“You know what dance is? The art of the sensual. Electricity, entanglement, ease”
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“Balletomane” ~ a devotee of ballet
Although I stopped dancing at the age of seventeen, (frankly I disliked the painful, bleeding feet part) I still love dance and ballet most of all. It’s something about the juxtaposition of discipline, strength and feats of endurance all presented with grace and a confection of costume and staging. So I sat and read Bright Burning Stars, the debut YA novel from A.K. Small, in one delicious sitting


Marine and Kate have been friends since they started as “rats” at Nanterre, an elite ballet school in Paris. Now Division One students in their final year, only one male and one female student will graduate with a prized contract to join the ballet company. Weekly rankings, gruelling rehearsal schedules and regular weigh-ins serve to escalate the competition between the dancers. Marine and Kate find themselves having to chose between their friendship or “the prize” and both are driven to increasingly desperate measures to reach number one in the rankings


More Tiny Pretty Things than Ballet Shoes, Bright Burning Stars shows what can happen to talented people, isolated from all external support, in a pressure-cooker of intense competition. Whilst I would have preferred the ending to have been more drawn out, I loved being immersed in a world of dance even with its underbelly and guts exposed


Thank you so much to the publisher for my eARC and toi toi toi to A.K. Small on the publication of Bright Burning Star

Bright Burning Stars
By: A.K. Small

I just love the setting of this amazing and propulsive read set at the Paris Opera Ballet School where the competition is fierce and even deadly. I adored this story and I just knew it was written by a dancer herself.

Small truly captured not only the story within the dance world and the high stakes competition, but also a story about friendships, pushing yourself in your own craft and realizing your dreams. In this deftly plotted story, the emotions and the angstiness of the story is truly visceral and leaps off the pages.

I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it not only for young readers but those that enjoy reading about the cutthroat world of dance.

Welcome to the intense world of ballet, where children are trained, molded, and pitted against each other for a coveted prize. Where the question might not only be: What would you do to get the prize, but what would you do, if you don't?
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Marine Duval and Kate Sanders became inseparable best friends from a very young age at the Paris Opera Ballet School. There, they found a sister to lean on & someone to count on when their pasts came back to haunt them. Through their shared love of ballet, they practiced, perfected, and performed alongside each other. Now, as they enter their sixth year and First Division, the competition is getting intense and there is only one spot to be filled in the Opera's prestigious corps de ballet by the end of the year.
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If I'm being completely honest, it took me a minute to get used to the intensity (or lack thereof) of the characters. Our two protagonists were at complete opposites of a spectrum and so it felt like one had a fervent dedication, while the other was just as talented but meek and submissive. Once I got to know Marine and Kate a little better and was able to let their personalities sit with me, I was all in! These girls were putting so much pressure on themselves that they constantly tried to find coping mechanisms or ways of improvement that ultimately sabotaged their performance and mental health. The competition was cut-throat and impassioned, but at their age they felt like they had no one to turn to but themselves. Unfortunately, their choices caused more self-destruction than actual improvement.
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This story still lingers in my mind.

Would you die for the Prize?

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained since childhood at the Paris Opera Ballet School, where they’ve forged an inseparable bond through shared stories of family tragedies and a powerful 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 how far they would go for the ultimate prize: to be named the one girl who will join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic will make them shine, too? Would they risk death for it? 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.

Bright Burning Stars is a stunning, propulsive story about girls at their physical and emotional extremes, the gutting power of first love, and what it means to fight for your dreams.


“Bright Burning Stars” tells the story, or more accurately, stories, of the ‘rats’ at the Paris Opera ballet school. Joined at the hip, we are introduced to Kate and Marine – sworn sisters through a blood oath. We’re told quite early on that ‘rats’ is what the students are referred to and what they call each other.

The debut author, AK Small, is a dancer and has danced professionally. She also has an MFA in fiction, and I thought that summed up her forward planning pretty well. Her experience shines through in this, and the level of detail is impressive – not too much that you’re overwhelmed, but enough that you believe the characters are doing what they are describing. I would perhaps recommend that readers have a basic knowledge of ballet steps, positions etc, but I haven’t danced for 20 years and haven’t done ballet for 30 and I still picked it up, so it’s not too complex.


Kate is American, a transfer who has spent the last five years focusing on her dancing and realising her dream of receiving the highest ranking and getting a one way ticket to the company.
Marine is French and harbours the same dream, as she dances for her loved one who cannot dance for himself.
They share a room, classes and all of their innermost thoughts. That is, until the reach the senior class of rats and realise they must beat each other to win.

With a weakness for ballet stories, from Jean Ure’s A Proper Little Nooryeff (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1688077.A_Proper_Little_Nooryeff) through to the Robert Altman film “The Company” and everything inbetween, taking in ice skating and gymnastics along the way, I was pleased to have this to read, and grateful to be invited to review this as part of the #Algonquin BlogTour!

I’m not going to go into too much detail of the story as I don’t want to spoil it for people who haven’t read it.
I would say though, that while I enjoyed “Bright Burning Stars”, there are quite a few topics that I would consider to be adult in nature. For example, I am in my late 30s and can appreciate that starving yourself is not exactly conducive to healthy life. It’s pitched as YA and as such, I spent quite a lot of time thinking about if it’s something I would have read in my early teens, and it probably is. I think as you get older you perhaps get more attuned to ‘dangers’ – it took me years before I figured out that Grease is not actually a film about dancing and cars, as a lot of the adult thematic content went over my head. That is slightly different though, as you read every word in a book and aren’t distracted by pink hair or tight leather.
I think the outcome is important to consider in this, and in my opinion, there was little to no impact to these adult choices, and mostly it was shrugged off as something that happens in ballet school. A caution to those of you with younger children who like ballet books – perhaps something to read ahead on and discuss?

All in all, it was a fun way to spend a few hours and I can really see that this would make a great drama, in the same vein as Gossip Girl, perhaps.

Thanks to Algonquin for the Digital Review Copy, and to AK Small for writing it – I enjoyed meeting the characters!

What would you do to win the Prize?

Thank you to AlgonquinYR and AK Small for the gifted copy of Bright Burning Stars in exchange for an honest review.

Angsty teens + love triangle + Paris Opera Ballet School??? Sign me up!

Told between the alternating views of Marine Duval and Kate Sanders, Bright Burning Stars offers a glimpse into the cutthroat world of professional ballet. Marine and Kate are both in their final year at Nanterre, the ballet school that trains dancers for the Paris Opera Ballet. Each year one girl and one boy are selected to become professional dancers, and the rest are cast back into “regular” society.

There are Cardinal Rules to follow. And a bad performance at the weekly review Boards could see you kicked out immediately. In this intense world, Kate and Marine sought comfort with each other and supported each other for the past 6 years. But everything changes at the beginning of their final year at Nanterre. One of their classmates has died from anorexia starting the year off with a dark tone.

And then there is the Demigod, a new transfer male dancer whose sparkle could rub off on any of the girl dancers and boost her to the top of the rankings.

Bright Burning Stars follows Kate and Marine’s journeys as they struggle for the coveted number one spot and what they will sacrifice in order to get there.

I do think that part of why I loved this book so much is that I grew up in the world of dance and have recently started taking ballet again as an adult. So I came into the book with an appreciation for how incredibly hard professional ballet can be. It’s certainly a world that I could never survive in and I have such a profound respect for professional dancers.

The paperback edition of Bright Burning Stars comes out on March 2! Also be sure to catch the movie adaption Birds of Paradise on Amazon Prime!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3841965946?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLzStXQgbIA/

TW/CW: eating disorder, drug use, mention of suicide, abuse of power, mentions of depression/depressive episodes, toxic competitiveness, abortion.

What I expected: vicious, cutthroat tactics in an attempt to get to the top. I was looking forward to a group of badass girls being toxic to each other in an obvious competition.

What I got: a story of two best friends going about their daily lives, always focusing on dance. But then it goes left and suddenly we're following the hormonal jaunts of a teenage girl (which, fair) who continuously puts boys above her dreams, above her well being and above her best friend. On the flip side, we see the other teenage girl heading face-first into the worst part of the professional dance world: an eating disorder.

This is not a fun read! But it is one where the girls save themselves in the end. It wraps up neatly, which I appreciated. The girls aren't miraculously fixed at the end of it, but they are working towards getting better, which is perfect.

This book was provided to me via Netgalley in return for an honest review.
First, a trigger warning for eating disorders.

In this contemporary drama we follow Marine and Kate, two best friends - rats competing to make company at the Wanterre Ballet Company. Each girl has her own reason for wanting to be the best, and the lengths they go to to get the top spot feels too possible.

Marine is the good girl, somewhat naïve, but loyal to a fault. On the other hand, Kate is in desperate need of love - not the kind friendship provides, but from her family. There are times when I understood one girl's motivations more than the other, but they are both beautiful characters in their own right, with real struggles.

Now, don't think because I rated this book at 3 blossoms, I didn't enjoy the story, because I did. It ropes you in fast with the setting. Even the supporting characters had depth, will get in your head and heart. I think the part that will stick with you is how real it all feels. So many future ballerinas will benefit from the lessons this book imparts...

I had no idea what to expect going into this one besides from ballerina's but boy was this book a rollercoaster! While more character focused then action packed this book was a very fast and interesting read. We follow best friends, Katie and Marine, through their final year at their elite dancing boarding academy and stress levels are high.
For some reason I thought this had to do with someone being murdered so when I reached around the 30% mark and still nobody had been killed I was like "hmmm, okayyy" but I really enjoyed the way the story developed. I don't think this is going to be for everyone but I personally had a great time reading it and definitely recommend.

TW: abortion, eating disorder, drug use, mentions of suicide, adult/minor relationship.

Kate and Marine are best friends competing for a spot in a Parisian ballet company. Bright Burning Stars is the story of the lengths one will go to in order to achieve their dreams.

Things I liked: I enjoyed the characters, especially Marine and how fast paced it was.

Things I didn’t like: it was written in a way that made me feel very disconnected from the story. It felt like I was being told what happened instead of experiencing it.

Ballet, for all its ethereal beauty, is brutal physically and even more devastating emotionally as young dancers distort their bodies and vie with one another for the precious few openings that lead to stardom. Nowhere is this pressure-cooker atmosphere more evident than in the boarding schools that feed dancers into prestigious companies. Bright Burning Stars examines the price of such success and asks whether a friendship can survive it.

The story centers on two young women in their final year at the Paris Opera Ballet School. Kate and Marine have been inseparable, best friends, declaring that if they cannot both receive the coveted Prize, neither will have it. As the year progresses, however, pressures mount. Marine, still unable to come to terms with the death of her twin brother who was her inspiration in ballet, descends into anorexia. Kate throws herself into an infatuation with the charismatic senior male dancer, with the result of an unintended pregnancy. Instead of drawing Kate and Marine closer for support, each turn for the worse only seems to widen the gulf between them.

The strengths of the story include strong, flowing prose; engaging characters that change and grow; a vivid depiction of a world that few outside the profession of ballet ever experience; a passionate portrayal of the sensual glory of ballet as an art form; and keen insight into the psychological and physical stresses on dancers. These are significant strengths, indeed, enough to captivate the reader. The narrative kept me turning the pages and caring about the fate of Kate and Marine.

On the down side, watching the two main characters slide into mental illness (for example, eating disorder, severe codependence, obsession, suicidal ideation) was unrelentingly grim. The absence of adult supervision and care was exemplified by the scene, late in the book, where Kate goes to the director with concerns about Marine’s life-threatening symptoms and is essentially blown off and accused of trying to eliminate rival.

Either these young women are particularly dysfunctional or else the entire realm of ballet is remarkably deficient in healthy relationships. That much I could buy, however, and even the way the school encourages toxic competition at the expense of the health of its students. What was less believable was the ease with which Kate and Marine turned their lives around. Both suffer from serious disorders, neither receives competent psychotherapy – or any counseling at all – and yet a simple “realization” seems sufficient to resolve their problems.

Personal soapbox rant: Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses. A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) reported that 5-10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease and 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years. Relapse rates over 18 months run between 35 and 41 %.

Issues like eating disorders and obsessive reliance on the attention of others to bolster poor self esteem do not magically disappear because of a few compliments from a peer; they require skillful management over a period of time. Most of all, the person herself must recognize that something is wrong, that she wants to get better, and that she needs help to do so. This is not to say that relationships play no part in recovery, only that with conditions this severe – as evidenced by a suicide attempt – they are not sufficient in themselves. In many ways, these girls are still children; they need adult intervention.

Storytelling is a powerful tool for recovery, and as an author I see every story as an opportunity to share hope, understanding, and compassion. Quick fixes offer none of these. Bright Burning Stars is not necessarily about how mental and physical health can be regained, but I cannot help contrasting it to the all-too-few books that show a realistic path forward. (Two stellar examples are a character with social anxiety disorder in The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, and one with PTSD in Lia Silver’s Laura’s Wolf.)

A sympathetic character takes the reader on a journey, an adventure seen through that character’s eyes. This identification makes for a vivid reading experience but also imposes a degree of ethical responsibility on the author. Actions – such as aborting a pregnancy with untested and hazardous herbs, as Kate does – have consequences. This is not to say that characters cannot make bad choices or that the author must then lecture the reader about why those choices are bad. The problem here is that Kate doesn’t learn anything from her risky choice. She isn’t any more responsible about sexual activity than before, and she doesn’t gain any insight into her own proclivity for all-devouring infatuation that masks her deeper problems. Likewise, Marine never faces her eating disorder or its cost. The message to the young reader is that no emotional work is required for a happy ending, and also – more dangerously – that there is no help from adults. It’s typical in YA literature for adults to be absent, supposedly to give the young people agency. But Marine’s anorexia, as portrayed, is severe enough to require hospitalization, or at least to have that conversation.

I was also disappointed to not find any references to support resources, either within the story itself or in an appendix. So I’ve put together a few here.

To the readers and their families: If you, or anyone you know, has an eating disorder, a serious emotional dependence upon others, or has thought about or attempted suicide, please take it seriously. Know that you are not alone, and that there is help. Here are a few places to start:

National Eating Disorders Association: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/eating-disorders/in-depth/eating-disorder-treatment/art-20046234
National Alliance on Mental Illness: https://nami.org/Home
Co-Dependents Anonymous: https://coda.org/
Teen suicide prevention resources: https://youth.gov/youth-topics/youth-suicide-prevention
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://www.apa.org/topics/teen-suicide-prevention

Title: Bright Burning Stars
Author: A.K. Small
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

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. (less)

This was a bit hard for me to read. The writing is excellent, and the characters were great, but reading about the dark side of the ballet world was a little depressing, frankly. I believe it’s a realistic portrayal, sadly, because I can’t image what these girls put themselves through: the abuse their body image takes and the physical and emotional demands they put on themselves.

Marine’s issues were scary, but at least she eventually realized it. Kate’s issues…her sometimes completely unfounded obsession with guys was just sad. She definitely has some delusions and mental health issues, in addition to her drug problem. It was sad that she didn’t realize that, though.

A.K. Small was born in Paris. Bright Burning Stars is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Algonquin in exchange for an honest review.)

Blog link live 2/26.

As someone who danced for 20+ years, this book reminded me of the darker side of dance growing up: the competitiveness, favoritism, and body image issues. In Bright Burning Stars it's heightened to extremes at an elite Paris ballet school where only the top two dancers are considered successes as all others are eliminated.

There are a ton of trigger warnings, which doesn't surprise me in this setting, however, the book brushes most of them aside, never fully exploring the effects of any of them. I gulped it down in a few sittings but wish it went deeper. I don't expect the book to spell out lessons on each, but it was hard to read about things like eating disorders and abortions that were handled poorly by most everyone in the story, without hearing more about the emotional toll it took and how it changed them.

I also cringed at the naivety of Kate with her romantic interests, and the choices of almost all of the characters. The poor decision making found in many YA books was elevated in the ballet school setting. I know teenage years are difficult and about growing up, but I found it so hard to believe that Kate would be warned multiple times about various boys (including by those individuals), yet she still acted as though she never heard any of it, thinking "we are dating. we are going to get married". I could believe her acting that way out of wanting to believe it, but we never heard her even contemplate processing what was told to her and then her choosing to dismiss it. As a result, it felt unrealistic or under addressed.

I was invested in the story and read it really quickly, wanting to know who "won" at the end. As a dancer it held extra interest and relevance, but I think anyone remotely curious about the cutthroat nature of the ballet world could get something out of this book. I loved the setting and would read more from the author, but wish fewer "trigger topics" were brought up so that we could go deeper into those that were included.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I received an copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

DID NOT FINISH, I got about 100 pages in and had to stop, this was bad.

The characters are so flat and the reader is thrown into the story with some expectation that we should know and/or trust all these things about these characters we really know nothing about. There is no real story and then all of the sudden, BAM, these life long friends are enemies now competing not only for a place to dance but for the most popular guy and best male dancer/partner. And of course, let's just throw ourselves at this guy and have some pretty quick and raunchy sex. This is so NOT A YA NOVEL and should not be listed as such.

Then, to add to the awful non-story the hellacious amount of mental health issues is overwhelming, so much so that I will likely leave out some on this list: eating disorders, depression, childhood trauma, grief, HORRENDOUS self-esteem and it's all just written in the novel like it's no big deal! I find it interesting when I read about the author that she was a dancer in a lot of ballet schools, so I question if this is autobiographical in a sense? If so, I do hope she has gotten some help with various trauma and so forth.

This was not a good novel, not appropriately fleshed out before just thrown on the market. This needed a LOT of polishing and should NOT be considered YA, even though the characters are teens.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small.

Unfortunately, this is a DNF. I made it about 40% of the way through, and eventually gave up. I was looking forward to some Black Swan vibes. Two friends who care for each other but are also fierce competitors in the ballet world. One is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead.

This might seem like a weird description, but this was such a tedious read. Both of the girls were both so dogged in their own ways that it started to become difficult to tell them apart. It was redundant and dry, and I just could not care about the outcome for either of them.

I went into this with high hopes but I was not able to connect to any part of the story. I expected more of a mystery story than hardcore ambition. The synopsis promised one thing but the actual story delivered something else. It took a lot of willpower to not DNF.

The main characters, Kate and Marine, were underdeveloped, flat, lifeless, and dull. All of their POV chapters sounded the same so it was difficult to tell who was actually speaking. That went hand in hand with the plot being weak. and full of holes. It all tied together to create one story that was tough to get through. I didn't care what was going on with anyone so it was hard to pay attention. I'm not sure I could recommend this to anyone as it needed serious reediting and proofing.

Kate and Marnie have been best friends since they were little girls. They’ve grown up together, sharing their lives at the Paris Opera Ballet School.

But now it’s their final year and their can only be one top female winner of the coveted spot to join the Corps de Ballet.

I found this novel both gripping and infused with the darkness that comes from the world of high pressure athletics.

This was a pretty standard addition to the standing literature/film adaptations of competitive ballet life. In other words, it includes eating disorders, pregnancy, suicide, and competition so fierce it makes everyone a mean girl. It wasn't necessarily bad; it was just so wildly unoriginal that I found it very boring. Neither main character is particularly likable, and the description made me think I was going to get some kind of mystery, but that wasn't the case.

I loved how dark this book was! It's not for the faint of heart for sure. It really captures the darkly competitive side of the dance world in a way that gets your attention in the beginning and holds it the entire time.

As a former dancer, I love all things dance and ballet so was really excited for this one. It was enjoyable enough but probably not something I will read again. I struggled to identify with either of the main characters but I did think that the dance scenes were really well written.