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A review by nicoleabouttown
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
3.0
Based on the description of The Ballerinas: A Novel by Rachel Kapelke-Dale, I was expecting this one to be a straight-up thriller, and that is what I had prepared myself for. Then I started reading it and had to make a quick adjustment of my thought process. This isn't so much a thriller, but rather more of a drama. It feels like a very real, and authentic drama, with some suspenseful and thriller aspects, but a drama all the same.
The book is entirely character-driven and reading it really leaves you feeling as if you know them, and even if you don't always agree with them, you understand them. You understand their choices, their hurts, their pain, and how they came to make the decisions they did.
The descriptions of the ballerinas and the ballet world as a whole are just phenomenal. It feels like it's being described by an actual ballerina or someone who was deeply immersed in that life at one point or the other. It really leads to the feeling of authenticity in the storytelling and gives it a believability that is sometimes very hard to convey.
“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” James Baldwin
I don't think I've read a book lately that really brought James Baldwin's words home so well.
The book is entirely character-driven and reading it really leaves you feeling as if you know them, and even if you don't always agree with them, you understand them. You understand their choices, their hurts, their pain, and how they came to make the decisions they did.
The descriptions of the ballerinas and the ballet world as a whole are just phenomenal. It feels like it's being described by an actual ballerina or someone who was deeply immersed in that life at one point or the other. It really leads to the feeling of authenticity in the storytelling and gives it a believability that is sometimes very hard to convey.
“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” James Baldwin
I don't think I've read a book lately that really brought James Baldwin's words home so well.