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ameserole's review
3.0
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Bright Burning Stars was a pretty good ballet book. It definitely reminded me of [b:Dance of Shadows|12788061|Dance of Shadows (Dance of Shadows, #1)|Yelena Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344716136s/12788061.jpg|17935609] a bit. In it, you will meet two best friends Kate and Marine (sometimes referred to K or M). They are enrolled into an elite ballet school that resides in Paris, France. Now this little class is severely cutthroat but it was a bit boring to read about. I just feel like the pacing was a bit all over the place. Then the characters would just act super weird and not really give an explanation - and I was bored for most of this book.
The friendship between Kate and Marine was meh to me. Yeah, they were besties to a point because they both wanted to be the best. Kate, at one point, was sabotaging the other girls in their class. She also tried to sleep her way to the top with the best guy dancer. It actually backfired on her and I didn't feel bad at all because the guy was a self-centered douche anyways. Plus two girls fighting over the same girl was just agonizing to read. I didn't care who ended up with who or what the heck was happening in this story either.
I feel like these girls are both dealing with serious issues that weren't really addressed by the adults in this book. It just kind of seemed overlooked which was rubbing me the wrong way. Plus their friendship didn't seem like a true friendship anymore which was a bit heartbreaking. Then with the ending, I was just kind of underwhelmed. I wanted something to happen that would have shocked me... but nothing did. It was just an okay kind of book that took me a long ass time to finish.
Bright Burning Stars was a pretty good ballet book. It definitely reminded me of [b:Dance of Shadows|12788061|Dance of Shadows (Dance of Shadows, #1)|Yelena Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344716136s/12788061.jpg|17935609] a bit. In it, you will meet two best friends Kate and Marine (sometimes referred to K or M). They are enrolled into an elite ballet school that resides in Paris, France. Now this little class is severely cutthroat but it was a bit boring to read about. I just feel like the pacing was a bit all over the place. Then the characters would just act super weird and not really give an explanation - and I was bored for most of this book.
The friendship between Kate and Marine was meh to me. Yeah, they were besties to a point because they both wanted to be the best. Kate, at one point, was sabotaging the other girls in their class. She also tried to sleep her way to the top with the best guy dancer. It actually backfired on her and I didn't feel bad at all because the guy was a self-centered douche anyways. Plus two girls fighting over the same girl was just agonizing to read. I didn't care who ended up with who or what the heck was happening in this story either.
I feel like these girls are both dealing with serious issues that weren't really addressed by the adults in this book. It just kind of seemed overlooked which was rubbing me the wrong way. Plus their friendship didn't seem like a true friendship anymore which was a bit heartbreaking. Then with the ending, I was just kind of underwhelmed. I wanted something to happen that would have shocked me... but nothing did. It was just an okay kind of book that took me a long ass time to finish.
beastreader's review
1.0
I wanted to like this book but I found myself losing myself within the pages of it and not in a good way. The book started out good. In fact, I stuck with it for about the first several chapters but than the winds shifted and my interest changed.
There was nothing interesting about the characters In addition, the story seemed to stall and move really slowly. The style of this book to me came off as juvenile. This may because the book is written for the young adult. After getting half way into the book, I put it down. I could not even tell you what happened previously as I fell asleep and there was nothing memorable about what I read.
There was nothing interesting about the characters In addition, the story seemed to stall and move really slowly. The style of this book to me came off as juvenile. This may because the book is written for the young adult. After getting half way into the book, I put it down. I could not even tell you what happened previously as I fell asleep and there was nothing memorable about what I read.
lorbach's review
2.0
I didn’t hate it and I didn’t love it. I could not for the life of me remember the name of the book. Perhaps that should have been my red flag of how I was going to feel about this book. There wasn’t anything specifically that I didn’t like; making me not want to read it yet there certainly wasn’t anything causing me to want to pick it up. The story is interesting. I enjoy any story related to ballet. I find that life so fascinating. I think what I struggled with what the point of the story. I felt like it just wasn’t going anywhere. Nothing of significance happened. I didn’t really connect to either Kate or Marine. There were a few times I had to go back and look to see who I was reading because they sounded the same. Everyone else, really was one-dimensional. I never really got their purpose to the story. In one word, despite the premise of the story line and the arc of the characters, the book was boring. I pushed through but It really didn’t do anything for me. Based on my rating system it isn’t enough to get a 3 but it’s more than a 2. I probably would not recommend it.
kdurham2's review
2.0
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Marine and Kate become quick friends in a heightened situation as they are both competing for the one prize in a prestigious ballet school. When these students are living together and competing against each other, life is stressful 24 hours out of the day - there is no break from the stress.
Kate is an American from Virginia and a fish very out of water in Paris France. Marine is Parisian, but has her own hurdles as her twin recently passed away and dancing was a passion they shared. These girls want to become the best in their school to be able to move onto corps de ballet and there is only one spot. They will do almost anything to get that top spot and win the prize.
Marine and Kate become quick friends in a heightened situation as they are both competing for the one prize in a prestigious ballet school. When these students are living together and competing against each other, life is stressful 24 hours out of the day - there is no break from the stress.
Kate is an American from Virginia and a fish very out of water in Paris France. Marine is Parisian, but has her own hurdles as her twin recently passed away and dancing was a passion they shared. These girls want to become the best in their school to be able to move onto corps de ballet and there is only one spot. They will do almost anything to get that top spot and win the prize.
paragraphsandpages's review
2.0
While I've read a lot of books about competitive academia, whether it be magical or 'normal', I haven't read much from the point of view of an athlete/performer in training, especially not ballet. So for that alone I found this concept interesting, and I liked the idea of seeing how a friendship can evolve in and be shaped by such a competitive space (where only 1 can ever really pass). However, this really was not my thing at all. I found the setting itself interesting, but the story that took place in it just couldn't grip me.
First off, I just never felt connected to the characters at all. While Kate and Marine were friends, both of their POVs contained such harsh criticisms of the other that I never felt like I could positively look on either, and their opinions of each other bled into the POVs of each other. For example, Kate always called Marine young and naive, so you can't help but read Marine's chapters in that way as well. And Marine thought of Kate as boy-obsessed, which made me hyper-focus on how little she seemed to want to actually dance and more just wanted to find love? On top of that, I rarely got the feeling that either Marine or Kate actually liked to dance at all, since while they both definitely had their reasons for being in the program and trying their best, it wasn't for love of ballet but always for someone else. It made the entire competition to be the best fall flat, because they didn't want to win to join Opera necessarily (except this rang true for Kate later, but her desire for this often intermingled with her desire for some guy), they just wanted to finish someone else's dream/impress someone who wasn't there/etc. And lastly, both Kate and Marine struggled with a lot in their goal to be the best, but since their motivations weren't there for me, the struggles fell flat as well. Marine's struggle with eating rang truer than Kate delving into drugs, but it still didn't fully work for me because the development felt sudden. Their friendship also felt flimsy at the best of times, and I didn't quite understand how it had ever really worked out (their promise to each other also conflicted heavily with their individual dreams of winning, so I'm not quite sure how they ever rationalized this to themselves?).
Honestly the ending was solid in the sense that it concluded their individual character arcs and involved them finding their actual dreams and going for it, but it felt way too miraculous. Both of them just suddenly had solutions to their major problems and that seemed to be that. I also feel like there never was a good reconciliation between Kate and Marine, and the story focused more and more on their relationships with others near the end, so it feels a little half-finished in that regard.
Overall, this book just didn't work for me, as I feel like it tried to take a little too much on without necessarily having characters strong enough to carry across those problems well. I did enjoy the setting and the descriptions of dance were nice, but it just wasn't enough to make up for the rest for me.
First off, I just never felt connected to the characters at all. While Kate and Marine were friends, both of their POVs contained such harsh criticisms of the other that I never felt like I could positively look on either, and their opinions of each other bled into the POVs of each other. For example, Kate always called Marine young and naive, so you can't help but read Marine's chapters in that way as well. And Marine thought of Kate as boy-obsessed, which made me hyper-focus on how little she seemed to want to actually dance and more just wanted to find love? On top of that, I rarely got the feeling that either Marine or Kate actually liked to dance at all, since while they both definitely had their reasons for being in the program and trying their best, it wasn't for love of ballet but always for someone else. It made the entire competition to be the best fall flat, because they didn't want to win to join Opera necessarily (except this rang true for Kate later, but her desire for this often intermingled with her desire for some guy), they just wanted to finish someone else's dream/impress someone who wasn't there/etc. And lastly, both Kate and Marine struggled with a lot in their goal to be the best, but since their motivations weren't there for me, the struggles fell flat as well. Marine's struggle with eating rang truer than Kate delving into drugs, but it still didn't fully work for me because the development felt sudden. Their friendship also felt flimsy at the best of times, and I didn't quite understand how it had ever really worked out (their promise to each other also conflicted heavily with their individual dreams of winning, so I'm not quite sure how they ever rationalized this to themselves?).
Honestly the ending was solid in the sense that it concluded their individual character arcs and involved them finding their actual dreams and going for it, but it felt way too miraculous. Both of them just suddenly had solutions to their major problems and that seemed to be that. I also feel like there never was a good reconciliation between Kate and Marine, and the story focused more and more on their relationships with others near the end, so it feels a little half-finished in that regard.
Overall, this book just didn't work for me, as I feel like it tried to take a little too much on without necessarily having characters strong enough to carry across those problems well. I did enjoy the setting and the descriptions of dance were nice, but it just wasn't enough to make up for the rest for me.
lurdes_oliveira's review
1.0
A capa deste livro é linda e a sinopse pareceu-me intrigante, mas não sei por que é vendido como um mistério quando não há nenhum.
Eu tenho um pequeno fascínio pela cultura do ballet e queria mesmo ver esse "mundo" explorando na perspetiva de jovens adultos, mas este livro não é para mim. Não senti nada pelas personagens não me importei com o enredo, tudo me pareceu um pouco aborrecido.
Há muitos problemas abordados neste livro, como o transtorno alimentar, a depressão, o aborto ... Mas todos esses problemas importantes são resolvidos rapidamente e a história continua.
Também passava bem sem relacionamentos femininos tóxicos.
I was pretty intrigued by this book and the cover is beautiful. But I don't know why it is labelled as a mystery when there isn't one.
I have a minor fascination with ballet culture, and I really wanted to delve into it and explore it in a YA setting. However, this one just wasn’t for me.
I didn’t connect with the characters or care about the plot and everything felt flat. There are many issues addressed in this book such as eating disorder, depression, abortion… But all of this strong issues were quickly resolved and the story moved on.
Also a big no to toxic female relationships.
Eu tenho um pequeno fascínio pela cultura do ballet e queria mesmo ver esse "mundo" explorando na perspetiva de jovens adultos, mas este livro não é para mim. Não senti nada pelas personagens não me importei com o enredo, tudo me pareceu um pouco aborrecido.
Há muitos problemas abordados neste livro, como o transtorno alimentar, a depressão, o aborto ... Mas todos esses problemas importantes são resolvidos rapidamente e a história continua.
Também passava bem sem relacionamentos femininos tóxicos.
I was pretty intrigued by this book and the cover is beautiful. But I don't know why it is labelled as a mystery when there isn't one.
I have a minor fascination with ballet culture, and I really wanted to delve into it and explore it in a YA setting. However, this one just wasn’t for me.
I didn’t connect with the characters or care about the plot and everything felt flat. There are many issues addressed in this book such as eating disorder, depression, abortion… But all of this strong issues were quickly resolved and the story moved on.
Also a big no to toxic female relationships.
someonetookit's review
3.0
So I didn't love this but I also didn't hate it. It kind of just... Was.
The premise was amazing and took me back to my younger years when all that mattered was the perfect releve and looking fabulous in my gross pink tights and standard black leotard. Utilising the full gamut of the ballet vocabulary, this is either going to be a novel where you understand whats happening or you are constantly referencing a dictionary and searching for videos on YouTube. For me it was the former so it wasnt too bad.
Now this story is supposed to revolve around the two girls Marine and Kate. They are the best of friends from rooming together since they were both accepted into Nanterre. Until a guy comes between them - its your standard friends to kind of enemies because you still care to friends again tale and its sweet with some reason emotional bits. But tbh the boys were better.
If you are into marshmallowy type guys, there is one. If you're into jerks who sleep around, there's also one of those. And completing the Holy Trinity of dancing men is the guy who has it all but wants some teenage girl attention too.
Overall I found the narrative to be interesting in parts but it didn't grab me and hold my attention. Which is unfortunate because I requested the crap out of this and then ended up having to get it the old way, after release date...
Its a good one if you love YA contemporaries, seeing a behind the scenes of competitive girls or if you just love a good book about the Arts
The premise was amazing and took me back to my younger years when all that mattered was the perfect releve and looking fabulous in my gross pink tights and standard black leotard. Utilising the full gamut of the ballet vocabulary, this is either going to be a novel where you understand whats happening or you are constantly referencing a dictionary and searching for videos on YouTube. For me it was the former so it wasnt too bad.
Now this story is supposed to revolve around the two girls Marine and Kate. They are the best of friends from rooming together since they were both accepted into Nanterre. Until a guy comes between them - its your standard friends to kind of enemies because you still care to friends again tale and its sweet with some reason emotional bits. But tbh the boys were better.
If you are into marshmallowy type guys, there is one. If you're into jerks who sleep around, there's also one of those. And completing the Holy Trinity of dancing men is the guy who has it all but wants some teenage girl attention too.
Overall I found the narrative to be interesting in parts but it didn't grab me and hold my attention. Which is unfortunate because I requested the crap out of this and then ended up having to get it the old way, after release date...
Its a good one if you love YA contemporaries, seeing a behind the scenes of competitive girls or if you just love a good book about the Arts
orbitzal's review
4.0
kate and marine should’ve ended up together. i’m upset that this wasn’t the official ending.
villanelle_vi's review
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
Kate…you toxic, selfish, stupid girl. Marine should have never befriended you
kimmiefmrcn's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5