I will read any book or watch any TV show about ballerinas with hidden pasts or agendas, and this one did not disappoint. Delphine, Margaux and Lindsay came of age together at the Paris Opera Ballet, and 20 years later, their lives have taken various twists and turns that bring them all back together. Delphine is choreographing a ballet with Lindsay as the star, and Margaux is struggling with family. Together, they navigate the always cutthroat world of ballet, each other, their pasts, and the men in their lives. Always surprising and never slow, "The Ballerinas" will keep you awake reading late into the night.

4 stars

As a female performer, The Ballerinas certainly hits close to home in its exploration of female friendships tempered by professional jealousies, the male gaze, and the politics behind the art we see.

It certainly starts out with a bang as our yet-unknown narrator tells us that someone will die by her hand before the book is done. From there, we get dual perspectives alternating between childhood and the present. I did think that the first half of the book somewhat lost the thread that the prologue set up by giving us excess amounts of exposition, which had me wondering where the novel was going for a while. We do end up getting back on track in the much more evenly paced second half, but I feel like there could have been some tightening up done at the top to make things flow a bit better.

While this is categorized as a mystery/thriller/suspense novel, I did not necessarily find those overtones to be consistent throughout the novel. After the prologue, there are maybe three or four other moments that could fall under those distinctions. However, Kapelke-Dale does a great job of peeling back the curtain throughout the last 25% of the novel to reveal how truly horrific the previous events of the novel have been and how desensitized we are to these everyday acts of violence.

The Ballerinas is not necessarily a nail-biting at the edge-of-your-seat kind of book, but it is definitely one that will leave you with a lot to think about.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

As someone who grew up in a dance studio, I really wanted to love this book. I think since I already knew the ins and outs of ballet and terminology, I struggled through a lot in the beginning. I found myself really bored and just wanting the "thriller" portion of the novel to begin. Unfortunately, this book was more of a drama than a thriller. The characters were all extremely unlikeable with the choices they made and the ways they treated each other, so I couldn't connect with any of them. I did feel like it was pretty accurate as to how the world of dance, and specifically ballet, is though. I think if the book would have been condensed a little bit more, it would have been stronger and held my attention.

I'm just not sure if ballet stories are for me. I always think the premise is so perfect - the juxtaposition between the graceful and elegant world of ballet and the grisly and dark crimes and fever around the characters drive pulls me in every time, but I just didn't care about the characters here which killed the story for me.

This story definitely has some unexpected twists I did not see coming.

Told from two different points in time, the story doesn’t give anything big away until close to the end and builds well. It has a women’s fiction feel for most of the novel. You get a real feel into the pressures young dancers go through and how cut throat it can be in the industry.

The characters themselves are very different and alike all at the same time. Delphine is one of those people that cares about others a lot but also can’t see when she’s only putting herself first over others. While Margaux acts tough and won’t let anyone push her around. And last Lindsay q naturally talented dancer who is willing to do what it takes to get where she needs to be in her career no matter who it hurts. The personalities are done so well that it helps build an intense tale of the pressures in youth and adulthood alike.

The Ballerinas is an interesting read full of drama and intrigue. I recommend this one if your looking for something a little more women’s fiction.

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

An incredibly well written book. High level prose AND the plot of a bestseller is a tough combination to achieve but Kapelke-Dale has done it! Don’t miss this one!

Love this book! Inside the lives of 4 ballerinas, the sacrifices required to excel in ballet are brought into reality by this talented author.

A "warts and all" look at the world of ballet. It's a slow building, character driven novel that I really enjoyed once I got over the fact that the marketing seemed like it was selling me a thriller.

There is little I love more than finding a debut novel to binge on. My latest find is The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. This novel happens to hit my craving for both debut novels and thrillers. Talk about a win/win!

Delphine once had a shot at making ballet her whole life. She walked away from a spot at the Paris Opera Ballet – and her two best friends – in exchange for a different life. Now, over a decade later, she is back and hoping to pick up where she left off.

Unfortunately, life has moved on while she was gone. More than that, the secrets Delphine thought were safely tucked away are starting to leak out, as the darkest ones tend to do. How will Delphine handle all of these unpleasant turns of events?

“We are all stuck in our own stories. And it is so easy to see someone through only one lens: the role they play in yours.”

The Ballerinas is being pitched as a cross between Dare Me, Black Swan, and Luckiest Girl Alive. So naturally, I went into it with pretty high expectations! And I don't think anyone would blame me for that, either. Also, I love finding new debut authors to support, so this was a fun combination of things for me.

I'll admit that while I didn't love The Ballerinas as much as I hoped, I still really enjoyed it. It's a dark and twisted tale focused on the world of ballet, and it isn't afraid to show us how bad it can get at times.

However, many of these elements felt familiar to me. Like I've read the book before. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it made the read a little more casual than it otherwise would have been. Thankfully, I really liked Rachel Kapelke-Dale's writing style, so that carried me onward without complaint.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

As soon as I received this book, I knew I had to read it. I have such a fascination with ballerinas and the ballet. Plus, can we just take a moment to observe this stunning cover? It’s absolutely gorgeous and totally drew me in.

I loved the way this story was told, alternating between the past and present. It’s definitely a slow-burn at first, laying the foundation of the story. While the ballet is part of everything, what’s really at stake here is the friendship between the three girls and how their own drive and ambition really takes center stage.

There is definitely a darkness to this story and I loved that. Something has happened and these girls hold a secret that is just begging to be released. Again, this slow-burn really works here if you are patient enough to allow the author to develop the characters and the story line. Once you reach the halfway point, things start to take off.

I really enjoyed this one. It’s full of tension and suspense and the character study is top-notch. If you haven’t picked this one up yet, I highly recommend doing so.

One of the best books I’ve read this year.

The Ballerinas is absolutely a ballet novel at its core, but it’s also a tremendous friendship story, a revenge novel, and a scathingly powerful commentary on bodily autonomy.

Most ballet books are set in New York, typically at ABC or ABA or some thinly-veiled version of them. To get a novel set instead at the Palais Garnier was exceptionally fun and infinitely more interesting, a fresh take in setting and ballet culture from what we typically see.

But it’s the friendship between the three main characters and their individual (and interconnected) struggles that makes this a meaningful need. I loved each of them for their flawed but wonderful selves.

The book is a decent ballet education if that’s what you’re looking for (particularly if you’re more familiar with the American training style than the French), but the story is also so much more than that.

I’m baffled by the comparisons to Luckiest Girl Alive (which isn’t a good book and doesn’t have much in common plot-wise), but Dare Me by Megan Abbott is a decent comp, and though it’s very different from Black Swan in tone and atmosphere, there are some common themes and plot elements.

This book is an interesting peek into the world of ballet. It takes some wild turns, which I think would have been more effective if we had more exposition and character development, particularly Delphine. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and was eager to see how it would play out.

Thanks to @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my digital and audio copies!

This was such a great audiobook! It took me about 10% to get into it, but once I did I really enjoyed it. The timelines alternate between past in the late 90s and present. I had an easy time following it, and I felt the narrator did a great job of bringing me into the story.

I loved the setting in Paris, and I appreciated the pressures of being an aging woman in an image based career. There was a lot of drama in this story, and was more women’s fiction then dark thriller as I was anticipating. Great debut and will definitely look for more from the author!

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an ARC of The Ballerinas in exchange for my honest opinion.
I trained 3-4 days per week in classical ballet for most of my childhood. In high school, I started to focus more on jazz, musical theater, and modern dance. Then I completely immersed myself in modern dance in college, where I was a Dance minor. Sadly, I haven't put on a pair of pointe shoes in twenty years, but they're still in my basement in case I get the urge (ha!). Currently, I do some cardio dance and yoga, but I miss being in dancer shape - I would barely make it through a class warm-up nowadays!
As you can imagine with my background, I absolutely love reading anything set in the dance world, so I was excited to devour The Ballerinas! The ballerinas are portrayed very realistically - along with the commitment to their art, the lifestyle choices are spot on. The classes, rehearsals, and choreography are described in vivid detail, as is life in Paris. Each chapter is split into two sections, starting in the late 1990s/early 2000s, then more current times (2018). You can see some ways that Delphine, the protagonist, and her friends have grown and matured over the years and other ways that they have not changed.
This is marketed as a mystery/thriller and while there are some hidden, dark secrets, I don't think it's quite a thriller. The first half is a bit slow, but I enjoyed where the story went and definitely did not expect some things that happened! I don't want to say more to prevent any spoilers. If you enjoy reading about the ballet world and hidden secrets, give this book a try!

I love stories set in the world of ballet, so I really enjoyed this book. The setting is so detailed and the story was so interesting, but the ending disappointed a bit, in that I thought the mystery of what happened between the three main ballerinas in the past was build up to be something terrible and it was not that shocking. I also felt that the flashbacks dragged the story more than anything. There wasn't anything about the characters' friendships that we couldn't gleam from the present and that the past made that much more vibrant, so the flashbacks just seemed to be there to stall the mystery. It slowed down the pace of the book and made me skim a bit. Altogether, though, this is a fun thriller.

A fascinating glimpse into the ballerina lifestyle. The Ballerinas is a literary character-driven story of females in a cutthroat male-dominated world. It’s about art and expression, coming-of-age, and the complexities of friendship. The story starts off slowly but becomes quite intense. Rachel Kapelke-Dale is a great storyteller with much knowledge of ballet. I like ballet novels but most target the teenage girls demographic; this one does not.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy. When I opened the copy in Adobe Digital Editions, the font size was too small for me and my usual way of increasing it didn’t work. So I waited for the hardcopy to come out and it also had small print. I went back to the e-book and found there was another way to increase the font size (Ctrl+); I should have googled this issue to begin with.

4.5 stars round up!

I really, really, really enjoyed this book. But, I don’t think this will be a hyped, well-loved book as I would want it to be. This book resonated with me so much because of the characters dedication to ballet. That was me, but with gymnastics. Always wanting to be the best, doing whatever it takes, even if it means ruining friendships along the way.

I will say, this book is being marketed as a thriller. It is most definitely not a thriller and more of a character driven suspense novel. It covered a lot of topics, which I felt were super relevant given the demand of ballet.

But, it’s not a story about ballet. There are storylines of what it’s like to be female in a male-dominated world, deciding what’s best for your body, standing up for yourself even if it’s not in the best interest of those around you (while being morally correct of course), and most of all, perfection. Athlete or not, I think a lot of people understand the need for perfection whether it be as a parent, within your corporate job, or even a friend.

While I want to recommend this to everyone, I think the former athletes would appreciate this story the most.

Big thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Content warnings: abortion, body shaming, death of parent, adult/minor relationship, alcoholism, cancer, infertility, filming without consent

3.5 STARS

There is a lot to love about this book, from the absolutely gorgeous cover to the solid character development and the inside knowledge of the ballet world. I was very excited to dive into this one when I saw the comparisons to 'Black Swan' and 'Luckiest Girl Alive'. I would say, however, that this story is more closely related to women's fiction than to the thriller genre.

I loved the incredibly detailed descriptions of the often harsh lives of ballet dancers. The author explores the competitiveness and sometimes heartbreaking behind-the-scenes world of professional ballet. The first part of the book was paced slowly, but really picked up in the second half with a fantastic conclusion.

All of the characters are extremely passionate about dancing and I loved the setting of the story. I think the author is incredibly talented and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.
Overall this is a very entertaining and engaging story with very strong female characters.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful delve into the lives of ballerinas, their ambitions, friendships, and struggles. I really enjoyed this novel, with its drama and explorations of finding one's voice, reclaiming control, loyalties, and examining relationships and good choices in this very excusive and demanding life path. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the copy for review. All opinions are my own.