Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

10 reviews

sammyanntha's review

emotional reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion and Misogyny

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Sexual harassment

jcinf's review

challenging dark hopeful 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

5.0

This book was everything I didn’t know I needed. 

• Friendship between women
• The secrets we keep
• The relentless and exhausting pursuit of perfection (one that I’d argue is an experience profoundly belonging to women)
• The feeling of being watched that all women live with

This book ended up healing me in ways I didn’t expect. Here are some of my favorite quotes. Huge spoilers in the last couple: 

We all stuck to our stories. And it is so easy to see someone through only one own lens: the role they play in yours. Stella had been right. I’d only ever seen her as a guru, a mentor, the friendly neighborhood witch. Who was Stella in her own story?

I’ve always thought dying would be a little bit like dissolving into the sun. We leave our little frames behind and see the whole picture for the first time. The entire panorama. I like to feel the sun on my face because I can practice living and practice dying. Both at the same time. 

I watched her, struggling for perfection, this woman who had been struggling for perfection for more than twenty years, and I was fascinated. 

This is why I loved choreographing. This is why it was better than dancing. Instead of trying to contort myself into someone else’s vision, I would take what was already inside me and find the perfect vessel for it. 

Living our lives as though we expect it to be forgotten. As though now is all that matters. It might be easier on the mind to live like that, but it’s harder in the soul. 

You’re bigger than us. And after everything’s said and done, we depend on your goodwill. Not just to make things easier. For survival. If you want, to you can kill us, and we know it.

This wasn’t the movies in our lives didn’t work that way. Someone was always, always watching us and it was too late. It had been too late since I pushed him through the window. It had been too late long before then. Besides, I didn’t want to cover this up. Monstrous and horrible as his body had become, as horrified as I was that I actually killed somebody, I also felt like I was watching the stage at the end of the best dance I’ve ever made. In the darkness, I felt my mother beside me. Smiling. Maybe, after everything, this was her legacy. She spent her life performing for the void but two hands on Daniel‘s chest and I flip the script, made the only ballet that could ever truly be for us and about us at the same time. And achieved what she never could: we had become the spectators for once. We had been the ones to please. And he was the one who failed. His death was my masterpiece. Because that’s all ballet is, in the end. Just bodies moving through time and space.  

 

Absolutely stunning novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Infertility, Grief, Death, Blood, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Sexism

beth_s98's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Murder, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Terminal illness, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

girlsrock1990's review

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment

readingonfordearlife's review

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Sexual content, Abortion, Death, and Sexual harassment

rusty_moonshadow's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Grief, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Death of parent, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Infertility, Alcoholism, Car accident, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit

bmyurs's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Enjoyed this overall- it wrapped up quickly at the end but gave some modern insight to sexism, feminism, and gender stereotypes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment and Death of parent

Minor: Blood

mondovertigo's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Medical content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Grief, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Sexual violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

alisonhp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Grim, but still beautiful and compelling, and very human. I’m not sure a novel about ballerinas would be believable if it weren’t depressing, and the story weaves a narrative that extends beyond dancers to women and the fight to exist in and beyond our bodies. The characters engage in a palpable struggle with aging, and the resilience in their lives and relationships felt unexpectedly uplifting to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

prncss1204's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Friendship. Ambition. Secrets. Betrayals. All with the Paris Opera Ballet as a backdrop. Sounds great, right? 

I expected a dark, twisty thriller and that is not what I got. The Ballerinas is really more of a character driven drama/women’s fiction type novel. It started slow, but eventually picked up pace a little. A few things to mention: 

1. The author did a wonderful job painting a picture of the life of a professional ballerina. The dedication, the cut-throat competition, the sacrifices made… that said…
2. I wouldn’t say any of the characters were particularly likable…not even the ballerinas. About half-way through, the book took a #MeToo turn that I just wasn’t expecting. As another reviewer pointed out, every male character turned into a predator and control freak. Not what I was expecting from this novel at all. 
3. The story is told in two timelines by the main character, Delphine. While other reviewers stated this made it hard for them to keep track of the story, I didn’t think it was an issue. For me, it was more that they didn’t always flow well. 
4. Overall, I think there were just too many things going on in this novel. I wish the author had picked a path, stuck to it, and developed it more rather than jumping around so many topics.

Thank you to the author, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. You can pick up a copy when it is published on December 7.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Murder

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, and Adult/minor relationship