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A review by balletbookworm
The Turnout by Megan Abbott
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
2.5 stars rolled up to maybe a three because I did really find the metaphor of the "rot" behind the perfection of the ballet dancer interesting, embodied in the literal rot of the old house, the studio that hasn't been maintained, the secret shared between Dara, Marie, and Charlie.
However.
The writing about dance is so...if you read all the stereotypes of dancers, they're all in this book. it's extremely lurid. And all happening to CHILDREN. I have never heard of anyone have an obsession with bruised toenails falling off as much as Abbott does in this book. (Look, I danced from the ages of 3 to about 35 and that only happened to me once - when I was changing pointe shoe manufacturers in my 20s. And that was it. I never saw it happen to anyone else except once of the guys was practicing a jump too close to the wall and whacked his toe on the barre.) The mother - who exists in this book as a memory and an obsession of the narrator Dara - feels like she was teleported into this book from a tour of the Ballet Russe des Monte Carlo in 1935 (and everyone in this book has cell phones and pagers, so it's not a historical). And then there was the lengthy description of "achieving turnout" which does not work like that at all.
Which, I suppose, is probably some sort of additional comment on the internal rot in the main characters. But that doesn't make it any easier to swallow when the sleazy contractor character goes "I like the pink" and then hangs around the studio. Bleah. But at least this knocked off one of my 24 backlist to read this year.
However.
The writing about dance is so...if you read all the stereotypes of dancers, they're all in this book. it's extremely lurid. And all happening to CHILDREN. I have never heard of anyone have an obsession with bruised toenails falling off as much as Abbott does in this book. (Look, I danced from the ages of 3 to about 35 and that only happened to me once - when I was changing pointe shoe manufacturers in my 20s. And that was it. I never saw it happen to anyone else except once of the guys was practicing a jump too close to the wall and whacked his toe on the barre.) The mother - who exists in this book as a memory and an obsession of the narrator Dara - feels like she was teleported into this book from a tour of the Ballet Russe des Monte Carlo in 1935 (and everyone in this book has cell phones and pagers, so it's not a historical). And then there was the lengthy description of "achieving turnout" which does not work like that at all.
Which, I suppose, is probably some sort of additional comment on the internal rot in the main characters. But that doesn't make it any easier to swallow when the sleazy contractor character goes "I like the pink" and then hangs around the studio. Bleah. But at least this knocked off one of my 24 backlist to read this year.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Incest