Reviews with content warning for Abortion - The Ballerinas

Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

45 reviews

frantically's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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.

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kwoot7's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookwormsandcoffeestains's review

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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victoriarad's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

If I didn't have the lovely time to kill and space to read this, no way would I have finished it.
1. It was a little too slow moving for my taste.
2. The reveal of what they did to Lindsey was a little lame?

Which sounds silly because they basically caused her to get run over by a cab but the logistics of it feel questionable? A shoe lace? Really? I thought the original plan with the pill to be wayyy more interesting and more aligned to that whole ballet culture.

- speaking of, I love the whole ballet culture. I found it utterly fascinating and those elements were my favorite. The way the narrator talked about the constant analysis of bodies, I mean I just find that whole realm of reality to be fascinating. But additionally, I did not care at all about the paragraphs-long explanations about Russian ballets. Now that was just too niche. But it made sense with the character soooo... it's fine I guess.
3. The climax.

WTF. A window? It felt sooooo out of left field - and then with NO repercussions? Look, I'm all for female rage but when it comes out of absolutely nowhere it feels like a strange feminist gimmick. And the 3/4 of the book was not feministy at all. I almost with the thing with Jock (ew what a name) happened closer to the beginning/middle and that rage against the entire male species could grow over time.

4. Honestly Lindsey's situation was the most interesting. Maybe it should've been told from her POV?
5. Trigger warnings... there's just somethings I had to skip because I just can't read about certain topics.
I didn't hate the book, but I had to muscle my way through it and I felt very unsatisfied at the end.

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jillgoober's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book centers around ballerinas in the Paris Opera Ballet throughout their lives - from age 13 to 36. It mainly focuses on Delphine, our narrator, and her two friends Margaux and Lindsay. With a combination of present day scenes and flashbacks, we learn about the harsh world of professional ballet and how it takes its toll on them. This book is very character-driven and focuses on their development as opposed to plot development.

I enjoyed reading this book overall mostly due to the drama behind the curtain, so to speak: who's cheating on who, so and so was injured, she will get cut from the company next season, etc. I found the structure to be a little boring sometimes mostly because I wasn't sure where this story was going. Every time some big secret was vaguely brought up, I thought we would have to wait until the end to hear the details but it was always revealed much sooner. However, I certainly did not see the end coming.

Like I said before, I loved reading about the drama behind the scenes of the ballet company as well as the focus on the competitive aspects and how, at some point, you might age out before achieving star status. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy character-driven stories where the characters are flawed, make many mistakes, and are still working on it by the end.

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