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A review by goldenbeebookshop
The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz
2.0
I received a copy of the book from Netgalley in partnership with the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This book is not about ballet. I can’t stress that enough because I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover and the description that felt more coherent than the actual content of the book.
The choice of having the girls be ballerinas feels so arbitrary, “Master” could have been training them to be maids, assassins, prostitutes, and while the moral implications would be potentially more complicated, it would likely feel just as “background” as the rare glimpses of the ballet world.
There are two large matters at the center of the story: a boy with a bad leg who grows up to be hellbent on revenge and control (wtf) and a kind of cybernetics, “just go-with-it” mash-up of faux science and technology and animal/human integration, that could be steampunk because of the era, if it just didn’t feel so unapologetically incongruous.
Normally I try to avoid spoilers, especially for books that I want people to enjoy as the story unfolds in their own reading, but in this case, I feel like I got duped and I don’t want anyone else to get duped.
The biggest issue for me is that we’re meant to believe that a childhood of being taunted and teased by his sisters led the boy who would become “Master” to use the talents of his friend to not only replace his bad leg, mess with his sister’s head, but to eventually open up a ballet school with the specific intent of wiping the memories of orphaned or stolen girls and having a bunch of thoughtless marionettes. It’s a an interesting idea, but one I just don’t understand how we got from A-B. There’s also some strange loose ends that both me:
We never learn Bianca’s official fate- I think we’re meant to assume that she went with the master willingly because she had some physical handicap he fixed
The man we know as Beppe- dude can make people walk again and give them new lungs! And he got tricked into using his work for evil? Fine. But let’s give the man more than the cursory wrap-up that he got.
What was the master’s endgame? I kept reading because I assumed there would be a better explanation or long game as to what he wanted to accomplish, or what he wanted the girls for. But the reality was simply that he was a sick man with unattended mental issues, fixated on a wilful girl that he wanted to break. Still makes the whole world of the ballet program and the estate a bit confusing.
Overall, it was at least nice to spend time with a main character who acted with courage to save her friends, but a lot of the world felt superficial and overpopulated with the most mustache-twirling kind of villainy.
This book is not about ballet. I can’t stress that enough because I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover and the description that felt more coherent than the actual content of the book.
The choice of having the girls be ballerinas feels so arbitrary, “Master” could have been training them to be maids, assassins, prostitutes, and while the moral implications would be potentially more complicated, it would likely feel just as “background” as the rare glimpses of the ballet world.
There are two large matters at the center of the story: a boy with a bad leg who grows up to be hellbent on revenge and control (wtf) and a kind of cybernetics, “just go-with-it” mash-up of faux science and technology and animal/human integration, that could be steampunk because of the era, if it just didn’t feel so unapologetically incongruous.
Normally I try to avoid spoilers, especially for books that I want people to enjoy as the story unfolds in their own reading, but in this case, I feel like I got duped and I don’t want anyone else to get duped.
Spoiler
The biggest issue for me is that we’re meant to believe that a childhood of being taunted and teased by his sisters led the boy who would become “Master” to use the talents of his friend to not only replace his bad leg, mess with his sister’s head, but to eventually open up a ballet school with the specific intent of wiping the memories of orphaned or stolen girls and having a bunch of thoughtless marionettes. It’s a an interesting idea, but one I just don’t understand how we got from A-B. There’s also some strange loose ends that both me:
We never learn Bianca’s official fate- I think we’re meant to assume that she went with the master willingly because she had some physical handicap he fixed
The man we know as Beppe- dude can make people walk again and give them new lungs! And he got tricked into using his work for evil? Fine. But let’s give the man more than the cursory wrap-up that he got.
What was the master’s endgame? I kept reading because I assumed there would be a better explanation or long game as to what he wanted to accomplish, or what he wanted the girls for. But the reality was simply that he was a sick man with unattended mental issues, fixated on a wilful girl that he wanted to break. Still makes the whole world of the ballet program and the estate a bit confusing.
Overall, it was at least nice to spend time with a main character who acted with courage to save her friends, but a lot of the world felt superficial and overpopulated with the most mustache-twirling kind of villainy.