I received an audio of The Ballerinas from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I know very little about the ballet. I expected this book to give me an education on the subject. This book tells the story of 3 friends who studied at the Paris ballet and joined the company. The chapters alternate from their beginning in the ballet to the present v

The book is average. These women could have been in any occupation. I wish it was more of the ballet. The writing was ok and the ending abrupt 2 stars.

The Ballerinas is a story about the complicated elements of female friendships and the lengths one will go to achieve success. This book depicts the harsh reality of the world of ballet, beyond the grace and elegance. Lines are definitely crossed as trust is broken and relationships are fractured all in the name of stardom. Each character is well developed as we travel through various stages of their lives and careers. The narrator does a superb job bringing each character to life. The plot is sprinkled with surprises and events that were shocking and unexpected. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my audiobook.

This book is great for dancers, lovers of dance, or well, anyone. I don't know if I would really categorize it as a thriller. This slow burn story is great on audio and I hope you enjoy it!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a slow start, but about halfway through, I was fully invested in it. It is not your typical thriller. It was such a beautiful book. I think it did a great job of flashbacks as well! I would definitely recommend this one.

Perfect for fans of Ellie Eaton's The Divines, Rachel Kapelke-Dale's The Ballerinas is an enthralling dual-timeline narrative that explores friendship, love, desire, art, betrayal, and -- in some fundamental way -- what it means to exist in a woman's body. The story follows Delphine Leger, a ballerina-turned-choreographer returning, after a thirteen-year absence, to the elite French ballet company where she trained. Her best friends, Lindsay and Margaux, never left Paris, yet the city Delphine left is not the same one she returns to. Everything is different, including the girls she trained beside, comforted, supported... and betrayed.

Kapelke-Dale's prose is incisive and profoundly specific. Small moments crystallize around nuanced observations ("Over the years, he'd developed in my mind like the world's slowest-developing Polaroid"), which make for a lovely contrast against highly technical language of dance, music, and movement.

Readers looking for a dark thriller that exposes the underbelly of ballet won't find that here; the mystery at the heart of the narrative has more to do with identity than anything else. Thanks to the dual timeline, Delphine and her friends are revealed in complex, layered dimensions; what these women do is inextricably connected to who they are, which makes the heart-pounding third act feel genuine (if shocking). While some reviewers cite the unlikeability of Delphine and co., I'd argue that those readers are very much missing the point. The Ballerinas is about women taking ownership of their narratives, come what may. If they have to sacrifice our approval to be more fully themselves, so be it. It's a neat trick of art imitating life as the reading process unfolds, which will challenge readers up to the task and anger/frustrate those who can't move past preconceived ideas about what characters *should* be.

Ell Potter is, as ever, a revelation on this recording. Her performance on The Ballerinas is as hypnotic and pristine as the one she delivered on Hamnet, and she might even show more range here. She's fast becoming one of my all-time favorite narrators.

Well-written and expansive, but with few exceptions, none of the characters behaved believably. There were also a few more twists than could comfortably fit in a single book.

This is a story about dancing through the pain.

I mistakenly thought this was going to be a tense exploration of the pressure placed on dancers- but really it was an exploration of a long term friendship. There were aspects I really liked, including the overall writing style & the way in which the author fleshed out the protagonist.. and also aspects I didn’t love, including all of the male characters, and the amount of time spent in the past timeline.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️. 💫/5, rounded to 4.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for this Alrc!

This was a very well thought out debut from Kapelke-Dale that dives deep into the dark side of the dance and ballet world.

Having danced when I was younger, I was immediately intrigued and found myself grateful that I didn’t get myself involved deep enough to endure some of the toxic friendships and pressures of obtaining and maintaining the perfect prima ballerina body.

While I really enjoyed the grittiness of this read, I think I was just looking for a little something more. However, fans of black swan or the turnout will definitely enjoy this one!

3.5 stars rounded to 4 for goodreads

The perfect blend of ballet as a sport, combined with thriller tones. How far would you go to succeed? What does competition do to relationships? Add in the backdrop of Paris and this story is perfect.

I devoured this book! I loved the gothic and dark feel of the story. I loved the grit of it all, as it highlighted the tenacity it took the three friends, Delphine, Lindsey, and Margot, to make it in the dance world. It is a story of betrayal and strength and feminism. It is also about friendship as these three reconnect after Delphine comes back to choreograph a ballet after being away for 13 years away. I think based on the description I was expecting a little more of a thriller element and expected a little more in terms of the secrets being alluded to in the description too. I think at times too Delphine felt a little selfish, but I like the book was aware of that and that she was called out for those moments. This is an intense read, as it takes on elements of the me too movement, as well as how to find your voice as a woman in a male-driven world. It is powerful. I loved the characters, they felt so alive, and I loved the friendships and strength of these woman. The language is as elegant as a ballet itself—it is lyrical and beautiful, and I just couldn’t stop listening. Ell Potter too is the perfect narrator for this novel too. Her voice is stunning and soothing and her inflections were wonderful. I really enjoyed this audiobook!

I was looking forward to this book. The cover is exquisite and the description led me to believe this was more of a thriller.. Unfortunately this was just plain boring. The characters didn’t grab me one bit, and the use of obscene language every so often wasn’t funny and uncalled for.

I wish I liked this book better than I did. Between this and The Turnout, I'm striking out with audiobooks about ballet and dancers lately! The premise of The Ballerinas really attracted me, and I looked forward to the story, but it was not as advertised. I thought I was getting some kind of creepy suspense story, but instead it was an agonizingly slow read about three obnoxious young dancers and their adult selves who are pretending to still be friends but actually are terrible to one another. And nothing much happens for the first third of the book! I've loved novels that focus on characters and have little plot, but I had to understand or learn to love those characters and unfortunately, Delphone, Margaux, and Lindsay were unpleasant and unknowable to me. Then the rest of the book is clunky and not half as suspenseful as the author seems to think it is. I really wanted to like this, and might have enjoyed it more if I read it instead of listened, as I'm a fast reader and the agonizingly slow pace might not have bothered me so much. As audio, it killed my will to listen.

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale is a fascinating novel about a close-knit group of friends in the highly competitive world of ballet at a highly prestigious company in Paris. The story is told by Delphine, a choreographer who has returned to Paris with the aim to make up for betraying her close friend 14 years prior. The story alternates between the present (2018) when the characters are 36, and the past during their young adult years. The plot reminded me a little of The Divines by Ellie Eaton in terms of dual timelines and confronting the role they played in the betrayal of a classmate. The story is a little slow, but starts to pickup in the second half. It becomes clear just how competitive and toxic the world of professional ballet can be. Though the characters weren’t necessarily likeable, I was fascinated by them and their actions. Ell Potter, one of my favorite audiobook readers, masterfully narrates this book. Her voice is so pleasant and rich and emotional at the right moments.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC.

This book was lackluster and just not for me. I do think the author did a great job researching and making the book realistic which is a major plus. The book had a lot of potential, but the awful characters ruined this one for me.

“Ballerinas are like pointe shoes: you have to break them down before they’re of any use.”

To begin…THIS COVER 😍. I really enjoyed this one! These ballerinas are so cutthroat and their dance instructors are merciless and, at times, vicious. It is the perfect storm of heart, determination, drama, and sheer grit.

“What are you supposed to do when you still have a teenager’s dreams but you somehow got old?” 🥺

The first half of the book this was a strong 5 stars for me. I found myself frequenting YouTube watching ballerinas doing fouettés and such. They are so graceful and simply beautiful! But then it turned a bit, focusing more on the friendships between these three girls and less on their ballet careers, which was the best part in my opinion. I was so engrossed in their training and the inside peek at these prima ballerinas. By the end, though, it was really not even about ballet at all. You had jilted families and angry husbands and infertility struggles and it was just kind of a mish mosh of too many things.

The audio version was great. I enjoyed the accents, the storytelling, and the emotion that the narrator put into the story. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley, St Martins Press, Macmillan Audio and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I tried so hard to like this and I went into it thinking it was a thriller, but I was bored to tears which ultimately lead to a very rare DNF at 44%. Even if it miraculously got better in the second half, because the first half was so slow to me, it would not have made it above 3 stars, so to be fair that's what I will rate it.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC of this book! I'm sure this is for someone, but it wasn't me. This book is out now!

This book started out interesting to me. Delphine is returning to Paris after 13 years to choreograph a production for the Paris Opera Ballet. She grew up training and performing for POB. Since she is a young child she is BFF’s with Margaux and Lindsay. It gave a rare glimpse into the life of preparing and hoping to be an elite ballerina. One hopes to be an étoile 🌟 as Delphine’s mother had been before. There is relentless practice, never ending pressure for perfection, pain, and still you are being molded into someone else’s idea of beauty for your body.

Delphine is leaving Russia and plans to reconnect with Margaux and Lindsay. They have not kept in close contact, so it is a bit hard to accept that these women would mean everything to her after 13 years. Yet, each knows the other since a young girl and knows this unique world. It does not seem possible to have much other life then living for ballet. This was more then enough material to explore some interesting themes such as the importance of female friendship, jealousy, needing to always please others at your own expense, women’s body issues, and how doing this under such intense scrutiny for so long could cause women to break, relationships to fracture, and anger and resentments to form.

So, the ideas were there, but I felt the execution was not. The book has too much going on, it was all over the place, both with timelines, and constant character developments. I could never really connect to anyone or keep track of what was going on. This is not a Thriller. I think it is marketed as one, but only one unexpected event happens at the end of the book. At that point I just could not relate to anyone’s actions. So, really wish this book had focused on some core issues in a way that didn’t leave my head spinning at the end.

I had the e-book and also the 🎧 audio to listen to. That did work well.

Thank you, NetGalley, Rachel Kapelke-Dale, and Macmillan Audio for an ARC.

I really struggled to stay interested in this story. The jumping back and forth in time didn't feel smooth, and the story just felt jumbled. The first half of the book was so slow, it was hard to stay interested, while the second half picked up, it wasn't enough for me to stay engaged.

Thank you MacMillan, Rachel Kapelke-Dale, and Netgalley for this audio in exchange for my review. The narration was well done and loved the dynamics of this story. Great writing as well. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating from me.

I was not expecting such a dark plot, and I am not mad about it! I really enjoyed the twisty relationships among these ballerinas. Delphine, Lindsay, and Margaux played such unique roles in their trio from adolescents to present day. I felt that the jumping back and forth between time periods was happening too much and at times was a bit confusing. I also felt that the length of the book was unnecessary. In my opinion, this did not need to be a thirteen and half hour audiobook. Overall, I liked this book and would recommend it!