You are listening to All the Backlist, a weekly show about books that are not new.

I'm your host for this week, Tricia Brown, and this is episode number 368.5.

I am still pretty new to this show, but you might know me from book rides,

when romance podcasts, or from nothing, or from this show last month,

when I talked about a couple of books about the US political landscape.

Today, we are going in a different direction and talking about historical fiction.

In fact, we are going to be talking about a specific type of historical fiction,

which I will let you know more about after we thank our All the Backlist sponsor.

Today's episode is brought to you by I Feed Her To The Beast and The Beast Is Me by James and Shay.

First of all, let's just say that that is one of the best, if not the best, book titles of the year.

It's got to be. So, despite being constantly overlooked in the cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet,

Laura will do anything to prove that a black girl can take center stage.

To level the playing field, she strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood,

deep in the catacombs, as one does. The primordial power lore gains promises everything she's

dreamed of. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her,

she is faced with the ultimate choice. Continue to break herself for scraps of validation,

or succumb to the darkness. That is, if the god killer doesn't catch her first.

This book is a slow burn fantasy horror that lifts a veil in the institutions that profit on

exclusion and the toll of giving everything to a world that will never love you back.

Y'all know y'all need to get this book. Thanks again to I Feed Her To The Beast and The Beast Is Me

by James and Shay for sponsoring this episode.

Today's episode is brought to you by The Dial Press. When Ari and Josh first meet,

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