Quick Thoughts
-Trigger Warning: Assault (from a partner and from a parent).
-This was a quick, compulsive read—I could not stop reading it once I'd picked it up.
-The structure of this book is interesting and surprising. There are two point of views, both told in first person, one for Sparrow and the other for her friend Lucas. At times I struggled through Lucas's pov, but I loved Sparrow's side of the story.
-The prose is utterly beautiful—full of gorgeous metaphor and imagery. On the other hand, the dialogue between characters is...odd. It didn't feel like teenagers talking to each other. It was almost too polite, filled with lots of pet names and nick names. But whenever there was just prose, I was completely pulled into the story.
-I wish there had been more exploration of Sparrow's and Tristan's relationship. The reader is told a lot of things, but not shown on-page. We get a lot of the aftermath of many things.
-I loved the dancing scenes! They were so well-described—I felt like I was right alongside Sparrow.

Lasting Impressions

Sparrow's story is both harrowing and wrenching, yet beautiful and hopeful. Seeing her growth was incredibly touching. I especially loved the therapist scenes—I felt they were really well done. And I also loved how supportive and loving Sparrow's friends and family were. Despite everything she went through, she still had people she could lean on in the end.

Overall Feelings

I did struggle with a few things in this book, but overall, I felt the story was completely worth it. It's such an important one, too. I'm glad I had the chance to read it.

This book follows Sparrow and her best friend. After Sparrow’s boyfriend Tristan assaults her, leaving her with horrific injuries, she must find the strength to confront the abuse she suffered, past and present. 

Sparrow is a beautifully told story about such a difficult and sensitive topic. The writing was incredible, stunning and lyrical. It was heart-breaking to watch the evolution of Sparrow and Tristan’s relationship from when they first get together, all the way until the end. Alarm bells rang early on and it was hard to bear but also illuminating to understand what was going on behind closed doors. 

I hated Tristan with a searing, burning passion. I found it hard to sympathise with him and the reasons behind his obsessive and controlling behaviour. 

I loved reading from Lucas’s POV. It was interesting to read about Tristan’s and Sparrow’s relationship from a different perspective. I also loved his passion for his friendship with Sparrow and how determined her was to save her from Tristan’s clutches. 

My only criticism was that some of the book felt disjointed. The constant switching from Sparrow to Lucas’s POV was hard work at points. Sometimes it felt like I was reading 2 different stories. 

Overall, a beautifully written book with well-developed characters. I recommend this book and I can’t wait to read more of this author’s work.

I desperately wanted to love this book. The writing was beautiful, but the characters were bland. The way it jumped around made me feel disjointed and disconnected. There was no real plot or character drive.

Watching an extremely gifted, hard-working, driven teen girl fall into the grips of a controlling, anger-filled boy made me feel helpless and frustrated.

Savannah--Sparrow to her friends--narrates the story. She can't believe it when handsome, popular, well-off Tristan begins to have feelings for her. He is so kind and gives her gifts and wants to be with Sparrow all of the time.

Sparrow's best friend and dance partner, Lucas, has never liked Tristan. He's been bullied by Tristan since childhood, and Lucas does not believe that Tristan has changed, no matter what Sparrow says. Delaney, Sparrow's best friend, and Lucas watch Sparrow become more and more frightened of her supposed peach of a boyfriend as he controls her every move. Tristan becomes very jealous of Lucas, which makes things even more difficult. Delaney and Lucas repeatedly try desperately to help Sparrow see what Tristan has become. She refuses to acknowledge anything and sticks up for Tristan over and over. Eventually, after Sparrow suggests some time apart, Tristan blows up and beats Sparrow until she is almost dead.

This happens at about the halfway point, and the rest of the story is about Sparrow's difficult path back from potentially losing herself. She must confront not only her relationship with Tristan but other secrets about her childhood relationship with her mother, who died when Sparrow was young. Her friends and family all feel helpless as well as guilty. Her father never allowed her to talk about her mother and the abuse Sparrow suffered. Lucas feels responsible and can't hold his temper. He almost loses everything he has worked for.

After slogging through the torturous first half of the story--part of it being described by both Sparrow and Lucas--they slowly and painfully begin to heal. Thankfully her family is supportive, and Sparrow builds a therapeutic relationship with a counselor. Lucas spends time away with his grandmother. Their eventual recovery isn't portrayed as being easy or complete. One thing that I must caution--I wouldn't want teens to think that this type of toxic relationship only happens to girls (or boys) who are abused as children. That is what happens in Sparrow's case, but I'm sure these abusive relationships happen to all kinds of "normal" teens as well. And sadly to plenty of adults.

I was put off when the POV first switched to Lucas, and he begins to relate the same events as Sparrow had. I really don't like dual POVs that repeat the same events. I feel like I can imagine the other character's perspective well enough without reading a retelling of the same story. But, this only happened the first time. After that, the switches in POVs continued the story, rather than repeating the same episodes.

Teens who are attracted to edgy, dramatic, issues books will enjoy this one. While somewhat disturbing, it may be enlightening. Give this to your Speak and Dreamland fans. I think Sparrow is going to be popular.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley from NetGalley.com to review.

Story (3/5): I have mixed feelings about this one. Some parts were a bit confusing; for example I didn't realize Sophie was Sparrow's aunt until well into the book; for some reason I thought she was Sparrow's stepmom at first. I also wasn't a huge fan of switching between Sparrow and Lucas's POV; they just seemed to be separate stories with separate issues the characters were facing and didn't merge together well.

Aside from those issues this was an emotional read about a young woman who's been programmed to accept abuse and her struggle back to life from a brutal attack. It's hard to read at points, but also feels a bit contrived. The ballet is more of a backdrop to the story than a really integral part of the story.

Characters (3/5): The characters were...okay. I again had mixed feelings about Sparrow...I get that her background played a part here but I was very frustrated with how she kept letting her boyfriend treat her and how she pushed her friends away. I get that she’s supposed to be “prey” but I really struggle with protagonists like her. I didn't like her but I think that's the point in the beginning of this book. I also thought Lucas came off as really immature at points and didn’t really enjoy him much as a character either.

Setting (3/5): The setting is contemporary. Brief portions of the story take place in a ballet studio which was interesting.

Writing Style (3/5): The writing style was readable with no big technical flaws. I didn’t enjoy the switching of POV and found some things confusing because they weren’t explained well. However, it was okay.

Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but not great. I am always a sucker for ballerina stories for some reason. This is less of a story about ballet and more of a story about a teenage girl battling her demons and overcoming abusive relationships. If you are into that sort of thing you might like this, otherwise I would skip it.

***TRIGGER WARNING***
assault, death

If you've been here for awhile, you know my love for all things dance, especially ballet. I will read any dance book—good, bad, whatever. And this was just whatever. 

Savannah Rose—Sparrow— is a talented ballerina starring as Odette in Swan Lake with her best friend, Lucas. Soon she starts dating the popular boy, Tristan King, at school who thinks he can solve all his problems with money. After dating for awhile, things start to go wrong.  It's told in dual perspective: multiple chapters from Sparrow's point-of-view, followed by chapters from Lucas.

This is centered around two abusive relationships: Savannah's mother and her boyfriend Tristan. She had learned from her mother to keep quiet and obedient, that everything was her fault. She took those lessons into her relationship with Tristan. Lucas is constantly pushing Sparrow about her relationship knowing something is wrong, going so far as to confronting Tristan and getting into a fight. 

We know nothing about any of these characters when the book begins. There's one thing getting dropped right into the action, but it's another when I'm halfway through the book and I don't understand the backgrounds of any characters. for most of the book I thought the character of Sophie was Sparrow's stepmother, not her aunt.      

I had trouble believing Sparrow and Tristan's relationship. We get one scene of their first date, skips forward a month or two and he's already treating her like shit. Usually you see a character like that be very apologetic and show some sort of remorse, but this guy was just the worse, all the time. Then on the flip side, Lucas talks about being in love with Sparrow, but his actions don't reflect that whatsoever. 

The reason I gave this a 3-star, was because of the dance scenes and because it made me cry a lot. I also think Sparrow's trips to the therapist with her dad and aunt felt very realistic and optimistic.  

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In this book we meet Sparrow who is friends with Delany and Lucas we follow her on her ballerina journey and as she discovers how her past changed her specifically her mother's involvement in her life and how it helps her accept she was abused.



As she doesn't see how Lucas feels about her as he copes with his father's death nor understand the warnings from her friends and family about Tristan her boyfriend, she's putting her stunning expected ballerina future in jeopardy, can she realise what she needs to do before it's too late?



I loved Sparrow being a broken Many bird who had to break and grow into a stronger beautiful girl rising above all the abuse and pain in her life. A challenging awakening novel about the dangers of hiding abuse.



Many thanks to the publisher's for allowing me to review this book for them!

Sparrow's life is all about school, friends, and ballet. This is until she gets hit by Tristan King's car and falls for him. Soon she finds herself in a controlling relationship.

Sparrow is a confronting, but very important tale of a young up-and-coming ballerina being abused and assaulted by her boyfriend. The tale is told in two perspectives- from Sparrow herself, and Lucas- her best friend who tries to stop her from getting hurt. This book deals with themes such as domestic violence, abuse, and a controlling relationship. I do not recommend this book for those who are extremely sensitive to such themes and events.

The boyfriend, Tristan King is gorgeous, dashing, and used to be a big bully to Sparrow and her friends. Sparrow thinks that he's changed over time, but none of her friends think so, and she is hellbent on proving them wrong. The speed of the development of this relationship went from 0 to 100 very fast, and was starting to worry her friends. Unfortunately, it turns out that not only is he a bully, he is also abusive and controlling. Yikes.

The way the book is written, Sparrow talks about events and brushes them off as they happened, as if she's too afraid to speak ill of what is happening. This is comparison to Lucas's perspective, where he describes the same events with a lot more detail. This is analogous to the characters themselves- Sparrow is quiet and withdrawn, whereas Lucas attempts to be loud and vocal.

In the book, as Tristan became more and more abusive and controlling, Sparrow tried her darnedest to not say anything and act like everything is fine, just like how her mother told her in the past when she was also abusive. This in hand breaks Lucas's heart, seeing that Sparrow has blocked him and Delaney (Sparrow's other best friend) out her life as Tristan sinks his claws into Sparrow.

I found that at times, events were out of order- where Sparrow would brush on something that has happened, often with little detail, and then the same event was described by Lucas later on in the book, instead of around the time Sparrow herself mentioned it. This lead me to be confused a bit at times, but Lucas as an insightful character clears things up as the novel went on.

I did however appreciate the way the author tackled this book in a way that felt raw and heartbreaking, especially given several circumstances within the book. It felt well researched and the events that conspire between Sparrow and Tristan feel as though that they could happen in real life- even if we don't ever wish that.

Overall, this Young Adult contemporary is a heartfelt, heartbreaking tale of a young lady who is just trying to learn to deal with the ghost of her mother haunting her, whilst trying to keep quiet from the abuse she cannot see (when others can and try to help but get turned away) for herself. Whilst the timeline of events can feel jagged at times, the themes within this book are well written and will pull on heartstrings of those who pick up this book. I recommend this book to anyone who has read I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory.

Rating: 4/5
(Review will be live on my blog on March 3!)

This book was REALLY intense (CW for depictions of child abuse and serious intimate partner/dating violence) I was drawn to it as a former ballet dancer, and I was pretty impressed with how well Jackson captured aspects of the ballet training of serious high school dancers, with only the occasional inaccuracy or implausibility. As a feminist sociologist who has done some reading on sexual violence and IPV, I felt like Jackson also captured some important aspects of IPV well, including how difficult it can be to get out of a dating violence situation, even when the partners don't live together, the danger of the escalation that can occur when someone tries to leave, and the fear and helplessness that loved ones experience when they want to help but feel like nothing works. That said, the depiction of the violence in this book is REALLY intense and graphic, so I would hesitate to recommend it to people if I wasn't sure of whether or not they had any history with such violence.

This book is one I found difficult to rate. The writing is excellent, the story concept is great, but there was something missing. For me, that was the character development. As the blurb explains, this book is about domestic abuse and for me I think the main reason it fell flat is that I didn't get to invest in Sparrow's character or the relationship she had with Tristan. The book begins with Sparrow and Tristan getting together and all seems great, but then it jumps ahead and we have Sparrow panicking over not answering her phone to Tristan, being anxious and afraid of saying the wrong thing, etc, but because there has been no lead up to this and no real time to get to know either character, I just wasn't emotionally invested. It wasn't clear why Sparrow behaved the way she did or let Tristan treat her like that. Then all of a sudden he attacks her and leaves her for dead.

The story is told in dual POV with Sparrow and Lucas, but I'm really not sure why. Lucas didn't really have a major storyline and again I didn't really connect with him. For me Lucas's part in the story was about friendship and about him learning to deal with his own emotions, but again, as a reader, I didn't get to fully connect with him either.

As I mentioned above, the writing is excellent and I found myself wanting to read on to see all my questions answered. The section after the attack told in Sparrow's point of view was beautifully told and held some real emotion but I think as a reader it was too late to really invest in the story. I also didn't get to learn anything about the relationship with Tristan.

I was disappointed with the Finale being told in Lucas's point of view and as a reader, I felt the story should have ended with Sparrow and what happened next for her, her closure, her ending.

Overall, while I enjoyed the book, I think more story and more character building would have made me absolutely love it.

This book was very different and suspenseful. I felt like I didn't know what was going to happen next. The plot was fast moving and full of twist so if you like that kind of book then you will like this. I thought the main character was very interesting and I could actually relate to her.

Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson took on the serious topic of domestic violence and had us, the readers, get the whole story, before, during, and after. I give any author who writes a book that tackles the after of abuse and sexual violence a huge thumbs up mostly because so many people make that the climax, or the twist, or have the personal leaving/ dying/ getting help as the last thing we see when in reality there is so much more that happens after the fact. So kudos to Jackson for making a book that goes where so few want to.

I felt that the writing was a bit clunky at times and suffered from telling not showing. Important or significant moments in characters lives would happen off screen and then we would be told about them in a sentence or two but never actually get to experience them or see how the characters responded in those moments.

Sparrow had significant character growth in this novel, and I'm happy she did, her journey was harrowing and was treated with respect. Unfortunately it seemed like she was the only one that was going to get that level of treatment as our other narrator, her best friend Lucas, didn't seem to change at all from beginning to end despite being involved in the horrible events.

I think the was a good first novel from Jackson and do look forward to seeing what she will write in the future as she has already made bold steps in her debut.

This book wasn't for me. I appreciate it is well written but the storyline didn't go in a direction that I enjoyed. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC egalley.

(2/5⭐️) DNF.

Sparrow is a high school ballerina struggling with demons of her past (her mom’s death when she was a child), as well as an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. This story is about how she deals with these things while being a high schooler and ballerina who has a bright future ahead of her.

This was a disappointing read. I’ve read five or six ballet books, having authored one myself. I suppose I was expecting a lot more from this. There are so many deep parallels that can be drawn with ballet and physiological issues. I don’t think the author did a good job there. I had to stop at chapter six after reading some icky-feeling boyfriend abuse scenes. Moreover, the story was very disjointed, skipping over all the events I would have felt were important, leaving me confused and feeling like I had missed something.

Unfortunately, I did not find myself invested. The relationship between Sparrow and Tristan King was so rushed, that there was no development between them. It went from sudden meeting, to first date, to abusive boyfriend. I found myself unable to understand why Sparrow would put up with such treatment. She kept saying it was because she loved Tristan, but I wasn’t able to see that because I was not part of any development of love between them.

I wonder if there was a reason the author wrote this in such a disjointed way? Perhaps she was trying to draw parallels between trauma victims and confusion/missing swaths of memory and information, but I think she could have done it in a better way.

The relationship abuse I witnessed between Tristan and Sparrow left me feeling depressed, icky, and even anxious. It also felt really overplayed, like the author was trying too hard. All in all, I didn’t find myself enjoying a minute of this book and had to put it down for how upset it made me feel. I like to read for enjoyment and captivation. I felt neither of these.

Also, there wasn’t a lot of actual ballet in this book so if you’re hoping for more ballet, I’d go elsewhere.

Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC. I did my best to give it an honest review based on the six chapters I read. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t the book for me.

So I found myself torn between a 3 and 4 star, but in the end I had to give it a 3.5

For my personal taste in novels I found Sparrow to be not for me, but I can not deny that it was a well done book that tackled some important topics.

The book is told through the perspective of Savannah Darcy Rose (known as Sparrow by friends and family) and Lucas: Savannah's best friend and dance partner. I'm going to stop right here to acknowledge and agree with other reviewers who mentioned that the transition from POV's was bit clumsy. It just felt strange how so much information was withheld then released later through the opposite POV (I don't hate this completely, I just found it awkward).

So anyway, Sparrow is a gifted ballerina who is still haunted by her mother's death. One day she ends up in a relationship with Tristan, a dude both her and her other BFF Delaney both had crush on. All is well- until it isn't.

The novel Sparrow gives a solid and raw look into teenage abusive relationships, and author Mary Cecilia Jackson captures it quite well, not sugar coating some of the harsh realities. For that, I applaud this book.

That being it said, its not perfectly done and I did have some minor issues. For one, I felt the character development to be lacking a little. And two, that strange POV perspective that I mentioned earlier.

This is still something I will highly consider adding to my library collection.

This book seemed a bit different from my typical read. I real like the dual POV's . I found it confusing, and the characters weren't as developed as I expected. I had a hard time engaging or caring about the characters.

The synopsis had me thinking I would love this book, but the execution of this story was just all sorts of wrong. First off, the book is told in alternating POVs, but not in a good way. Sparrow's POV starts us off, and as she goes through her story, she'll skip tons of key moments, a week here, a month there, where you're like, What are you people talking about and when did all this happen??? I frequently went back in the book to see if I somehow accidentally skipped a few pages. I had not. You see, after Sparrow is done speaking, finally, Lucas comes in with his POV, which is literally all the missing pieces from Sparrow's story, AFTER IT'S OVER. If you're going to alternate like that, at least line them up chronologically, or in a way that doesn't leave the reader absolutely lost.

Second, most of the characters were completely flat, boring, and predictable, with nothing new or interesting, and nothing that grabbed me or made me care about any of them. None of them had any kind of character growth or deeper side of themselves. About 3/4 of the way through, Sparrow starts to show some personality and growth into real persona, but by then it was a bit too late.

I made it to the end, and I feel like it was a hard let down. Instead of letting us read through the hard parts, the parts that matter, we get an obscure time jump and a THE END.

My favourite read so far this year!

Sparrow is a gifted ballerina! She loves it and dedicates many hours to ballet. But when she gets a boyfriend she begins to feel perhaps she has taken on too much.
Her boyfriend is controlling, getting jealous over Lucas - Sparrow's dance partner. So when Sparrow is attacked immediately all fingers point to him. But did he do it?

When I first started reading this book, it felt like a bog standard story - like a typical, predictable romance. But the more I read on, the more I was gripped!. I remember my eyes were getting tired and that I should go to bed but somehow my eyes powered through. As we had to know what happened next.

The story is quite emotional and nearly had me in tears,

The story is divided into chapters from the points of view of Savannah (Sparrow) and Lucas. Occasionally the two of these overlap and you are going over the same ground. Yet at the same time you uncover something new.

I tend to love anything that has to do with ballet, and this book was no deviation from that love, and was the reason I wanted to read this from the start.
The very opening page was gripping and poetic and left you wanting more. I did find the MC Sparrow a frustrating character throughout the book, which at times could make the book hard to read. There was many a time I felt like reaching in and shaking her, and probably yelled out-loud "What are you doing/ thinking - talk to someone".
However, as much as it frustrated me personally, this is also something that the author conveyed quite well as a person in an abusive relationship and with an abusive past can't process abuse as not being their fault, and honestly come out and talk with someone about it.
Overall, this was a beautifully written book which managed to make me feel all sorts of emotions and yell out-loud.

Two major points in the book's favor, particularly in contrast to other YA books: portrayal of ballet as an artistic outlet that does not involve eating disorders/self harm/attacking other dancers, and discussion of abuse cycles and the way trauma can extend over years and manifest in different ways. I also appreciated the small clues toward the beginning which became more fully explained later.

I will say, however, that much of the book didn't strike a particular chord with me. The first half in particular seemed weaker - the time jump in Sparrow and Tristan's relationship, the side characters who aren't especially well differentiated and mostly disappear later in the book. Lucas's perspective, which I never really warmed to, seemed especially extraneous during this half, when so much of his chapters only repeated Sparrow's POV without significant further insight into either their characters or the situation.

I think the very thing which made the book stand out from others about abuse in teen couples, and which transformed the second part (delving into how Sparrow had been conditioned to accept or excuse the verbal abuse and later violence in their relationship, even when it was so clear and so obviously severe; a portrayal of continuing trauma in her life rather than the "frog in hot water" situations which characterize many other YA books of this type) made Lucas's chapters a weak link. They seemed so heavily focused on Tristan and Lucas blaming himself for not intervening in the relationship, even as the narrative seemed to have moved to a secondary level in its examination of the abuse.

Overall, I think I enjoyed it more because it had interesting ideas to share than and a careful way of sharing them than because of any particular love of the characters or enjoyment of the language, but it's certainly not a bad read (although potentially heavily triggering).