Sisters Dara and Marie Durant run the Durant School of Dance, along with Dara’s husband Charlie. Their days consist of teaching students and getting ready for their annual performance of The Nutcracker. When a fire breaks out in one of the school’s studios, the trio decides to upgrade that portion of the school while it is being repaired. But the contractor that arrives to repair the damage ends up causing more destruction than anyone had ever imagined.
I have to confess, I did not get this book. I thought I would like it because I took ballet when I was younger so I was hyped to read a book about ballet but this storyline was just weird and I kept waiting for the plot to show up. I almost put this book down several times but ended up keeping reading in the hopes that something in the book would grab my attention but it never did. I kept hearing that this was a thriller with a twist, but I didn’t see that at all.
This book was just boring. There’s no plot. It’s just endless repetition of ballet classes and how the students picked to play Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are getting picked on. And then how the contractor is taking his time with the repairs and it keeps costing more money. Honestly, it was as if your relative was telling you a dragging story at Christmas where you are just thinking, can you get to the point?
There was so much repetition in this book. I found the constant descriptions of how thin the ballerinas are and what their bodies and feet look like to be very uncomfortable. How many times do we have to read about how gnarled their feet are? There is a constant telling of how the studio smells like must and bandaids and skin. There are lots of mentions of the boys’ Adam’s apples. I can’t tell you how many times that author described Marie’s face as fox-like. I mean, we get it – she is sly is cunning. Does the author know any other animals because I don’t think so?
The contractor just seems to be this evil villain who says all the cliche lines. I kept expecting him to twirl his imaginary mustache at some point. Even I could see that he was just there to rip them off and keep charging them more money for “necessary” repairs. (I hope that’s not a spoiler for anyone.)
I wish I had liked this book but I didn’t.
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