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ravensandlace's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Title: Tiny Pretty Things
Author: Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
Genre: Young Adult Thriller
Format: hardback library book
Series: Tiny Pretty Things (#1)
Star Rating: 3.5 stars
tw: underage drinking, disordered eating, vomiting, pill usage, subtle racism, bullying, infidelity, inappropriate student/teacher relationship, violence
I wanted to like this more than I did. That seems to be a pretty common theme for me as of late. I think I might have too high expectations. Goodreads synopsis compared it to Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars, both of which I love. Black Swan is one of my favorite movies. I did see elements of both Black Swan and Pretty Little Liars but I just found myself having a hard time connecting with this book.
My main problem was the amount of just pure hate and vitriol. Holy crap, some of these girls truly hated each other and it felt really off. In June’s storyline, a girl hates her and the reason she hates her seems incredibly ridiculous. I understand that the world of ballet is incredibly competitive and tense but is there really so much hate? It just made my stomach churn with how much bullying there was.
This book is very much a slow burn. There is a lot of mystery behind it but the pacing of those mysteries felt off. We literally learned all the secrets the ballerinas had by the middle of the book. So then we were just left with three teen girls on a path to major self-destruction, which was pretty heartbreaking to read.
This review is going in a negative direction. I did like the book, for the most part. I appreciated that two out of the three main characters weren’t white. Gigi was Black and June was half-Korean. I know the world of ballet is not diverse so it was very lovely to see that. Even if those characters experienced racism because of it.
This book also portrays both the brutal world of eating disorders and the extremes one would go to get parental approval. While I don’t have an eating disorder, I think it portrayed what it's like to have one pretty well. The scenes were pretty graphic and honestly hard to read. The same goes for parental approval. These girls have so much going on with them.
Overall, this wasn’t my favorite book but I did enjoy it. I am a huge sucker for the world of ballet. I didn’t know a lot of what they were talking about in terms of the dance moves but I’m still obsessed. I will be continuing with the series because this book left on a cliffhanger and I’m curious to know what's going on.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Classism, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Racism, Hate crime, and Medical content
chickpea19's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Vomit, Animal death, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Sexual content
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