I have finally come to my last book of the year and I am so glad I stopped with The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. This was a stunning book I adored it. It is the tale of three friends that unfolds across their lives. All this is wrapped around the unique world of professional ballet. Which if I was coordinated enough I would want to at least do one lesson as a child. However, being as I am 34 I will live my fantasies through books. I will say that this read specifically shows the dark side of the profession which I loved and hated in equal measure, this story somehow captures enduring truths about how women struggle to achieve their dreams and potential. While some struggle to be at the top some struggle to find love. The truth is I think that can be said about any profession and any lifestyle and job. You will love and hate the friendships in this book but you will have one person in your reading circle that you want to share this story with. It is twisty, dark, and a must-read for those who love a thriller. I am so pleased to say that I ended my year at 1033pm with a 5-star read.
( )

Hace trece años, Delphine Léger abandonó su prestigioso puesto como solista en el Ballet de la Ópera de París para empezar una nueva vida en San Petersburgo. Se llevó consigo un secreto que podría poner patas arriba la vida de sus mejores amigas y compañeras de ballet, Lindsay y Margaux. Ahora, a los treinta y seis años, Delphine ha regresado a su antiguo hogar y al legendario Palacio Garnier para coreografiar la obra de ballet que hará despegar la siguiente fase de su carrera y que, espera, conseguirá que se arreglen las cosas con sus antiguas amistades. Sin embargo, Delphine no tarda en descubrir que las cosas han cambiado durante su ausencia y que algunos secretos no pueden permanecer enterrados para siempre.

Las bailarinas se mueve entre el pasado, cuando las tres eran todavía adolescentes, y el presente. Explora las complejidades de la amistad entre mujeres, la enfermiza voluntad por conseguir un físico perfecto en nombre de la expresión artística, el arma de doble filo que representan la ambición y la pasión, y la rabia sublimada que tantas personas guardan en su interior. Todo ello culmina con un giro inesperado y unos personajes que no serán fáciles de olvidar. ( )

One of the most meh books I've read in recent memory. There's a lot of really interesting conflicts set up, especially in the first half, but I can't think of any plot point that wasn't resolved in the most cheap way possible. The back half is a speedrun of increasingly inane pseudo-feminist microplots, none of which last longer than...I don't know, twenty pages? The writing itself is fine insofar as its unremarkable (aside from brief moments where it dips into a tone so undeservedly self-righteousness that I rolled my eyes), and I think this author probably could write something enjoyable if she planned the story out instead of repeatedly writing herself into a corner and then, like, drawing ideas out of a hat. ( )

I wanted to like this one and was hopeful for this with the comparison to Black Swan and alluding to this being a mystery, suspense, and/or thriller type of story, but there was little to none of any of those types of story here. This was a story about the world of ballet, about the weird and obsessive perspective of ballerinas with these 3 ballerinas who meet and become friends in the 90s when they're attending ballet school together. There are two timelines and it goes back and forth between the timelines with the 3 friends and what goes on in their lives.
They each go through things and try to deal with their experiences while living their dreams or trying to achieve their goals with dance despite their age, health, or circumstances. I wasn't impressed with the event that did happen at the end of the book that was the only part that could have been considered suspense or otherwise with the one murder.
It was somewhat interesting, but not enough to keep my attention and keep me wanting to read it to see what happened. I read it but had a hard time pushing through to the end to finish it. This book just wasn't for me. Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for letting me have the chance to read and review this story. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

The Ballerinas is an exploration of female friendships set within the world of professional ballet where competition is a fierce motivator. The story features three dancers: Delphine, Lindsay and Margaux, who all began studying at the Paris Opera Ballet when they were young girls. Over the years, they are intensely focused on the careers to which they aspire. As they mature, they might secure spots as members of the ballet company or, if they are good enough, become soloists or principal dancers, featured in productions. The path to becoming a principal dancer is long and fraught, requiring not just superior talent, dedication, and tireless preparation, but the ability to navigate the politics of getting noticed and championed by the ballet company's teachers, choreographers, and artistic directors. For debut author Rachel Kapelke-Dale, little research was required, aside from learning about the workings of the Paris Opera Ballet because she trained intensively in ballet as child. "My training allowed me to sketch in the background action for various scenes without too much trouble, as the format of those classes is so deeply ingrained in my memory," she relates.

For Delphine Léger, dance is a family matter. Her mother was a star ballerina whose career was cut short by her unplanned pregnancy. Delphine feels pressure not just to live up to her mother's example, but her expectation that Delphine will avoid making the same mistake she did and enjoy a long, successful career. Lindsay and Margaux also struggle with the stressors that challenge young dancers as they mature, including the never-ending effort to maintain an ideal body even as natural changes threaten to render perfection unattainable, the harsh criticisms of instructors ("You start out a whole and then you break," Delphine observes), expectations of parents and family members, and the destruction and debilitating effects of self-doubt and competition that can drive fragile adolescents to behave in harshly shocking ways.

It is 2018, and Delphine has decided that "Paris is always a good idea." After a thirteen-year absence, she has returned to Paris to choreograph Rasputin, a ballet she wanted to stage the entire time she was in St. Petersburg working as a choreographer at the Mariinsky Ballet with her romantic partner. And she has definite ideas about who she wants to star in the production: her old friend Lindsay, who has been a soloist for years. But Lindsay is now thirty-five years old – the company has a mandatory retirement age of forty-two -- and not a good partner. But Delphine is convinced that her staging of the classic, with Lindsay as the tsarina, will revitalize the company . . . as well as her friends' careers. Nathalie Dorival, the artistic director, reluctantly agrees to give Delphine one month to determine if Lindsay is up to the challenge. But she must name an understudy -- an insult to a ballerina of Lindsay's status. Delphine must accept Nathalie's condition because the production will be mounted as part of the opera's three hundred and fiftieth anniversary season, she desperately wants to make the most of the opportunity Nathalie has given her by agreeing to take her back into the company, . . . and she is intent on giving Lindsay "something that would change her life. Fourteen years after I had ruined it." Delphine's one true love, Jock (formerly Jacques), will be Lindsay's co-star, and there will be a role for Margaux, as well. While Lindsay is eager to take on the role Delphine is customizing for her, Margaux is resentful and suspicious, given that Delphine has been out of there lives for so many years and failed to make an effort to maintain their friendship. Kapelke-Dale says Margaux is “disillusioned,” but do not have any training to pursue a different career and has “taken her frustration and turned it in on herself.”

Delphine's first-person narration moves back to 1995, when Delphine, Lindsay, and Margeaux are students . . . and competitors. Kapelke-Dale notes that it was her editor who recommended adding the second timeline in order to fully reveal the characters’ pasts. She immerses readers in the girls' world, providing insight into the grueling physical demands of ballet, their emotional struggles, the imbalance of power in their relationship, and the machinations it inspires, including one particularly stunning betrayal. As the narrative moves incrementally forward in time, Kapelke-Dale reveals the characters' secrets at deftly-timed intervals, providing context for their behavior and illuminating their motivations.

The Ballerinas is a taut, evenly-paced, and absorbing glimpse into the world of ballet. Delphine would be easy to dismiss as unlikable and, therefore, irredeemable. But that misses the point. Delphine is a product of the world into which she was born, and all the people and events that influence her. She is self-centered, selfish, driven, and vengeful. But she also cares about her friends and colleagues, and eventually returns to Paris intent on making up for her mistakes. But is it too late?

The themes Kapelke-Dale delves into through her characters resonate against the ballet backdrop, they are universal. Female friendships are complicated, but their complexity is magnified in Kapelke-Dale's convincing portrayal of women facing consequential choices about reproduction, work-life balance, and workplace harassment and abuse in an industry where men have, for centuries, been the powerbrokers and women have been vulnerable to and dependent upon their desires, whims, and approval. Kapelke-Dale says that as she was writing the book, she thought deeply about an institution that “purportedly celebrate femininity in some ways also reinforce draconian standards,” and wanted to impart the sense of urging that Delphine feels as her fortieth birthday looms and she wonders if her best professional years are behind her. Ultimately, her characters must decide how they will shape their futures, what matters most to them, and what kind of people they want to be. Kapelke-Dale delivers an entertaining story with a conclusion that is nothing less than jaw-dropping, despite early foreshadowing because so much transpires in succeeding chapters.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. ( )