Monday, September 3, 2012

Review| The Cranes Dance, by Meg Howry

Full Title: The Cranes Dance
Author: Meg Howrey
Genre: Fiction/Contemporary
Publisher: Vintage (Random House)
Publication Date: May 15, 2012
My Copy: Advance reader copy via Goodreads First Reads

The Cranes Dance, by Meg Howrey, follows the life of ballerina Kate Crane. She takes us through an especially rough patch in her family life that coincides with the career boost she may just need.

Kates sister, Gwen, is the superior dancer. Everyone knows this: Kate is a soloist, but Gwen is a principle dancer. But when Gwen’s neurosis get to be too much to handle, Kate calls up her dad to take her away. While Gwen is getting treatment, Kate injures herself but dances what has to be her best season yet. She snags lead roles, but her dependence on painkillers might be clouding her world.

Kate’s voice was instantly likeable for me. She is witty and funny. She addresses her audience directly, and is quite blunt and honest in her opinions. She is a very self aware and strong female lead. Her dancer lifestyle isn’t entirely relatable to me, but I felt I understood her regardless. Her emotions and thoughts are very well described.

Overall, this novel was interesting and engaging. I was never bored with it. I always wanted to read just a bit more before putting it down. Because of this, I finished it in one sitting. It’s a very quick read, but very good as well. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone, dancer or not.

See (and like!) this review on: Amazon | Goodreads | Librarything | Shelfari

5 comments:

  1. I read Bunheads and Crash by Nicole Williams this year and was disappointed in both. Crash in terms of it having a ballet dancer on the cover and then having pretty much zero dancing. I feel cheated and need a ballet fix! I was just wondering and hoping to find a book about the ballet "life", so your post was perfect timing. And it sounds like a great book. I must get it even though I'm not really supposed to be buying a ton of books.

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  2. Yay, my library has an ebook copy of this book and it's available. So, I'm now reading it even though it's early, early, early morning and the library isn't open. So happy you mentioned and reviewed this book.

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    1. I'm glad you found my review useful. Please let me know what you think of the book.

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  3. Good review! I absolutely love THE CRANES DANCE. Kate's voice (and humor) really is the standout feature of the novel.

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