A review by line_so_fine
Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars by Sonia Faleiro

4.0

Faleiro befriends Leela, a bar dancer in a squalid area of Mumbai. Leela is witty, smart, and calculating. She, along with many of her contemporaries, has escaped a horrific childhood in a nearby village at a very brave age 13. The backstories of each of the women was gutwrenching and very hard to read. Faleiro does a good job of describing her relationship with Leela while keeping the focus on Leela's life overall, and keeping a balance between showing the ways in which Leela and her peers are victimized but find ways to have agency where they are able.