Reviews

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird

Only show reviews with written explanations

bags_and_bookz's review against another edition

3.0

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Sarah Bird for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

As a fan of historical fiction and a fan of strong woman characters, I could not pass Last Dance on the Starlight Pier. Evie Grace Devlin escapes her life in search of stable job and secured life. She wants to escape her authoritarian mother who always made her feel low and practically managed to sell her own daughter in order to support herself. Evie’s mother was not only authoritarian but also emotionally and physically abusive as the readers learns later on. Evil remembers her father fondly who unfortunately passed way too soon. Through struggle and betrayal Evie manages to reinvent herself and finds love. However, she does not know that real love means to Accra person as he/she is.

Overall, great novel with interesting plot. I have never heard about dance marathons and was curious to learn about that era and particularities of the endeavour. The book made me do my own research for which I am forever grateful. Character-wise I think it is also well done, except Evie being repetitive all the time. She seems not blue to learn from her mistakes but make them on and on and on again which made me tick and roll my eyes numerous times by the end of the book.

I found a few similarities with current times and blind belief in medicine which Mande me think if it was intentional. I can draw a parallel between two timelines and offered procedures, however I am not sure that author intended it to be that way.

Anyway, interesting book, quite thought provoking and might be a good option for book club as there are tons of issues to discuss.

caw281's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

heatherhazereads's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

It's Texas in the late 1920's and Evie Devlin gets an opportunity to escape her horrible narcissist mother by heading to nursing school. But three years later on the day of her pinning ceremony, a horrible and shameful secret from her youth comes bubbling to the surface and she is forced to flee... without recurving her nursing pin. Distraught and hopeless, she stumbles upon a dance marathon and an whole new world swallows Evie. She can be a nurse here, even without being registered, but she has no idea what she is getting into by joining the unpredictable underbelly of the dance marathons of the Depression era.

First, I had no idea the scope of insanity that these dance marathons entailed. These were brutal and downright unsafe and inhumane. It's wild to me what people were entertained by in addition to the risks desperate dancers would take to stay off the streets. I found myself falling down Google rabbit holes to learn more about these fascinating marathons (spoiler alert: they were subsequently banned due to the sheer unsafely of their practices.)

As for the book itself - it ironically also felt like a marathon. I swear I was reading this book for months, not 10 days (which is much longer than my 4 to 5 day average). The story was interesting, characters were decent, but man did this book drag. I nearly put it down many times but, like the exhausted dancers fighting to stay on their feet, I pushed on. If you enjoy a major slow burn historical fiction thick novel with many interesting characters, this may be the one for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review. It surely was a marathon I won't forget!