Review: Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy, drama-packed novel featuring diverse characters who will do anything to be the prima at their elite ballet school.

Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

My Review:

This book was very good and filled with drama.  It was a book that kept you turning the pages to find out what would happen next, and to get some answers.  The only thing that I did not like was that this is the first in a series, so now I have to wait a year to get some answers to some of the mysteries.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

First of all, some of the things that the girls did to each other were awful.  I don't know who was responsible for two of the worst incidents, which were the glass in the pointe shoe and the dead butterflies on the walls.  I thought I knew who could have done it, but now I have even more suspects, and no clue who really did do it.  I think I know who did the thing at the very end, though.  It's awful to think that these girls will do things like this just to try to make a girl leave so that they can get on top.  It's really horrible, how unsupportive of each other they are.  

I liked Gigi because she was actually sweet and wasn't trying to get on top.  Of course, she was already getting the top parts, but I feel like she never would have done to other people what people did to her, even if she didn't have the lead roles.  I felt really bad for her, since she was the nicest one there, and she deserved none of what the others were doing to her.  

I wasn't a big fan of either Bette or June, though I did feel bad for both of their family situations.  June wanted to know who her father was since her mom wouldn't tell her.  She also has pressure from her mom to get a lead role, because her mom will send her to public school if she doesn't get a lead part.  Bette is also under a lot of pressure, with her older sister as a principal in the company.  She also has a bit of a knee injury that happens when she works too hard because of a time when her mom pushed her too hard when she was younger.

If you like YA contemporary ballet books, read this book.

Katie