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A review by theeditorreads
The Redpoint Crux by Morgan Shamy
5.0
Synopsis:
In Boulder, Colorado; Red Tucker is a seventeen-year-old world-class rock climber who gets banned from the Nationals team due to an ‘incident’. Now climbing recreationally, she’s had a fall and is dying. A strange guy appears out of nowhere and in the next instant she’s as fit as a fiddle. She left Halifax and a budding career in ballet behind three years back but has to return to that world again.
In Halifax, Nova Scotia; nineteen-year-old Liam Reynolds the Third is back at the theatre which his parents seem to have run to the ground by taking off with all the money. Now as the director, with the help of the Van Helsburg twins, he wants to resurrect it. But when strange things happen, coupled with the return of the Bridegroom killer, will Liam and Red be able to reach their end goal?
Review:
This is the debut book of [a:Morgan Shamy|18494856|Morgan Shamy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1581345247p2/18494856.jpg]. Before this, I’d read only one story with a ballerina as a protagonist. It was an erotic romance – The Risk by Caitlin Crews. Ballet not being that popular in my country, India, it made me appreciate their careers, the hardships they have to face from a tender age in order to survive and thrive in this field. And now to have read this story by a professional ballerina is just what I needed!
The story starts in August where Red is dying from a punctured lung after she suffers a fall. Come September, Liam finds himself at his parents’ theatre. Red has no option but to go back as her coach gave up on her after her supposedly turning slowly into her sick mother and being in denial about it. Her mother’s in a mental institution.
With appropriately named chapters and third-person narration, this story is off to a mysterious start. A promising ballerina turned famous rock climber, banned from the U.S.A. National Team due to an ‘incident’, Red has experienced quite the life at her young age, starting with her parents. The famous violinist Stewart Van Helsburg was murdered some seven years ago and Megan Van Helsburg changed her identity to Red Tucker in order to leave her old life behind.
It is atmospheric from the beginning with a lot of eeriness. A possibly haunted theatre, a serial killer who’s back, the promise of a hidden treasure, someone lurking beneath the infamous theatre, and what appears to be at first an unconventional romance. More deaths and horrifying events make everyone scared to work at the theatre, but the show is never really over …
This story is as ethereal as it is frightening. The character of Bellamy felt unreal! A wraith-like figure, he remained an enigma till the very end. The story held me in its grip, breath-taking in its build-up, this book can be said to be the ballet version of [b:The Phantom of the Opera|480204|The Phantom of the Opera|Gaston Leroux|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867727l/480204._SY75_.jpg|2259720] by Gaston Leroux. I haven’t yet read that classic but I look forward to reading it now. Another thing that I really liked was the friendship that Liam and Megan shared, without any love triangle or anything else to spoil it. Just pure friendship.
A grand production for the climax, with the identity of the crazed murderer, kept a mystery right till the very end, this is a read I’d definitely recommend. It would have got infinite stars from me though had I not felt sad about a part which had a tragic ending as well as the characters I was waiting to hear more of, like the kilt-wearing Scotsman Thomas MacDaniel. But I loved Shamy’s world, and look forward to reading all her future works!
Thank you to The Parliament House Press for an e-ARC of the book.
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings
In Boulder, Colorado; Red Tucker is a seventeen-year-old world-class rock climber who gets banned from the Nationals team due to an ‘incident’. Now climbing recreationally, she’s had a fall and is dying. A strange guy appears out of nowhere and in the next instant she’s as fit as a fiddle. She left Halifax and a budding career in ballet behind three years back but has to return to that world again.
In Halifax, Nova Scotia; nineteen-year-old Liam Reynolds the Third is back at the theatre which his parents seem to have run to the ground by taking off with all the money. Now as the director, with the help of the Van Helsburg twins, he wants to resurrect it. But when strange things happen, coupled with the return of the Bridegroom killer, will Liam and Red be able to reach their end goal?
Review:
This is the debut book of [a:Morgan Shamy|18494856|Morgan Shamy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1581345247p2/18494856.jpg]. Before this, I’d read only one story with a ballerina as a protagonist. It was an erotic romance – The Risk by Caitlin Crews. Ballet not being that popular in my country, India, it made me appreciate their careers, the hardships they have to face from a tender age in order to survive and thrive in this field. And now to have read this story by a professional ballerina is just what I needed!
The story starts in August where Red is dying from a punctured lung after she suffers a fall. Come September, Liam finds himself at his parents’ theatre. Red has no option but to go back as her coach gave up on her after her supposedly turning slowly into her sick mother and being in denial about it. Her mother’s in a mental institution.
My children are what keep this theatre alive. You have no idea what treasure they hold.
With appropriately named chapters and third-person narration, this story is off to a mysterious start. A promising ballerina turned famous rock climber, banned from the U.S.A. National Team due to an ‘incident’, Red has experienced quite the life at her young age, starting with her parents. The famous violinist Stewart Van Helsburg was murdered some seven years ago and Megan Van Helsburg changed her identity to Red Tucker in order to leave her old life behind.
It is atmospheric from the beginning with a lot of eeriness. A possibly haunted theatre, a serial killer who’s back, the promise of a hidden treasure, someone lurking beneath the infamous theatre, and what appears to be at first an unconventional romance. More deaths and horrifying events make everyone scared to work at the theatre, but the show is never really over …
Memories are the past, Megan. The present is alive. The present is more real than any object. Memories are sitting inside of us wishing to be lived again—but they never will be. That is unhealthy time traveling.
This story is as ethereal as it is frightening. The character of Bellamy felt unreal! A wraith-like figure, he remained an enigma till the very end. The story held me in its grip, breath-taking in its build-up, this book can be said to be the ballet version of [b:The Phantom of the Opera|480204|The Phantom of the Opera|Gaston Leroux|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867727l/480204._SY75_.jpg|2259720] by Gaston Leroux. I haven’t yet read that classic but I look forward to reading it now. Another thing that I really liked was the friendship that Liam and Megan shared, without any love triangle or anything else to spoil it. Just pure friendship.
A grand production for the climax, with the identity of the crazed murderer, kept a mystery right till the very end, this is a read I’d definitely recommend. It would have got infinite stars from me though had I not felt sad about a part which had a tragic ending as well as the characters I was waiting to hear more of, like the kilt-wearing Scotsman Thomas MacDaniel. But I loved Shamy’s world, and look forward to reading all her future works!
Thank you to The Parliament House Press for an e-ARC of the book.
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings