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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The ballet aspect of this book — the techniques, the industry, the trauma the ballerinas face was researched with obvious love and diligence and was really the highlight of the book. The supposed feministic message (if it can be called that?) was like trying to swim through musky water and it wasn't a fun experience. The ending was just a tad too ridiculous and perfect for my taste.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Abortion, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Infertility, Pedophilia, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Medical content
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Gaslighting
Minor: Abortion
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC ...I really wanted to love this story, Paris, St. Petersburg, ballet insider lives...but I had a difficult time with the dual, sometimes triple time lines. Seems to me it would have flowed better had more time been spent in each time frame instead of the choppy back and forth and forth. I DID enjoy the idea of female friendship and how it will evolve but true friendship never really dies. Another enlightening issue is the "cost" to women in pursuing a life dedicated to ballet, none of which applies to the men that have chosen this profession.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
1.5 ⭐️
Fiction
Format: Hardcover/ Audiobook
I admit I bought this book for its cover. Not to mention I love ballet, and the description made the book sound a little thrilling. I am now disappointed that I paid for a hardcover.
Let me start by saying if you are a radical feminist, who is hardcore down with the man, and leans heavily on the ideals of body autonomy and that men are the scum of society and you like ballet then you will probably like this book.
I found the first half of this book incredibly boring, very little happened, and only vague references that something bad happened in the past that would change the character's life if the secret got out. The narrator also had that British melancholy tone, which was weird because the character was French and the narrator did all the other accents perfectly. I digress. At the midpoint of the book, it got interesting and in the vein of the Me Too movement. From there it goes from an interesting feminist plot line and twists into a radical feminist plot.
SPOILER This is where the book lost all merit with me. One of the ballet dancers Lindsay was married to Danial. All talk about Danial was very positive. He expresses to Delphine (Lindsay’s friend and main character) that he is worried that Lindsay will never want to have a baby. It is my understanding that Lindsay has given Daniel false hope that when she retires she will have a family. She is 36 and had no intentions of retiring, and Delphine is giving her a role that could launch her into a Star Ballerina. Lindsay discovers she is pregnant and gets an abortion without telling her husband. Then at her birthday dinner, the set comes out about the abortion, Daniel is devastated and accidentally knocks over a statue that lands on Lindsay's foot, thus ending her career, Delphine pushes Danial and he falls out a window and dies! The way the character went on after that about being glad he was dead, that men were basically all evil, and that she was happy that she was able to alter a man's body made me cringe! Had the author made Daniel's character a deplorable man who actually did hateful things this situation wouldn't have bothered me so badly. She made him sound like a good man who was devoted to his wife and wanted to have a family and she denied him that and refused to communicate it to him expecting him to understand and know that because she was a dancer she never wanted kids. I’m sorry, I'm ranting now. END SPOILER
Halfway through the book, you realize Delphine is also incredibly narcissistic, making her insufferable. I am all for an empowering feminist narrative, but I cannot get on board with radical feminism that just bashes men.
📖📖📖📖
Fourteen years ago, Delphine abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg––taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now 36 years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career––and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she's been away...and some secrets can't stay buried forever.
Moving between the trio's adolescent years and the present day, The Ballerinas explores the complexities of female friendship, the dark drive towards physical perfection in the name of artistic expression, the double-edged sword of ambition and passion, and the sublimated rage that so many women hold inside––all culminating in a twist you won't see coming, with magnetic characters you won't soon forget.
#books #bookreview #bookworm
1.5 ⭐️
Fiction
Format: Hardcover/ Audiobook
I admit I bought this book for its cover. Not to mention I love ballet, and the description made the book sound a little thrilling. I am now disappointed that I paid for a hardcover.
Let me start by saying if you are a radical feminist, who is hardcore down with the man, and leans heavily on the ideals of body autonomy and that men are the scum of society and you like ballet then you will probably like this book.
I found the first half of this book incredibly boring, very little happened, and only vague references that something bad happened in the past that would change the character's life if the secret got out. The narrator also had that British melancholy tone, which was weird because the character was French and the narrator did all the other accents perfectly. I digress. At the midpoint of the book, it got interesting and in the vein of the Me Too movement. From there it goes from an interesting feminist plot line and twists into a radical feminist plot.
SPOILER This is where the book lost all merit with me. One of the ballet dancers Lindsay was married to Danial. All talk about Danial was very positive. He expresses to Delphine (Lindsay’s friend and main character) that he is worried that Lindsay will never want to have a baby. It is my understanding that Lindsay has given Daniel false hope that when she retires she will have a family. She is 36 and had no intentions of retiring, and Delphine is giving her a role that could launch her into a Star Ballerina. Lindsay discovers she is pregnant and gets an abortion without telling her husband. Then at her birthday dinner, the set comes out about the abortion, Daniel is devastated and accidentally knocks over a statue that lands on Lindsay's foot, thus ending her career, Delphine pushes Danial and he falls out a window and dies! The way the character went on after that about being glad he was dead, that men were basically all evil, and that she was happy that she was able to alter a man's body made me cringe! Had the author made Daniel's character a deplorable man who actually did hateful things this situation wouldn't have bothered me so badly. She made him sound like a good man who was devoted to his wife and wanted to have a family and she denied him that and refused to communicate it to him expecting him to understand and know that because she was a dancer she never wanted kids. I’m sorry, I'm ranting now. END SPOILER
Halfway through the book, you realize Delphine is also incredibly narcissistic, making her insufferable. I am all for an empowering feminist narrative, but I cannot get on board with radical feminism that just bashes men.
📖📖📖📖
Fourteen years ago, Delphine abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg––taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now 36 years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career––and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she's been away...and some secrets can't stay buried forever.
Moving between the trio's adolescent years and the present day, The Ballerinas explores the complexities of female friendship, the dark drive towards physical perfection in the name of artistic expression, the double-edged sword of ambition and passion, and the sublimated rage that so many women hold inside––all culminating in a twist you won't see coming, with magnetic characters you won't soon forget.
#books #bookreview #bookworm
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I went into this thinking it would be a standard fun fast-paced thriller but it was so much more than that. holy shit this is so good. I laughed, and cried, and this is why I freaking read books. For books like these.