Bright Burning Stars | A. K. Small

TITLE: Bright Burning Stars

AUTHOR: A. K. Small

PUBLISHER: Algonquin Young Readers

RELEASE DATE: May 21st, 2019

GENRE(S): Young Adult fiction

SOURCE: Times Distribution

SYNOPSIS:

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure.

But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

MY REVIEW - ⭐⭐/5

I dove into the book without knowing how dark the it is so please read the listed content warnings and potentially triggering contents carefully.

CW: Eating disorders, body dysmorphia, toxicity in romance and friendship, depression, forced abortion, drug abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempts, self-harm, and underage drinking.

 The lists above are vividly described throughout the book especially the body dysmorphia and eating disorders. The process to abort is also explicitly depicted.

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“If you were only allowed to feed one, which would you pick, pain or numbness?”

Bright Burning Stars brings us into the darkest world of teen ballet dancers whereby their hunger for success teetering on their lifeline. Comes in the prestigious ballet boarding school in Paris, we get a glimpse into the dark facets of ballet dancers being trained from the young age to the ripe age of 16. Those who fail to meet the requirements through daily assessments and rankings, they’d be sent home. They live with strict rules too. See through their rules in the picture below:

This book follows dual alternating narratives of a first point of view—two best friends. Marine is a naturally talented dancer who’s been dealing with eating disorders and coping with the death of her fraternal twin. Kate, the only American in a full house of French people, but she’s able to learn the language through her four years stay in this foreign country. Her life is void of love as she’s miles away from her father and longs for her mother’s absence. These two have been supported each other throughout their training since their first year but suddenly all hell breaks loose when they finally enter their final year – which is the last stroke of their trajectory ballet life – the competition; The Prize, where only one winner is selected.

I like the description of how they dance and their routines as a ballet dancer. Since the author herself is a trained ballet dancer, she knew what’s she doing to the characters. I also like the intense betrayals among dancers themselves because each of them is drunk on the same thing; The Prize. 

What falls short to me is that the way of dark themes handled in this book. I don’t like how this aspect is just glossed over especially when it comes to eating disorders – I don’t buy the reason that the girl finally ends her struggle because of a guy in which the romance they have for each other seems to fall flat to me. We also don’t get the full redemption of characters as some perpetrators still loose free just because they’re school favourite.  The school authority is involved in sweeping this matter under the carpet which makes the adults in this book are all ignorant. Besides, the plot is repetitive in a way it’s fully brimmed of teenagers’ messy love fest (love triangle, insta-love). Not to mention the main lead who keeps doing the same mistake turns out to be lacked of redeeming qualities just grated my nerves at the ending. To be honest, Kate and Marine sounds confusing sometimes as if they share the same voice even though we’re given their point of view.  In short, this book weighs more on cons hence my personal rating. 

It’s a compelling story of cutthroat ballerinas pitting fiercely for the competition. I enjoyed this part. Unfortunately, this book is not for me because of the romance tropes, the underdeveloped characters and the dark themes that are not treated properly. On a side note, Bright Burning Stars is being made into an upcoming movie called; Birds of Paradise. Thank you @timesread and @putrifariza for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.