Blog Tour: Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small

Bright Burning Stars
A.K. Small
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure.

But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

REVIEW

Would you die for The Prize?

This was the question Marine, Kate, and all the other First Division dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet School were asking themselves, as they began their final year of training. This was their last opportunity to prove they deserved the top spot, and the company position that came with it. However, only two - one male and one female, would get The Prize.

I have read several books set in the world of elite ballet, and like those, this was intense. Like most of the other books, this one focused on the "dark side" of ballet. There was the physical strain on the dancers' bodies, which they tried to soothe with ice baths, warm water bottles, and lots of pain reliever (and not always the legal kind of pain reliever). Then there was the extreme mental stress, the head games, the sabotage, the body dysmorphia, and insecurities. It was super cutthroat, and Small expertly pulled me into their mess. I felt the hunger pangs, the aches, and that out of control type of spiral right there along with the characters.

But you know how Kate and Marine made it this far? By the power of the friendship they had forged from their very year at the ballet school. Since the age of 12, they had been supporting one another, but during this critical year, cracks started to form in their friendship as Kate began to make a string of poor decisions in order to give herself an edge in winning the prize, and Marine starved herself in oder to attain that perfect ballet body.

I worried for both Marine and Kate, though, probably more for Kate. Marine was lucky to have a few other solid relationships, and Luc was an especially strong ally. Once Kate and Marine were on the outs, Kate was alone, thousands of miles from her home in Virginia, and still nursing the wounds left when the mother, who had abandoned her. I was content with the ending Small wrote for Kate, because it was hopeful, but I loved the ending she gave to Marine. It was a little unexpected and quite wonderful.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because it was about ballet dancers, and Small opened that window into their world quiet wide. I have already mentioned all the physical and mental pain, but she also invited us to "see" them dance. I got a good sense of the euphoria both Marine and Kate experienced, when they performed, and I loved being part of the action. She described the mood, the music, the costumes, and the movement in such a way, that I could fully envision it.

Overall: A compelling look at the world of elite ballet, which deftly took us through the highs and lows one experiences in their pursuit of The Prize.

Read chapter one here!

* ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A.K. Small was born in Paris. At five years old, she began studying classical dance with the legendary Max Bozzoni, then later with Daniel Franck and Monique Arabian at the famous Académie Chaptal. At thirteen, she moved to the United States where she danced with the Pacific Northwest Ballet for one summer in Seattle and with the Richmond Ballet Student Company for several years. She’s a graduate of the College of William and Mary and has an MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing, she spends time with her husband, her puppy, and her three daughters, and practices yoga. Bright Burning Stars is her first novel.

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