mystery. I had to put down this book because it was going nowhere. Unfortunately, when I picked it up again, it just kept dragging on. I skimmed the last 30% because I was just so bored.

Some of the revelations seemed cheap to me, such as who actually killed the doctor who experimented on people.

Overall, a big disappointment and a pass for me.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tor through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

title: Spectacle
author: Jodie Lynn Zdrok
pages: 368
format: eARC
buy it: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository | Goodreads
rating: 3/5
genre: Mystery, Historical
topics: Paranormal, Serial Killers, Crime, Friendship, Murder
warnings: Asylums, depictions of undefined mental illness

Summary
In 1887 Paris, Nathalie dreams of being a reporter and gets a break during the summer between school years. She's hired by her father's friend to do the daily morgue report, writing about the unidentified bodies that are displayed part to seek identification and part as a sideshow attraction. But when a murdered girl turns up in the morgue, Nathalie gets a strange vision of the last moments before her death.

As the death toll climbs, Nathalie must grapple with her strange visions and determine what they mean, not just for the investigation into the serial killer but also for her own sense of self.
A delightfully grim main character, and her friends
Nathalie herself was a fun character, someone who was fascinated with death and morbid subjects without necessarily being maudlin herself. I enjoyed her outlook, not just on her job but on the world in general. She seemed very grounded, with a strong sense of her goals and skills.

There were a variety of different relationships within the story, including two close female friendships that alter radically during the story's timeline. Nathalie's relationship with her mother is also explored, as her mother is both overprotective but hampered by a recent injury. There's a continuous push and pull between them as Nathalie tries to hold down her new job and find out about her past, while her mother tries to keep her in the dark for her own safety.

There's also a very slight romance that I really enjoyed, although romance is a bit of a strong word. More of a crush. I love crushes, I think that stage of things is underutilized in fiction in general. Nathalie's crush and the way she way she acts around the young man is sweet and very realistic, but it doesn't progress to anything else because complications, and I really liked that.

So...that magic...
While Spectacle is mostly rooted in the 'real world,' there is (obviously) an element of the paranormal with Nathalie's visions. Although, in fact, there's a whole group of people who have magical abilities. Seems about 20 years prior there was a man who figured out how to give magic to people through one of his experiments and he did the procedure on as many people as wanted it. There's just...scads of people out in the world, able to do superhuman feats.

And....no one cares?



Yeah, no one cares. The scientist was disgraced because of some very severe negative side effects that popped up and...that's it. The magic people just quietly dropped out of the public consciousness, and apparently NO OTHER SCIENTIST AFTER THAT wanted to figure out how he did it? Wanted to study the people? Maybe expand on it? Just...nope, go on your way magic people, no one's even going to keep track of you and your literal superhuman abilities that could lead to, like, murder maybe.

It just struck me as really weird and I had a problem with it.
More endings that Return of the King
The pacing of the book was generally repetitive, with Nathalie having a huge problem coming to grips with her vision ability. Which is fine if there's something still pushing her into the plot, but there's really not. She hates it, she waffles about hating it, that goes on for a few hundred pages before we get going again. There were points where it was a real stretch to keep her involved in or even aware of the plot because 'coincidence' seemed to be the only outside force acting on her.

And then at the end, there were so many false climaxes that it was honestly kind of a let down. The main bad guy we'd been following for the majority of the book had an underwhelming conclusion, then we had a couple of false starts for a new bad guy, and then the final-final bad guy was introduced out of the blue, barely 50 pages before also being taken out. The stop and start nature of the final act made what should have been a catharsis into more of a confusing muddle.

Will I read this author again? Maybe
Will I continue this series? Probably not, but you can add the next book, Exposition, on Goodreads.

Note: I received this copy from the author/publisher. The price of the book and its origin in no way affected my stated opinions.

What I Liked
OKAY where do I even start?? I love historical fantasy, and this was definitely that. I also love Paris! So a historical fantasy set in Paris is like, directly up my alley. Set in Paris in the late 1800s, the setting and scenery are lusciously described--sometimes, like when we're in the morgue, this lusciousness is pretty macabre and visceral. The fantasy story of Nathalie and the Dark Artist are framed around a factual grisly murder: the Pranzini murders. Nathalie is herself a great protagonist, and her family and friends are all such great pieces of her life. And pain au chocolat is MY FAVORITE TOO!!

What I Would Have Liked to See
I yelled out loud at the end because I turned the page expecting more and it's not there. ARG! Give me the second book! There better be a second book.

My Favorite!
The magic of this Paris. I don't mean how the city is magical and has a life of its own, which is does, but I mean literally the magic system that Nathalie comes to discover over the course of the book. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it seems to be shaping up to be a new spin on a very popular form of magic I see a lot in fantasy these days.

TL;DR
Intrepid Parisian girl reporter gains the ability to see a murderer commit his horrible crimes, and too late she realizes that the murderer sees her, too.

Paris! Summer! 1887! Two years before Gilded Wolves! 16-year-old Nathalie Baudin takes a job anonymously writing the daily morgue column in Le Petit Journal (which, I’m going to take a wild guess here, means “The Little Journal”? I dunno, what do you want from me, Deutsch ist eine wunderschöne Sprache). While it’s unusual for a teen girl to be writing an anonymous column for a newspaper, Nathalie needs a little extra cash since her dad is off in the navy and her mom, still recovering from being badly burned, can’t handle as much seamstress work as she used to. Plus, it helps that the owner of the paper is old friends with Nathalie’s dad.

Anyway! Morgue column!

Back in ye olde Victorian Times, the Paris Morgue would put bodies of unknown dead people on display. That display was open to the public so people would come by and gawk at corpses, ostensibly so they could be identified, but really, it was more for the thrill of it. You know, the thrill of gawking at dead people. As one does. The Paris Morgue became one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions. The 19th Century, amirite? (Someday, people in the far, far future will look back at our modes of entertainment - such as staring blankly into our phones for hours - and feel the same way, but hey, at least we’re not gawking at dead people for funsies. Well, I know I’m not…I just listen to true crime podcasts like a normal person).

Back to Nathalie, her job is to visit the Paris Morgue every day and do a write-up of who’s on display. All of this seems relatively normal…until one day, Nathalie, upon seeing the body of a girl who was brutally murdered, has a vision of the murder…from the perspective of the murderer. What the what?? Soon, it becomes clear that there is a serial killer on the loose in Paris, calling himself “the Dark Artist” - and every time she goes to the Morgue and touches the viewing pane in front of one of the victims, Nathalie sees the murder. These visions, however, come with a weird price: every time she has a vision, Nathalie looses part of her memory, often not realizing it until a while afterward. But are they real, these visions? What if she’s just hallucinating, and the memory loss is a symptom of something worse? Is Nathalie going crazy, like her aunt Brigitte? Or is she actually experiencing something that might help police (including the cute morgue liaison, Christophe) catch the Dark Artist?

The thing about advanced reader’s copies is that the text is 100% not final - what ends up in the published book might be very different than the text that I read. Most of my complaints about Spectacle had to do with the writing: in places it was fairly stilted, repetitive, and featured long lists of “and then this happened, and then this happened…” I’m going to reserve my judgement, though, because that’s the sort of stuff that can be easily revised before publication. Story-wise, I really, really, really liked Spectacle. I mean, what’s not to like: 19th century Paris, girl journalist/detective/clairvoyant, the hunt for a Jack the Ripper-style serial killer… Yes, count me in. And a gift that comes with weird lapses in memory? Again, yes I am here for it. Put the copy through one more round of revisions and I am here for it.

Jodie Lynn Zdrok’s debut novel Spectacle is a book I really wanted to love. It’s a YA murder mystery set in Paris during the 1880s, and it features a female protagonist, Nathalie, who is a newspaper reporter and who also happens to have supernatural visions that could come in handy when it becomes clear a killer is on the loose in her city, targeting young women. It sounds great, doesn’t it?

And there are quite a few things I did enjoy about it. I liked that the novel reads as part thriller, part historical fiction, and that it even has a little supernatural twist. I thought the author did an especially nice job of capturing 1880s Paris and of filling her murder mystery with lots of creepy twists and turns, many of which kept me guessing until the very end, and I was also very intrigued with the idea of the main character being a teenage girl who writes the daily morgue report for the local newspaper.

My struggles with the book, unfortunately, were many as well. The pacing felt very slow at times and Nathalie felt rather underdeveloped even though she had several subplots swirling around her. While I felt like some of the subplots helped show how Nathalie ended up working where she’s working, unfortunately, they didn’t offer me anything else to make me feel much of a connection to her. I also found her incredibly frustrating in that she knew full well there was a murderer on the loose who was targeting young women but yet was constantly out walking about the city by herself and at one point even makes a trip down into the Catacombs.

The ending also felt rather awkward. I think it was meant to be open-ended, but the way it just trailed off, it just felt like pages were missing. Between that, the lack of connection I felt to the main character, the slow pacing, and the fact that I predicted who one of the murder victims would be as soon as the character was introduced, I ended up pretty disappointed. Hopefully other readers will have a better experience with this since it does have such an interesting and unique premise.

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok was a surprising read for me. I initially requested it because the synopsis reminded me so much of Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. And I wasn't wrong. Spectacle just had way more paranormal elements in it than I was anticipating. Which worked and didn't work for me.

Spectacle takes place in Paris 1887 where the Eiffel tower is just beginning to get build and the city is being tormented by a serial killer in the vein of Jack the Ripper. Our MC is the morgue columnist writer for the Paris newspaper who seems to have visions of the victims death through the perspective of the killer. I loved the fact that Nathalie seemed to have psychometry and her reaction to finding out she did was very believable. I also really enjoyed the morbid fascination people had with the dead back then. To bodies on display and there intrigue into the afterlife via seances and tarot readings. Very historically accurate. And don't forget the description of late 19 Century Paris was amazing I felt like I was there on the streets of Paris with Nathalie. Kudos to the author.

The only issue I had which is why its not getting a full five stars was how the magic system was incorporated into the story there were a lot of questions I had that went un answered. SPOILERS AHEAD Example, how did the doctor incorporate magic into blood? Also how did the one antagonist use the victims blood, who were never part of the doctors patients was able to gain there unique attributes? Especially since the antagonist was seen as not being one of the doctors patients either. I found these plot hole took away from the story and overall experience of my read. And that ending there had better be a companion.

Besides from the lack of explanation in the paranormal aspect of the story, I found this to be a very intriguing historical murder mystery. And look forward to what this author does next.

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok is a pretty fantastic debut YA historical fantasy mystery set in fin de siècle Paris. I enjoyed all of the historical detail that's gone into the story, like the construction of the Eiffel Tower for example. I also particularly enjoyed getting to know Nathalie. She's a great protagonist. Her curiosity (things get a bit morbid, fair warning), determination, and dedication are quite refreshing. All that said I was also hooked on working out the mystery surrounding the fantastic abilities Nathalie has discovered she has while working on her morgue report for the newspaper and a Jack the Ripper-esqe killer behind a recent string of murders in the city. Plus, I just have to mention that I appreciated the female friendships and the scenes between Nathalie and her mother. Honestly, this was almost a five star read for me, but sometimes the pacing drags and that ending was a bit cruel. Fingers crossed that Zdrok's upcoming release, Exposition, is going to be a sequel because I need to know more. I highly recommend Spectacle to fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco and Penny Dreadful.

Another historical fiction! I never seemed to enjoy this genre much before because I felt that they were either too dense or too slow. And while this book was a tad on the slow side, it was also really interesting and quite an adventure! After falling in love with the Stalking Jack the Ripper series last year I’ve been dying for another gory old timey mystery and when I read the blurb for this one I was so hopeful that I had found just the right book to bring my search to an end. While I thoroughly enjoyed reading Spectacle, there was also something that kept me from truly loving it.

Spectacle is also one of the many books set in France that I have read here lately. I seem to have a theme I am chasing in my book selections lately. Or maybe its the authors that have been on a theme to their writing lately. Did the chicken or the egg come first? The world may never know.. But I digress, the setting, while familiar also took a peak at the darker more dangerous side of Paris. It wasn’t all cafe life and trips to the Eiffel Tower. This book was filled with murder, serial killers, and danger. This was a side of France that didn’t thrive in romance and wealth.

This book is about a girl named Nathalie who after her mother is injured and her dad leaves on business, she must find a job through her fathers connection at the local newspaper to help provide for her family. Missing out on a summer away with her best school friend, Nathalie is the new journalist for the local morgue column. Her job entails daily visits to the morgue to deliver the news on the latest passings of life. But on one strange visit while studying the body of a young girl close to her own age, she just happens to touch the glass only to be trapped in a vision through the eyes of the murderer. From that point on Nathalie must decide if this strange new power is real, or if she is losing her mind like her poor aunt Brigitte. And is she willing to accept the consequences of using such power? Is finding the murderer of these girls worth possibly becoming insane?

I really liked the bond of friends and the focus on family and the relationships between them and the main character Nathalie. It all seemed real and honest, there were hardships yes, and regret, but it also showed the real range of emotions one might go through if stuck in a tough position like Nathalie was. She experienced so much death and fear at the hands of this psycho killer and no one person would ever come out of something like that unchanged. It was also refreshing that while there were hints of romance and flirtation, it wasn’t the main focus of the book. While this is normally what I live off of in books that I read, it was nice to know that even though there wasn’t a romance per say, it was still an engaging and interesting read.

My main complaint would be the ending. I don’t want to give away too much as to spoil anyone, but I don’t think its even fair to call it a cliffhanger. The ending was more like missing the top step while climbing the stairs in the dark. One minute you’re trekking along thinking everything is fine and normal, and then whoof, no step. No more stairs to climb. Totally unexpecting. Just like the ending to this book. It just hits you out of nowhere, almost feeling like its right in the middle of a sentence. I kept flipping pages thinking, there’s no way that’s how this ends. It feels completely unfinished and that is the worst feeling in the world at the end of a book. I’m not sure if there is another book in the future to continue on with this story, and if there isn’t then I would say don’t even bother reading this because you will never have closure in your life again. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but still. YOU CAN’T JUST END A BOOK LIKE THAT! In the meantime I am going to believe that there will be a Spectacle #2 otherwise this will just make me even more angry.

In summary, this was a really interesting and captivating read. I was extremely interested in finding the killer and found it to be a really well written book. Although I didn’t care much for the ending, I would continue reading this if it ever becomes a series. I’m starting to like more of the historical fiction genre here lately, its fun branching out to find that you do actually enjoy some different styles of writing than what you might be used to reading. Because isn’t that what reading is supposed to do, take us out of our norm, break us out of our shells to experience what we normally wouldn’t? I’d like to think so.

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok kept me awake and on the edge of my seat the whole time! A thrilling historical murder mystery set in Paris!

When I first heard about this book, I was SOLD when I heard it was set in Paris and that it involved a murder mystery and oh did this book deliver! And the MC is a reporter? ALL OF THE YES! I did journalism back in high school and so I was so here for that! The MC, Nathalie (I call her Nat), writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal which involves summarizing the day’s new arrivals. It is a routine, until one day she has a vision of the newest body and how the woman was murdered! To make matters worse it’s from the perspective of the murderer! Soon more bodies start to pile up and Nathalie is left to discover the killer’s identity! The way the author describes everything, it’s eerie and dark and haunting and I felt like I was right there in Paris with Nat. I’m telling y’all, THIS BOOK, I am still on the edge thinking about it! The cliffhanger at the end, oh I need more!

Why I loved this book and I think others will too:

~ It’s a Murder mystery
~ It’s set in Paris!
~ The writing is haunting!

Spectacle is the debut novel of author Jodie Lynn Zdrok. It’s labeled as young adult and fantasy, but honestly, I think it could appeal to a broader audience than that indicates (then again, I almost always feel that way about young adult novels).
The novel is set in 1887 in Paris. Well, a fantasy version of Paris. Here is the time when there were still public executions, still a bias against women working in certain fields, and no good way to identify bodies found. Those facts may not seem like they are connected, but in Jodie Lynn Zdrok’s world, they certainly are.
Nathalie Baudin is a teenager working for a newspaper called Le Petit Journal. Even though nobody really knows that she’s writing the column. Still, she loves her job. Even if her job involves writing descriptions of the bodies at the morgue on a regular basis. It’s not a job for everyone, but Nathalie is good at it, and dare I say even passionate about it.
This is not the sort of novel I would normally pick up if I’m being entirely honest. At least, it’s not like anything I’ve read recently. My eye was originally caught by the cover, and I’ll confess that I have a fondness for Tor Teen, so that made me more than willing to read the description. The description made it seem like something new and unique, and that was enough to tempt me.

<Spoiler>

Warnings: There are graphic murders in this novel. The author does a brilliant job of keeping the details from becoming overwhelming, but they are still there. Picture Jack the Ripper in Paris, and you’ve got a decent idea of what is going on here.
Spectacle was an amazing and enthralling read. It felt so grounded in reality, but at the same time, the fantastical elements really enhanced the entire story. I feel like France was the perfect location for this novel – I honestly don’t think it would have had the same feeling anywhere else.
The balance in this novel was perfectly done. It had just enough of a fantasy element to hold my interest, but it was also rooted enough in the time period to make it all seem plausible. There were facts and events brought up that made me curious enough to look them up after the fact, but while I was reading I had no problem believing the plausibility of them. I love it when a novel makes me curious – especially so if I’m curious enough to do my own research after the fact.
I love that the reason for the fantasy elements in this novel is science. Yep, you read that right. Okay, it’s more like a pseudoscience. The sort of science you’d lump into the same category as Phrenology. Interesting, but not something worth putting your faith into.
The fact that Spectacle was able to take something like that, transform it, and turn it into something that could be believed, at least for the sake of this story? It’s actually pretty impressive. It shows how much effort went into the thought process here, and just how carefully Jodie Lynn Zdrok wrote it.
There were elements of this novel that felt distinctly Jack the Ripper-esque. A serial killer that targets women, that loves to taunt the police and newspapers. That’s where the similarities end, in truth. But those similarities were enough to significantly lend to the tone of this story. It immediately established an eerie and disturbing tone, all while showcasing the morbid fascination humanity has with death and killers. It was brilliantly done.
I’m extremely impressed with Spectacle on the whole. More so when I consider the fact that it’s a debut novel. I took a quick peek at Jodie Lynn Zdrok’s Goodreads page, and there’s a second book listed already. It doesn’t say that it’s directly tied to Spectacle, but the naming convention is similar enough where I have high hopes. It’s going to be called Exposition. Sadly that’s all I know about it so far. If anybody else knows more, please let me know!

Oh, this is so delightfully messed up! I mean it, it is sometimes downright gruesome, so if you can't handle death and morgues and such... might want to skip it. But if you can handle it, this was a really good one! Let us discuss why!

•Nathalie was morbidly curious, yet still relatable. I mean, I don't frequent places of death personally, and I imagine most of you don't either. But I understood Nathalie's inquisitiveness too. Especially since apparently, this was a legit pastime in France. (Can we please have another shout-out to how delightfully strange old-timey France was? Love it.) Plus she isn't like, messed up- just interested in death and the macabre a bit more than the average bear. No shame, girl.

•The mystery kept me on my toes. I cannot tell you how many times I wrote "wait maybe it was him!" in my Kindle notes. I was usually wrong, so sue me. That's the good part though- I was wrong, because the mystery was good. I love a good whodunit. And this was one.

•It was thought-provoking. So many questions about death, and choices, and more stuff that I can't talk about because it would probably be spoilery, but I loved it.

•Friendships FTW! I love me some strong female friendships, and they were front and center in this novel! Again, I don't want to give too much away because they are important to the story, but the relationships felt really authentic.

•It tugged at my heartstrings a bit! That was unexpected, actually. It's not often that a murder mystery gets me teary, but here we are. (Also, does the fact that I list "crying" as a positive make me a complete masochist, or...?)

My only real qualm was that I would have liked a bit more from the ending? It definitely answered some questions, but then others were left more open. I assume there's a chance this will get a sequel? I do hope so, as I'd definitely be reading it! Also, it's pretty much romance-free, which isn't exactly a negative, but I wouldn't turn one down, either!

Bottom Line: Pretty messed up, but in the good way! A mystery that kept me guessing and characters I enjoyed make me hope this doesn't end up being a standalone!

I think I need to adopt a Marie Kondo style to my reading. If it does not spark joy within the first quarter, quit it. And after turning the last page of <I>Spectacle</I>, the title feels a lot like a misnomer. This wasn't a spectacle by any means, but rather a bit of a snore.

This book could have been incredible, but alas. Its biggest flaw was in its pacing. The best mystery/thriller/suspense novels I've read are fast and snappy. Before you've even recovered from the last plot twist, you're sent reeling by another. Then another, another. The most definitive thing I can say about <I>Spectacle</I> and its pacing is that there are only so many times you can read at length the main character getting on this Omnibus, getting off this tram, lamenting how far she has to walk. About 200 pages were spent detailing Nathalie's near every move and her constant complaints of the power she has. Bearing in mind that I've only read an ARC, this was a story that could have benefited heavily from a good edit and a slashing of about 100 pages. I believe then it would have held up well and really snared my attention.

As it were, I did think the mystery itself was quite intriguing. What initially drew me in was 19th century Paris. I'm an absolute sucker for that era and city and I found it to be portrayed really well here. Visiting the iconic spots of Paris, such as Notre Dame and the Catacombs and seeing inside every day with the morgue was wonderful if a little morbid. Despite the overloading of details and events, I still did not know whodunnit until the main character figured it out herself. Something I am immensely grateful for. I thought the writing was quite impressive as well. There were a lot of hidden gems of description and thought that nailed down the dark atmosphere this story and world was meant to evoke.

The magical angle was interesting, rooted as it is in science and blood. Learning about Insightfuls and in turn figuring out what is happening to Nathalie and her own ability was neat. Little snippets were fed here and there that kept me reading through the sometimes long-winded conversations and internal dialogue. How it led into the mystery and the whodunnit was also interesting. Sadly I think it's full potential was never reached.

There were a few other elements aside from the pacing that didn't sit well with me and made it difficult to enjoy. SPOILERS AHEAD.
📚 As interesting as Nathalie's magical ability was, I found there to be a glaring hole with it. Namely that whenever she touched the glass of the morgue window it would activate. But only ever with the murdered girls. Never with the other people lying on the slabs. It irked me because I doubt she is able to be selective, and certainly not at a distant. Especially when at the end she touches someone else and sees how they died.
📚 The execution of her memory loss was very poorly done. See, on several occasions in the beginning Nathalie will suddenly be made aware of the fact that she can't remember doing something, such as writing the letter she just mailed to a friend. That shock doesn't sit all too well with the reader when they just sat through a rather boring chapter of her writing the very letter. When the reason for this comes to light it makes sense, but the delivery is poor.
📚 There were several tropes that just didn't land. For instance, Nathalie works at a newspaper, but as the only woman she must dress as a boy whenever she delivers her column. My only response is why? What purpose did it serve for the story? Absolutely none other than perhaps an author self-indulgence. Another aspect that was lost was the inevitable romantic feelings Nathalie develops for another character. The way it all went ... why even bother?
📚 Finally, what the hell was that ending? It fell so soft and yet makes one believe it's a cliffhanger for a second book. I sincerely hope not.

There was definitely potential with this, but it fell flat of my expectations.

2.5 stars, rounded to 3

During the month of January I had the amazing occasion, thanks to Netgalley, to read Spectacle. It was a good choice, because it ended up being one of the best read of the month!

And I would have given it five stars if it wasn't for certain things about the final part of the book, but let's start gradually because you really should give this book a try.

First of all, it's macabre. But also not that much? Maybe I'm pretty used to this kind of stuff, bodies, death and gore, but the whole novel managed to report gruesome and morbid facts without being void of taste and tact.

Also, it was so interesting to discover that Paris' morgue was in fact open to the public. Despite what I think of it, it's always amazing when you discover that some fact written down are actually true and not only the author's imagination.

Second point is about France. I didn't live in Paris or the upper zone of France, but for many years I passed three months of my vacation in south France and learned about the country, lived with its people... and I saw a bit of it inside the book.

I feel like the author didn't focus extremely on France atmosphere and more on the main character and what was happening in the story, but I also caught details that made me happy.

But that's not all. Specatcle has many other things that made me happy. First of all, this story didn't have the amount of romance I was fearing? I know that I start with a little prejudice, but it wouldn't be the first time that I read a book made 50% of romance and the other half of plot. Instead, this novel had little mention and scenes on it, while focused a lot on Natalie's journey to discover the truth and also about friendship, family, pride in our own work...

Also, Natalie is a girl in the year 1887 and has to work following a series of rules. While she follow them, in the pages I didn't read the possible and despicable prejudice the other characters around her could have shown. Instead, they were all very supportive, or nice at least! It was very refreshing but at the same time it didn't erase or implicated the absence of certain walls women could face at the time.

Another positive note on the story is the mix I found! We really need more books that mix historical fiction with thriller, fantasy and also science. Everything I read was very mysterious and I really hope the author will give me the chance to read more about it. Maybe with anther book? Because... some things didn't make much of sense if left like this. Like, it wasn't enough to explain powers, but just a start.

Passing to the character, I've to say that I wasn't exactly able to get Nathalie. I'm not 100% sure of how I could define her, aside from resilient, with sense of justice, moral. I liked her but she maybe didn't strike me as one of the characters that will remain impress in my mind forever.

But one thing that remained impressed to me, is her relationship with her family. Until the quest for knowing the truth start to make things difficult between them, it's a very lovable bond. On the other side, I related a lot to the struggling part, when discussion start to come up. I was definitely mad, just like Nathalie.

Because yes, despite not being able to place her as a character, I did found a way to go near her. Especially in her relationship with family and friends.

For some reasons I found very relatable Nathalie trying to undercover the truth, but also seek respect and understanding from people who knew her situation. Things that she didn't get at first. I still think she deserve more respect from her beloved ones.

My only very negative point is about what was supposed to be the most juicy/important part of the story. At a certain point I had the feeling that the story was finished... before the actual end.

I didn't feel the same interest that kept me reading the novel. And... oof, I wish to say more but it's easy to enter the spoiler territory! The temptation is strong.

In the end Spectacle was a beautiful start of what could be hopefully a series. I can only hope and wait. It would be amazing if the author decided to keep the macabre atmosphere and touch even in the possible sequels

This is a great murder mystery. I loved the setting, characters, and plot development. The author has a cleaver way of using magic in this book. I can say that "magic comes with a price" fits the story perfectly.
It is a character driven narrative. And the writing style is very captivating.
With so many questions left unanswered, I hope we are getting a sequel.
I wished the last part of the book was less dense. It felt a little rushed compared with the initial pacing established by the author.
I recommend it for people who love historical fiction, Paris, murder mysteries, magic, and character diving plot.

I had heard so many good things about Spectacle on Twitter, so when I was finally able to read it, I was so excited. I love a good murder mystery and if it has a side of supernatural too, all the better! Nathalie is a brilliant character and how she dealt with her visions was both extraordinary and real. She fights off murderers but also freaks out and cries about her circumstances too. I always love when a character does both. But before I give away the whole plot, let’s get to the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Paris, 1887.

Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal. Her job is to summarize each day’s new arrivals, a task she finds both fascinating and routine. That is, until the day she has a vision of the newest body, a young woman, being murdered–from the perspective of the murderer himself.

When the body of another woman is retrieved from the Seine days later, Paris begins to buzz with rumors that this victim may not be the last. Nathalie’s search for answers sends her down a long, twisty road involving her mentally ill aunt, a brilliant but deluded scientist, and eventually into the Parisian Catacombs. As the killer continues to haunt the streets of Paris, it becomes clear that Nathalie’s strange new ability may make her the only one who can discover the killer’s identity–and she’ll have to do it before she becomes a target herself.

Nathalie has just been hired as the morgue reporter for Le Petit Journal. What is a morgue reporter? Nathalie goes to the morgue every day and reports on the bodies there. The morgue is like an attraction in the city. People go each day to see who has died. It is a spectacularly morbid amusement but I could actually imagine people going to something like this today.

When we see Nathalie visit the morgue for the first time, she notices a girl who is cut very badly, but while she has been to the morgue before and this isn’t the first body she has seen, something very different happens this time. When she touches the glass separating the onlookers from the bodies, she gets lost in a vision. A vision of the dead girl being murdered and Nathalie is looking at her from the perspective of the murderer.

Once she comes back to the present, the people around her are staring at her and she doesn’t exactly know why. What she does know is that she is holding a bouquet of flowers with no memory of where she got them despite the fact that she just bought them!!

As Nathalie deals with this new power, she also must deal with her life at home with her mother and with her friends Simone and Agnes. At first, she only tells Simon of her powers and because Simone is pretty open-minded, she accepts them, but also wants Nathalie to use her powers to help the police. Nathalie wants nothing to do with it. Her visions scare her and she realizes that the more she gets them, the more of her memory disappears.

When the visions first start, Nathalie’s best friend, Agnes, is away on holiday, but when she comes back, Nathalie tells her everything. Initially, Agnes is skeptical, but when she sees that Nathalie is serious and sees what happens to Nathalie in person, she believes and is willing to help her friend in any way possible.

And it seems that is what Nathalie needed to give her the confidence to continue with her writing, with her visions, and with everything. But Agnes isn’t around for long (NO SPOILERS!) and once she’s gone, Nathalie goes into free fall.

The rest of the story follows Nathalie as she searches for the murderer, figures out the reasons for her powers, tries to understand her Aunt Brigitte who is in a mental asylum, and ultimately, discover who she is and how she wants to live her life.

Spectacle is a story of Nathalie discovering the truth behind who she really is. It is fascinating and thrilling and omg I should not have read this at night. At one point, Nathalie is followed through the streets of Paris and then I had to walk to my bedroom and I was SCARED!

My only critique of Spectacle is that the ending was not entirely satisfying and I was also a little confused. The killer was definitely a surprise but the way it shifted from being a man the entire time to a different character was confusing to me. This could totally be just me not reading closely enough or my brain having a moment but I wish it had been a little more explicit. In terms of the ending, I wanted a longer and more intense scene between Nathalie and the killer. It seemed a bit too short, especially for how much build-up there was.

But beyond that, I really enjoyed this story. Nathalie’s journey was really interesting and I loved following her as she learned more about her visions and figured out the history of her family. I also sooooo enjoyed her friendship with Agnes and Simone and cried immensely when “something” happens to Agnes. I am giving Spectacle 3 out of 5 stars. If you like your young adult fantasy mixed with some murder mystery and a dash of historical fiction, you will love this book.

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok comes out February 12, 2019.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was quite an interesting book. A good, strong plot, thought the first half was slow paced and redundant. When I got to the second half, I found it interesting and hard to put down. There were a lot of twists and turns.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There seems to be a publishing trend for the beginning of this year that has fantasy/historical fiction YA novels set in Paris, and I don't hate this trend. Zdrok's writing immediately drew me into Nathalie's world. I love a good historical fiction novel that turns traditional male professions of the time on their heads by have strong female characters in those roles instead -- and it doesn't hurt that the profession here is a little macabre since she writes the morgue report. My biggest problem with this novel is the pacing -- there were a few times I felt the pace was a little lagging but this can be overlooked because of the cliffhanger ending that left me wanting more!

Spectacle is a great fit for anyone looking for a creepy page-turner. It kicks off in 1887 Paris with protagonist Nathalie, who dresses as a boy to write the death column for the local paper, observing the body of a violently murdered young woman. If that alone isn't enough to create an eerie atmosphere, Nathalie quickly learns that when she touches the glass in front of the body, she has a vision, from the killer's perspective, of the murder occurring. Throw in an aunt in an insane asylum, a hypnotist, a mad scientist, several jars of blood, and an elusive killer who calls himself the "Dark Artist," and you've got quite the horrifying page-turner.

Spectacle is a read-it-in-one-sitting kind of book. It isn't super short but is fast-aced, with short, cliff-hanging chapters and high action. There are plenty of chase scenes, moments where Nathalie is convinced she's being followed, and uncomfortable conversations with strangers who turn up out of nowhere and are just a little too friendly. There's not much in the way of character development, but that works fine for this plot-centered story. In spite of its breakneck page, the novel still manages to paint a vivid and unsettling picture of the underside of Paris at the time, where the streets stink and the whole community is fascinated by death and lingers at the morgue like it's a coffee shop. I was a little disappointed by the revelation of the killer, but the eerie, messy ending made up for my sense of anticlimax. Horror is usually not my thing, and I couldn't read this one without all the lights on in the house, but I also couldn't put it down and tore through it in two days. Not necessarily a standout or memorable read, but a good story for readers who like their books with high action and a chill creeping up their spines.