Review By: Anonymous
4/5 Stars
"The Dance of the Dolls by Lucy Ashe is a young-adult historical fiction book centering around the life and trials of female ballerinas in this era. The thriller is set in London in the year 1933 and follows the story of identical twin ballerinas, Clara and Olivia Marionetta, rehearsing for Coppélia at the Sadler Wells Theatre. Love quickly turns obsessive in this novel as Olivia grows jealous of Clara's relationship with Nathan, the pianist, and a quiet ballet shoemaker takes admiration for Olivia, unbeknownst to her. Clara, on the other hand, begins to feel suffocated by the adoration from Nathan, the child prodigy who is struggling to adapt to this new adulthood while the lines between his reality and his fantasy world are rapidly blurring.
I liked this book because of the multiple viewpoints that it showcased and the inclusion of the possible real-life insecurities that ballerinas, and even twins, can face. The book also included mention of real historical figures and events, like Nicholas Sergeyev who was a Russian ballet dancer/choreographer and had fled Russia in 1919, spending the rest of his life in the West and produced many ballets for the leading Western companies at the time. The Ballets Russes, which was a famous Russian dance company lead by Serge Pavlovich Diaghilev, is also mentioned in this novel. With Ashe's involvement in the Royal Ballet School, the historical accuracy is much appreciated.
Because the unsettling thriller includes the mention of mental health struggles and ballerinas attracting toxic male attention, I would recommend this book to more mature audiences."