I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this, it was a beautiful heart breaking novel that I really enjoyed reading. I also absolutely loved the cover of this book.
This wasn’t a easy book to read , you could see where it was going and that disaster was looming , Sparrow’s back story is horrifying and the emotional scars she had lead to physical scars in the present.
I loved Sparrow’s character, her strength and determination shine throughout the book and i loved her strong friendships which made the novel shine.
I’m really hoping there’s another to this book, the story is told from Sparrow view and alternated with one of her best friends Marcus who is her dance partner this read was a rollercoaster of emotions.
My rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I received this book in return for an honest review

Sparrow is a phenomenal coming of age story. Damn, this Mary Cecilia Jackson book is so much more than I could have ever expected.

This is a serious and complex tale. The topics are heavy, including abuse, both physical and emotional. It's a story of the inability to stop someone from being in an abusive relationship. And then...then it gets heavy.

This is a story of internal demons, some that have been around for a lifetime. It's a story that includes the death of a parent, in an amazing manner.
And it's a story of rage, hopeless, and ultimately hope.

Told in first person povs, alternating between Sparrow and Lucas, this is a story of life. The good, the bad, the highs and the lows. It's a tale of friendship and healing.

The writing is fantastic, impressive for a first time novelist. The writing is detailed, fluid, and almost lyrical at times. It covers a lot of events, skipping over a lot at times, which bothered me a little at first. But, as the story progresses, it's clear why the author does things this way, and what the true heart of the story is.

The author covers many very serious topics, all with care and compassion, including an abusive boyfriend, which is damn tough to read.


The author uses alternating point of views, choosing to repeat events, showing them from different perspectives. A normal practice, this one seems a little weird at times, as the author rewinds when starting from the new point of view, rather than just showing different events from each character. But it works none-the-less.

Sparrow is thought-provoking, impressive, and seriously tough to handle at times. This Mary Cecilia Jackson is well worth a read when you're looking for a serious young adult book.

Please note that this book contains content surrounding abuse, suicide and assault.

I was kind of disappointed with this book.

I had such high hopes as I really love diving into YA Contemporaries with hard-hitting storylines and emotional, raw characters finding self-discovery.

And as soon as I read the synopsis of a ballerina and her abuse, I knew this one was going to be all the feels.

Unfortunately, the writing style was too jumbled and disconnected. The content itself was a great intro, but then I realized that the timeline jumped drastically from paragraph to paragraph without any distinction of it happening. One minute I was reading her new relationship and by the end of the page, they had been together for three months already? It just kept happening with no distinction in between..

I really wanted to dive so deep into this book but it just wasn’t executed correctly. So, I ended up giving it only a 2 out of 5 stars. I think that if it was less scrambled, this could easily have been a 4/5 star book.

Disclaimer: I received an arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Sparrow

Author: Mary Cecilia Jackson

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: March 17, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (bullying, homophobic comments, psychological/mental illness, abuse)

Publisher: TorTeen

Pages: 320

Amazon Link

Synopsis: There are two kinds of people on the planet. Hunters and prey
I thought I would be safe after my mother died. I thought I could stop searching for new places to hide. But you can’t escape what you are, what you’ve always been.
My name is Savannah Darcy Rose.
And I am still prey.

Though Savannah Rose―Sparrow to her friends and family―is a gifted ballerina, her real talent is keeping secrets. Schooled in silence by her long-dead mother, Sparrow has always believed that her lifelong creed―“I’m not the kind of girl who tells”―will make her just like everyone else: Normal. Happy. Safe. But in the aftermath of a brutal assault by her seemingly perfect boyfriend Tristan, Sparrow must finally find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past, or lose herself forever….

Review: Holy cow this book was a complete 180 from what I thought it was going to be! I thought this would be more boarding school ballet but this book was very grounded in very real and serious real-world issues. I loved the character development and I loved how the story flowed. It was almost like a ballet itself in how it was written.

However, I did think that the book was a bit slow and it did take a bit to get into.

Verdict: Add this to your online cart while you practice ballet in the safety of your own home.

Poignant, painful, but ultimately hopeful, Sparrow provides a harrowing look at one girl’s journey from victim to survivor. This is the sort of book that will stick with you for a while–and, yes, you’ll probably shed some tears.

Now, normally I save trigger/content warnings for the end of a review, but I want to make this abundantly clear: this is a heavy read. It deals, in detail, with the subjects of abuse, both physical and verbal, both from parent to child and within a romantic relationship. This is not just a minor thing; there is violence severe enough to cause a hospital visit. A character struggles with deep psychological scars from past abuse. There is a side plot including cancer and death of a family member.

Please, please, take care of yourselves. I do strongly recommend this book, but only when you are in a healthy enough headspace to deal with it.

With that said, let’s get on to the rest of this review, starting with a quick summary:

17-year-old Savannah Darcy Rose (“Sparrow,” to her friends and family) keeps her life in a tightly regulated cycle of school, ballet, and friends. She is dancing the lead in Swan Lake at her conservatory, opposite her best friend Lucas, and looking toward a professional ballet future. When she finds herself in a relationship with Tristan King, everything changes. Tristan is gorgeous, attentive, intense, and showers her with gifts…but things quickly take a dark turn as attentive becomes possessive and intense becomes controlling. Sparrow thought her abuse had ended when she was a child, after her mother died, but finds that things with Tristan could turn much, much worse. When things escalate to a point far beyond what she ever expected, Sparrow has to struggle to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally, grappling with ghosts both past and present, if she is ever to get her life back to being truly her own.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that it is emotional. I’m not a sad-cry person (I stress-cry and failure-cry…but that’s a story for another day). I have never cried at a book, a movie, or a TV show, and I’ve only cried once at a musical. But reading this book was one of those rare instances where I felt such an intense sadness, I was sure that, if I were a crying person, my emotions would have been pouring out of my eyes and down my face. Jackson does not pull any punches in her writing, and we see it all–the good, the bad, and the downright awful.

The story is told through the dual perspectives of Sparrow and Lucas, a technique that I found highly effective in carrying the storyline. We see Sparrow grappling with internal demons while trying to suppress and gloss over the seriousness of what is happening to her, followed by Lucas’s horror-struck, detailed observations of those same scenes, and guilt over his inability to help the girl he loves, who has been his closest friend since childhood. There is a resonance between their two narratives: Sparrow, who feels powerless but needs to learn that she is not; and Lucas, who wants to help but needs to learn that not everything is his fault or his job to fix. Jackson is able to keenly hone in on the details of both characters’ psychological states and convey those in an eloquent (but not pretentious) way. It’s the little details that really hold their characters up: the way Sparrow obsessively does things in groups of three when she is nervous, the relationship between Lucas and his little sister, the use of dance as both a coping mechanism and a distraction, and the recurrent overspilling and misplacement of anger from both of them as they work through the wake of a disaster.

While we are talking about writing style: Jackson’s writing is lovely, full of vivid imagery and smoothly flowing sentences. There are splashes of humor every now and then, mostly in the banter between Lucas and some of his other friends, and from Delaney, who is the third member of Sparrow and Lucas’s friend trio, which helps add some much-needed levity in the earlier chapters.

Jackson also took an interesting approach to telling this story. Many times, a story on abuse will follow the trajectory of the relationship until it reaches a critical point, or it will at least keep the abuser as a major character for much of the story. That is not the case with Sparrow; the worst point of the relationship happens well before the halfway mark, and the rest of the book focuses on Sparrow and those who love her (especially Lucas), on the process of healing, and on the hope for a better future. Rather than dwelling on the bad actions, it places emphasis on the fallout from those actions. Outside of confrontation with Lucas at school, Tristan is not physically present for the majority of the story. This is significant: it makes it clear, even from the early days after the incident, that this is Sparrow’s story, not her abuser’s. And, critically, by including Lucas’s perspective, it is able to show more clearly the wide-reaching effects of the abuse, not just to the one being abused but to everyone around them as well.

The one aspect of this book I couldn’t quite decide whether I liked or not was the pacing. The narrative was fragmented oddly in some places, jumping from one scene to the next, sometimes skipping months at a time. On its own, this pattern is well-suited to a book that is taking such a concentrated, razor-edged approach to a difficult topic, by only including key scenes and omitting the fluff in between. But because the narrative spans such a long time, there are events that clearly have buildup to them but feel abrupt anyway, because we didn’t see any of it. The other problem was the combination of this format with the dual perspective, because it meant that things didn’t always happen chronologically–we see a few months from Sparrow, then jump back and see the same few months from Lucas, filling in some of the gaps in Sparrow’s narration. As a whole, I still think it works, but it can also be disorienting for the reader, especially on the first perspective switch.

As a whole, Sparrow is a devastating-yet-beautiful book, fully deserving of a read. Do not expect it to be easy; emotionally, it will hurt. But it is so, so valuable, so important, so significant in the bluntness with which it addresses these issues. And its ever-present message of hope will continue to ring long after you close the last page.

3.7/5

Sparrow is the story Savannah Darcy Rose, who loves & is a ballerina (hence the name), lives with her father and Aunt Sophie. Friends call Savannah as Sparrow, and I was amazed by the details of ballet that was put in. It sometimes looked like a wonderful painting in words.

The book is written from two POV's one from Sparrow aka Savannah and the other is Lucas, one of her best friend, her ballet partner (also he is in love with her, because why not. A girl and boy can't ever be just a friend, rite!? )

Sparrow in just few pages falls in love with Tristan "King" and decides she will love him no matter what. Because he is Handsome, and rich and...(well what more does a girl need, rite!?)
But Tristan is not what she thought, and he can be very brutally brutal. Even after her friends/family, trying to reach Sparrow and seeing Red Flags, she just walked down the road to disaster.
But wait, there are some other secrets Sparrow hasn't shared with the world(us & her family). Lucas is a best friend, so surely he knows ALL ABOUT IT.

Want to know what the secret is ? Well sure, go ahead and grab the book.

The story has so many cliche's that I was not that happy with the book.
But let's get to the good things that I LOVED about this book.

Writing, I loved the poetic, lyrical way the author Mary wrote the book. There were so many sentences which I just loved because the so poetic.
Friendship, I love books that show very strong friendship (and I really don't care that if one of them is in love with another).

There are few strong female character's that I loved. One of them is Lucas's Granny Deirdre , with age comes the wisdom can be so true to this character. I loved her, and she reminded me of my grandmother.
Dr. Gray < you need to read to know about her role > _i don't want to give out spoilers :P_

Title: Sparrow
Author: Mary Cecilia Jackson
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Sparrow—Savannah Darcy Rose—thought she would be safe after her mother died. She thought she could finally stop hiding. She’s a gifted ballerina with a tight-knit circle of friends, she’s starring in a new production, and her future looks bright.

Then she meets Tristan: handsome, wealthy, the most popular boy in school. Sparrow is in love, but Tristan isn’t quite as perfect as he seems, and soon Sparrow finds herself keeping secrets from everyone. She’s not the kind of girl who tells, but after a brutal assault, she must learn how to open up to those around her.

This wasn’t an easy book to read. You could see the disaster looming…but you were helpless to divert it. Sparrow’s backstory is horrifying, and the emotional scars she bears lead to physical scars in her present. I loved her strength and determination—and the strong friendships made the novel shine.

Mary Cecilia Jackson loves being a Southerner and reading. Sparrow is her debut novel.

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

A ballerina must always wear a careful mask as she dances out life's triumphs and tragedies.


With every step and pirouette, the realities of the world falls behind her, like a dark shadow that mirrors her journey across the broad stage. All her hours of work and effort enable her to become an extension of grace and beauty that transfixes the audience into her world of dance and elegance.


Still, the shadows of the world continue to grow with the dimming light that marks the end of the scene. Before long, all that's left is her bright light against the growing curtain of horrors she's experienced in her life.


The shadow is patient and ever so ready for the moment she flickers.


I have always been drawn to stories about ballerinas and their connection to the nimble world of ballet. Reading about what brings an extra step to their rhythm or what memory allows them to become an extension of the dance is something that mesmerizes me because of how their methods allow them to become a living art form.


Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson is a piece of art in its own right. Jackson follows the steps of Savannah "Sparrow" Darcy Rose who is haunted by her past and tries to channel her pain through the world of ballet with her best friends Lucas and Delaney. However much Sparrow wants to put her past behind her, it is a beat that will always follow us and so, history repeats itself when Sparrow finds herself in an abusive relationship that threatens her life and future dreams.


This work was a truly heartfelt journey that Jackson put an immense amount of heart and soul into. The manner in which she conveys Sparrow's journey and slowly unravels the traumas of her past is both harrowing and hopeful because oftentimes in life, hope and despair can wear the same face. Jackson was able to channel an immense amount of realism that makes Sparrow's pain transcend to the readers who are then healed by Sparrow's hopeful nature that allows her to take brave steps for her own wellbeing.


The dual narrative with her best friend and dance partner, Lucas, is a work of love. It is clear from the beginning that he has affections for Sparrow, yet rather than pursuing a solely romanic narrative, Lucas's observations about Sparrow and how he hurts seeing her in pain allows readers to open their heart to everything Jackson is trying to convey in her story. Lucas beautifully shows how when we truly care and love someone, we always wish the best for them and it hurts so much when you see them going through something that's not good for them. However, that doesn't by any means make an unflawed personality; as Lucas shows, despite his pure intentions towards Sparrow, he has his own painful past, and present moments, to overcome in order to move forward in life.


When I say that Sparrow is a journey, I mean that in many ways. It was a journey of the self, a walk into the hearts of two individuals who you feel that you've known all your life, and a passage of healing that allows us to come to terms with the people that haunt our past. At the end of the work, you can imagine all the sparrows of the world who must fight against the bracing storms around them. Yet, by continuing their struggle, their voices are louder than any storm blowing around them.


Instead, they become a storm.


May all sparrows find their life's dance and have the courage to continue forward on their journey, for, like Sparrow, they will make the music soar.

My Thoughts:

Sparrow was a riveting read, that I found myself fully immersed in. What an emotional reading experience! This story hurt my heart, made me cry, and had me rooting for Sparrow. I loved her character, and desperately wanted her to find her strength, and courage; as well as the road to healing.

Savannah "Sparrow" Rose endured abuse at the hands of her mother as a young girl, and nightmares continue to plague her. As a talented and aspiring professional ballerina, she has the life of a typical teenager. Her good friends Lucas and Delaney, as well as her father and doting aunt offer her an abundance of love, caring, nurturing, and support.

Sparrow is swept away by Tristan, a charming, rich, good looking, and popular athlete at her school. When he starts abusing her, she makes excuses for him, because she loves him, and thinks he loves her. However, what happens when you stay in an abusive relationship? Could it eventually be a matter of life and death?

What an intense and profound story! With Sparrow, we learn about the cycle of abuse, and how it effects everyone, not just the person being abused. In this story we get two points of view; Sparrow, and her best friend Lucas. Serious topics are addressed, such as abuse, death of a loved one, and how to heal; along with all of the emotions that come with these experiences.

I loved how much this story sucked me in, and how it consumed my emotions. It had a spectacular cast of characters that were real and relatable. Sparrow was a vulnerable, sweet, caring, and loving character. I loved reading about her dancing, and could picture her in the studio with Lucas. These two were very passionate about ballet, and as a reader, I was front and center as they performed.

Lucas was the type of friend that would give you the shirt off his back. He was loyal, kind, and always there for Sparrow. He was going through his own pain, but always made time for Sparrow and his family. I appreciated his persistence and perseverance in trying to make Sparrow realize that she deserved better, and needed to get out of her relationship. He was in love with his best friend, and I wanted her to see what was right in front of her face. His Grandma Deidre was a favorite character of mine. I loved spending time with her. She was wise, funny, and so caring.

If you are looking to get swept away in a story, check out Sparrow! This book delivered so many emotions, strong and loving friendships and familial relationships, as well as messages about life, hope and healing.

*I WAS PROVIDED A PHYSICAL ARC FOR THE PURPOSES OF A BLOG/BOOK TOUR. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

I was really hoping to like this book. I love it when authors want to bring up big issues our society currently faces, but I feel that that was not achieved within this book.

For one, the dialogue was just weird. Everything that was spoken by the characters was done so through a very off-style, poetic way. No one talks that way in real life, so why was it done in this novel? It was off-putting and threw me for a loop while reading.

Secondly, the story was here and there. In one chapter, an event would appear out of NOWHERE and then continue to drag on for multiple pages. It felt like I was reading a poorly written Wattpad book.

Lastly, the book itself was just very cut and dry. Some scenes would move very quickly but others would move at the pace of a non-teenage mutant ninja turtle.

I was really disappointed, altogether. I'd gone into this book hoping for a good outcome after reading and came out with just another big sigh. For that, I rate it 1 star.

“Affliction is enamored of thy parts, and thou art wedded to calamity”

-William Shakespeare, Romero and Juliet

...

“‘What is the haunted name, the secret name of your deepest self?’

And I answer, ‘Sorrow.’”

Sparrow lives and breathes ballet. Working with her ballet company and training for their rendition of Swan Lake for the Winter Gala has been a dream come true, and she couldn’t ask for a better partner than her childhood friend Lucas. And when she literally runs into a beautiful boy from her class, Tristan King, a heated romance sparks between the two that is both addicting and fierce. But sometimes Tristan isn’t always the boy she fell in love with, sometimes he changes. A quick flash of eyes like black holes and soft features that sharpen into granite have become Sparrow’s waking nightmare. But Tristan isn’t the only darkness that surrounds her in pirouettes. The death of her mother consumes her, wakes her in the night and follows her like an entity feeding from her soul. Sparrow is drowning.

“The earth tilts beneath me. My hand falls into the rushing water, blood spooling out from my fingers, dark ribbons in the moonlight stream. The stars flare and disappear. I float away on a sea of mercies.”

“I try hard to breathe, and then I remember.

Dead girls can’t breathe.”

Wow.

This was a heavy hitter.

I haven’t highlighted sentences and paragraphs like this in a book since…well, maybe ever. Practically my entire kindle edition of Sparrow is yellow. And if that doesn’t express the immense haunting beauty that this book is, well, allow me to elaborate.

Sparrow is the story of a girl falling into darkness.

A swan princess becoming the Black Swan.

Sparrow is dedicated, charming, spirited and loving. She pours every ounce of hurt and emotion into her dancing, and it is the only time she can breathe and speak with her heart without screaming. When we first meet her, her infectious and fun personality shines through immediately. She is a typical teenage girl who laughs, acts silly, goes to school and gossips with friends. She is living out her dreams of dancing as Odette in the Swan Lake, and she is thriving. But when she begins her relationship with Tristan, everything shifts.

“Count the houses. Count the streetlights.

Count the minutes until Tristan turns back into the boy I love.”

The beginning of their relationship begins and goes by fast, skipping ahead to three months before I even realized what was happening. It started out like an insta-love relationship and I was a little put off, but as the story progresses you realize there is a reason for why it was written like this. It is told in some chapters by Sparrow, and some by Lucas. Through each of their eyes you see different versions of each scenario, how Sparrow sees things, and how Lucas is viewing the reality.

“It’s almost a relief when he hits me.

Everything comes back to me, all of it. I remember to tighten my body so I won’t fall, how to pull up, just like in ballet, every muscle taut and prepared. I know how to protect my face, where to hold my arms to keep the first, the strongest blows from reaching the softest parts of my body.”

To say that it was easy to read Sparrow’s journey would be an outright lie. It was so painful witnessing the abuse that Tristan rained down on her. The mood swings, his possessive nature, and how he would so ruthlessly talk down to Sparrow as if she didn’t matter. His cruelty and darkness towards her was frightening. He would scream hateful comments at her, demeaning her and calling her worthless or a slut. His anger was volatile and sudden, a tsunami engulfing a peaceful beach.

“If only he’d look at me, give me a smile, tell me with his eyes that I’m forgiven, that he loves me, that we are okay.

If only I could forget his hand on my throat, the pressure of his fingers, the fury of his eyes.”

But what was worse, was Sparrow’s unflinching love and loyalty for this monster. She was enamored with him when he was sweet, when he treated her with affection and promised her love and the world. She so easily brushed aside his temper and rage, and refused to admit that his hitting her and abusing her was actually his choice. And even when her friends questioned his treatment of her, she was adamant about defending him and refusing to open up. Sparrow is like a steel door, chained and bolted. Everything stays hidden and locked away, and she deals with everything alone.

“This is my fault, my fault, my fault. He loves me. He loves me so much. He tells me all the time. This will pass. We’ll be fine. He’ll feel terrible in a few minutes, and there will be apologies and tears and promises and kisses.

I will forgive him, because I love him.”

It was heartbreaking to have to sit and watch her fall away into nothing, until it was too late.

“The Swan Queen is dead.”

What I love about this story is how seamlessly everything connects. Throughout the story Sparrow has dreams and memories of her mother that come up, more and more often as her relationship with Tristan builds and she begins to fade away. With her mother dying when she was a young girl, the unresolved emotions from her passing has now found it’s way into Sparrow’s every day life. Her mother begins to consume her thoughts, emotions and reactions. She quickly finds herself in a dark space that she can’t find her way out of, and the past that they shared begins to shed light on who she has become.

“I promise, Mama. I’ll be quiet. I’ll be good.

I am not the kind of girl who tells.”

There is a turning point in this story when Tristan goes too far, and it is…devastating. The aftermath of what Sparrow becomes, a shell of herself now filled with anger and rage, was one of the hardest things I’ve read. My heart broke a thousand times over as I witnessed the pain and betrayal that this poor girl suffered, and the atrocities of how Tristan is dealt with. Sparrow becomes unrecognizable and defeated. It was like every ounce of light was sucked out of her soul, and all that was left was pitch black nothingness.

“I’m the Black Swan.

Curses swirl in my blood. Wickedness is buried in my bones, bound to make everyone who loves me suffer. I’m a black hole, a night without stars, drawing pain and grief and heartbreak to me like a magnet. Destined to make no one happy ever.

I am my mother’s daughter.”

“He told me once that he could hear what people were thinking in the silent spaces between their spoken words. That he could tell what someone was feeling just by looking into their eyes. So I wonder, as I have so many times since I was small, why he couldn’t see the terror in my eyes.”

Though Lucas plays a big part in giving us an important outside look and perspective on Sparrow, I think his side story was a tad unnecessary and I found myself slightly skipping through them. I think the story would have benefited if it went into less detail about what he was doing at his grandmother’s house, and really dove deeper into Sparrow and the aftermath of Tristan. It felt like some parts of her story were rushed over, while Lucas was given a lot more development and focus. Which was confusing to me.

But what was important about his book apart from Sparrow’s experience, was how her abuse affected those around her. So many times the friends and loved ones are forgotten in traumatic experiences. They also go through the hurt and pain alongside the victim, so I was glad to see this story gave them a voice as well. Overall, this story was beyond beautiful. It was a poetic tale of abuse and trauma that got extremely dark and raw. I highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys getting their heart shredded, or just wants to read a book that will actually make you feel something.

“All will be well, all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“At the end of everything, a fish dive.”

Books give readers emotions. Good books give readers more than ONE emotion. The best books make a reader feel like they are living life along with the characters. Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson does every single one of these things. For starters, there are so many books out there with multiple names, that it can be hard to find character names that stick out to readers. Sparrow is both a beautiful name and represents an unforgettable character.



Novels that contain any kind of abuse can be hard to get through. A reader may have PTSD from dealing with it at some point in their lives. Others might just not enjoy reading that kind of thing at all. But writers who take their time to write through subjects such as this rather than around, to me are brave and have so much talent. In the past, I have read books with topics such as relationship abuse and ended up putting them down and never going back. But I had a whole different experience here, I sat down and read this in one sitting.



I did find myself a tad annoyed by parts in this book, not because they weren’t well written but because I felt too much attention was given to parts that didn’t need as much attention. I think a huge portion of the book was dedicated to the abuse and pain, but only a small portion went to the healing. As a reader who felt for the characters, I watched them be beat up and hurt in more ways than one so naturally the only thing that would bring closure is the characters healing.



Jackson did a really good job bringing two hard situations together and not making it feel weird or awkward. Sparrow, our main character, lost her mother at a young age and had multiple nightmares throughout the book all the while being abused by her boyfriend. It is easy to read through these different situations and see how both affect Sparrow without getting them confused and having a hard time understanding what she is going through. Sparrow as a character was an open book, I felt everything she felt which is one of the huge reasons why I wanted so badly to see her heal and feel better about both of her situations. She did get her closure, but it felt very rushed.

Wrenching!

Domestic violence and children. Violence and boyfriends. A harrowing read! The story of Sparrow, a young woman, a gifted ballerina, and a victim of violence is a story of anguish, of darkness, and ultimately of hope and taking charge, after a long, long road to the start. More a goat track than a road really.
I must admit to not really liking the subject matter. I cannot deny though that I found Jackson's treatment of the topic empathetic, tight, tense and really well written.
Told in the voice of Sparrow, alternated with that of one of her best friend's, Marcus her dancing partner in Swan Lake, the read was a roller coaster of emotions and imaginings!
There is a side story about Marcus which was really well integrated. I loved his Irish grandmother (wise woman in the hills analogy), her acceptance and her wisdom, and Marcus' maturing.
I felt that their friend Delaney was a marvellous character who needs her own story.
In many ways Sparrow is still a mystery, but perhaps that's what new beginnings are about.

A Macmillan-Tor/Forge. ARC via NetGalley

This is a book I hope others read, especially teenagers. The message of this type of abuse really needs to be made public more. I found the book to be very moving. I loved the characters.

I love books about ballet and will always read them. But ballet isn't the main focus of Sparrow, instead tackling the important subject of abusive teen relationships. This is something that needs more exposure and socialization and I am glad there are books like Sparrow that are getting this message out.

From a readers' perspective, I found the book a bit disjointed. The first half and second half did not flow well together for me and timelines were confusing at points. I definitely enjoyed the reading experience of the first part of the book best. I really enjoyed Lucas' perspective and felt like he was the most flushed out character.

Overall, a really important topic, but the execution wasn't a fit for my reading style. This is geared to a YA audience and I think it will resonate with them and is a worthwhile read for that group.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o'er wrought heart and bids it break."
--William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
Sparrow's story broke my heart, but did not leave me without hope. I was enthralled by this book. The cover image speaks volumes. The first part of the book is filled with the banter Sparrow shares with her dance friends -- especially Lucas and Delaney. We are given an intimate look behind the scenes of their preparation for dancing Swan Lake. We also see Sparrow's relationship developing with Tristan King, her first serious boyfriend. When red flags arise, Sparrow plows past -- not wanting to listen to friends and family who raise concerns. This story will drag you down into the pit of despair, but it will not leave you there. I loved the character development of Sparrow and Lucas; the Psalms that Sparrow finds comfort in; the choices Jackson made in depicting and defining the relationships; and the honest depiction of the hard work it takes to come back from abuse. This is one of the best YA books I have read in a long time.
"Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you."
--William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the book, but I didn’t like certain parts of it. I enjoyed the ballet aspects of it. Ballet always intrigues me. The idea of a normal teenage girl trying to balance the demands of ballet with everything else she has to do was very interesting. However there was som melodrama. It makes sense given the abuse, but at times just felt way too over the top for me. Also bearing in mind our narrator is a teenage girl, some parts didn’t feel too authentic. Still a very interesting read. Saying too much gives the plot away.

This was a quick read. Because of the synopsis I was really intrigued and had high hopes for this book.

Sparrow is a gifted ballerina but she's keeping a lot of secrets. But when she suffers a brutal assault from her boyfriend, she finally has to confront the ghosts of her past.

I really expected a story like this was one to had more depth and to be more powerful.
It certainly was an okay read and I really liked how the author dealt with the topic of abuse. But I felt like it was a bit dramatic at times.

I liked Sparrow and how her character was portraited and I enjoyed the writing style, it kept me reading. There were just some things bothering, that didn't make all the dots in the story connect. Overall I liked it but I was not especially fascinated by it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I feel conflicted on this book. I respect what it does and the subject matter is close to my heart.

I feel like the subject matter, a toxic teenage relationship and its aftermath, is a very important one and in that regard I think this is one of those books that I feel is worth reading for every teenager. In large parts of the books this was handled well. I liked both main characters, though sometimes the change of POV jarred a bit, mainly because they did not run smoothly into each other.

The pacing of this novel and the way the storyline was plotted out, felt a little uneven to me. Some things were not explained well enough and others a bit too much. I feel like some important events in the narrative were glossed over.

I did like the friendship between our main characters, Sparrow and Lucas, and their friend Delaney, but at the same time I wanted a bit more from it and I felt some of their friends could have been fleshed out a bit to make it an altogether stronger friendgroup.

Despite the issues I had with the above, I enjoyed this read and I am glad I read this novel. I would still happily recommend it. I think with a bit of fleshing out in the right places it could have been an excellent read.

I am just so glad I was reading an ebook, because any other book would have been soaked by my tears. This story will stay with me for some time. I hope I never make any assumptions or judge why someone may not be able to talk about the violent abuse done to them. Sparrow is just seventeen, a promising ballerina. She is plagued by nightmares of her mother who died years before. Sparrow has never talked about the physical abuse her mother heaped on her. She meets Tristan, and she falls in love. Tristan is a monster, abusive beyond belief. But Sparrow never tells, she was taught to never tell. I loved the characters, especially Dr Gray, who has compassion, understanding and endless patience. This is another book for my ‘best ever books’ list.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.