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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
Ballet has never really interested me so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. This is the story of three ballerina friends who have grown up at the Paris Ballet. Delphine is now a choreographer who has returned from St. Petersburg and is directing the new ballet, Tsarina. The three have secrets in their past and unfinished business.
They also have ambitions that threaten their relationships. Mixed in are their spouses, and other partners. This story also has an element of the #metoo movement that’s depicts how male dancers are treated compared to female dancers.
I liked this story. The ballet aspects were not my favorite but I liked the girls relationships, and I liked how they struggled to find a way forward in their friendship.
Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advanced e-copy of #theballerinas.
They also have ambitions that threaten their relationships. Mixed in are their spouses, and other partners. This story also has an element of the #metoo movement that’s depicts how male dancers are treated compared to female dancers.
I liked this story. The ballet aspects were not my favorite but I liked the girls relationships, and I liked how they struggled to find a way forward in their friendship.
Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advanced e-copy of #theballerinas.
2.5 rounded up. This was interesting at times and not what I was expecting. I enjoyed the parts about ballet but the “thriller” component was honestly boring.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A dual-timeline, single POV novel set in 2018 at the Paris Opera Ballet and in the 90’s/00’s when ballet friends Delphine (MC), Margaux and Lindsey are teenagers at the rigorous ballet school. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at professional ballet, although I actually would have enjoyed more of that- what they eat, how much they rehearse each day etc was largely missing. The past timeline was less interesting than the present, and the author tries to tackle too much (alcoholism, infertility, cancer, adultery, abuse, statutory rape, abortion, and that’s not a comprehensive list!). Still, the author produced an engaging and satisfying story, in an intriguing setting, about female friendships and breaking free from the role of object.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall great story idea. Enjoyed looking into a ballerina's life. Enjoyed the complexities each individual character dealt with and the relationships between them - their internal struggle. With that said, I didn't like any of the characters, with the exception of Stella, and I felt that there was no maturity/growth for any by the end of the book. It felt like the story was leading there the whole time, but the characters never quite got there.
I took off stars because the beginning, middle, and end themes did not match up. The start felt like it was introduced as a mystery thriller - a ballerina rivalry. I was anxiously waiting for the big reveal. The reveal fell flat. Did not live up to what it was built up to be in the beginning. I actually was so underwhelmed that it almost made me stop listening.
Then the whole back and forth between past and present led no where. As it was happening I thought it was going to lead up to something bigger, but like the big reveal, although informative and somewhat interesting, really it was just a deeper insight into Delphine's life.
And then ending... well, I thought it went too far into the "huh, well that just happened" and was a little too random.
Great narration.
Loved the cover. Totally what drew me in.
I took off stars because the beginning, middle, and end themes did not match up. The start felt like it was introduced as a mystery thriller - a ballerina rivalry. I was anxiously waiting for the big reveal. The reveal fell flat. Did not live up to what it was built up to be in the beginning. I actually was so underwhelmed that it almost made me stop listening.
Then the whole back and forth between past and present led no where. As it was happening I thought it was going to lead up to something bigger, but like the big reveal, although informative and somewhat interesting, really it was just a deeper insight into Delphine's life.
And then ending... well, I thought it went too far into the "huh, well that just happened" and was a little too random.
Great narration.
Loved the cover. Totally what drew me in.
This book was one of the books I was looking forward to reading most this year. I was waiting practically on tenterhooks for over 6 months because I love ballet, I love ballerinas, and I love books and movies about them. I had read Meg Abbott’s “The Turnout” earlier in the year and I had adored it, so I was hoping I would love this book just as much.
But I ended up being so disappointed when this book didn’t even come close to meeting any of my expectations. Despite the buzz and hype surrounding it, it wasn’t anything like Black Swan or reminiscent of Meg Abbott’s writing. There was so much potential in this book and I feel it was wasted.
The biggest issue I had with this book was the pacing. The frequent switching between past and present until the past caught up to present caused the pacing of the book to stutter and stop. It slowed down the pacing so much I kept looking at how far into the book I was and going, “Really? I’m only that far in?” Flashbacks are a sloppy storytelling device in the first place, and if you’re going to use them you need to use them as a condiment, not as almost 50% of the food on your plate.
And for all the bravado of how us readers won’t see the twists coming, I saw it telegraphed a mile away. I just waited for the characters in the book to get there.
It was an okay book, but not great. I just wish it had lived up to what it could have been.
But I ended up being so disappointed when this book didn’t even come close to meeting any of my expectations. Despite the buzz and hype surrounding it, it wasn’t anything like Black Swan or reminiscent of Meg Abbott’s writing. There was so much potential in this book and I feel it was wasted.
The biggest issue I had with this book was the pacing. The frequent switching between past and present until the past caught up to present caused the pacing of the book to stutter and stop. It slowed down the pacing so much I kept looking at how far into the book I was and going, “Really? I’m only that far in?” Flashbacks are a sloppy storytelling device in the first place, and if you’re going to use them you need to use them as a condiment, not as almost 50% of the food on your plate.
And for all the bravado of how us readers won’t see the twists coming, I saw it telegraphed a mile away. I just waited for the characters in the book to get there.
It was an okay book, but not great. I just wish it had lived up to what it could have been.
The writing style and language of this book was incredibly natural and enjoyable, and the author included beautiful and vivid description of ballet movement. It is clear that the author understands the world of ballet very well, but I’m taking a star off because I’m not sure how well the author understood her characters or her plot.
There were quite a few moments where I thought ‘whoa, why would that character do that?’, and not in a surprise plot twist kind of way - more like an out of character, confusing like of way. It’s like there wasn’t enough time to explain enough about each player before they did something shocking, and I think maybe the reason is that there are just too many characters that feel like they would be labeled as secondary characters. There’s one primary and probably 7 secondaries, between 1-3 true tertiaries, and then a few background players, which is just a lot of ‘important’ people in a 300ish page book.
I’m also not sure exactly how one would describe this plot because there are so many pieces and climaxes in the book that I truly couldn’t tell you what the story was about - other than a group of ballet friends and their various crises.
That sounds like a lot of criticism but overall I enjoyed it other than the ‘well that escalated quickly’ moments, so overall 4 out of 5 and thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
There were quite a few moments where I thought ‘whoa, why would that character do that?’, and not in a surprise plot twist kind of way - more like an out of character, confusing like of way. It’s like there wasn’t enough time to explain enough about each player before they did something shocking, and I think maybe the reason is that there are just too many characters that feel like they would be labeled as secondary characters. There’s one primary and probably 7 secondaries, between 1-3 true tertiaries, and then a few background players, which is just a lot of ‘important’ people in a 300ish page book.
I’m also not sure exactly how one would describe this plot because there are so many pieces and climaxes in the book that I truly couldn’t tell you what the story was about - other than a group of ballet friends and their various crises.
That sounds like a lot of criticism but overall I enjoyed it other than the ‘well that escalated quickly’ moments, so overall 4 out of 5 and thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a strange book, I was expecting it to be more of a mystery/thriller than it was. Instead of that, it turned out to be a slow-paced contemporary about female friendship and the art of ballet. I found it to be quite slow even though it was less than 300 pages long, so I ended up listening to the majority of it on audio. That was the better option for me because I thought the audiobook was quite good. The exploration of female friendships and the conversations around how society views women were the most compelling parts of this for me. It wasn't really what I was expecting in terms of genre and pace, but I ended up having a pretty good time with it.