A review by abri_reader
Billy Elliot by Melvin Burgess

1.0

I like the story but I don't think this was a very good adaptation of the movie, maybe I'm just not in the right demographic but I didn't like the writing. A few of my biggest issues were that first of all the writing is very sexist towards the female ballet dancers and always implies that Billy is the best one just because he's a boy, even though he just started dancing a few days ago. Also the pov is split with some of them adding nothing to the story, because the characters are not developed and feel incredibly disconnected, one chapter is from the pov of a store clerk for some reason. Also they use the word f*** a lot, but always sensor it which is very distracting. I did like how Michael was written and how accepting Billy was that was sweet. Moral of the story is just watch the musical instead of reading a book that literally quotes it and doesn't even have Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher aka the best song.