Bunheads

Bunheads

By Sophie Flack (294 pages)

Published by Hachette

Bookish rating: 4

Bunheads is precisely the type of book I would have loved to read in middle school. Or high school. Or, well, I actually loved reading it now, in my (ack!) thirties.

Hannah is a 19-year-old corps member of the Manhattan Ballet, which is, of course, really the New York City Ballet. Flack actually was a member of NYCB’s corps for several years and did the whole leaving home, School of American Ballet thing as a young dancer, so her portrayal of the dance world—in America’s best dance company—rings very true. I mean, I believe her when she says the snow in the snow scene—everyone’s favorite Nutcracker scene (mine included) is swept up and reused each performance and includes dirt and lost earrings and gets in dancers’ mouths and tastes like poo.

The plot? Hannah, totally dedicated to her dance career, starts to waver as she gets an inkling that there’s an entire world outside the theater. This, of course, coincides with a love interest, Jacob.

The novel is neatly and well constructed and the pacing is right. The writing, a little on the bland side, doesn’t give Hannah much of a voice, but Flack makes up for this by including little details that take Bunheads to the next level: the billowy rush of cool air on stage as the curtain rises, concentrated heat of the spotlight, and so on. The other thing I loved? Hannah—and, Flack I suspect—genuinely loves ballet. Sure, she’s destroying her body in the pursuit of a promotion, but she adores being on stage and the sensation of her body doing what she wills of it.

Hannah quotes Rimbaud (slightly awkwardly, but we’ll let that pass): “ ‘I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance.’ . . . I’ve always like the image. It makes dance sound like something that exists in the larger world and not just in a dark theater” (p. 171).

Nothing profound there, but I liked that Hannah finishes the novel still in love with dance, its special-ness still preserved. Recommended, for dance fans and young adult lit fans alike.