Bunheads by Sophie Flack
Author: Sophie Flack
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary, Adult, Young Adult Romance, Dance, Self discovery
Publisher: Poppy, Atom
Published: 10th of October 2011
Synopsis
As a dancer with the ultra-prestigious Manhattan Ballet Company, nineteen-year-old Hannah Ward juggles intense rehearsals, dazzling performances and complicated backstage relationships. Up until now, Hannah has happily devoted her entire life to ballet.
But when she meets a handsome musician named Jacob, Hannah's universe begins to change, and she must decide if she wants to compete against the other "bunheads" in the company for a star soloist spot or strike out on her own in the real world. Does she dare give up the gilded confines of the ballet for the freedoms of everyday life?
Review
I picked up Bunheads because on the front cover I read the question "How do you choose between your first love and your first solo?" And to be honest with that question as a premise I expected to read about a ballerina, a boy and an epic and torturous love story. Perhaps one where he has to compete with a lot of suitors for her attention because she's a famous dancer and he doesn't quite fit into her world, but that's not quite how it went.
Bunheads is indeed about a ballerina, a boy or maybe even 2 and a love story, but the romance is not at the heart of this book. What I found was the complicated life of a bunhead, and I do mean bun head and not ballerina because as she will tell you in the very first sentence: her name is Hannah Ward and do NOT call her a ballerina.
Bunheads wasn't what I was expecting but I enjoyed it even more because of this and the world it introduced me to.
I've always thought that you work hard to become a ballerina but once you do that's it and you only perform when asked, or when there's a show. I never viewed it as a job, as a gruelling and ruthless world of exercise and competitiveness, where even once you've made it to the top your future is still an uphill struggle. Bunheads only become ballerinas when they become soloists, so until then they cannot call themselves such, and this is a story of a bunhead fighting and dancing her heart out to become one.
I followed Hannah initially with the trepidation of a promising love story with a young and gorgeous musician Jacob. Hannah however was soon torn between her career and maintaining any contact with him. Sophie Flack's simple and earnest style of writing then dragged me through every pas de deux, every grand jete and arabesque. I felt like I caught a brief but firm glimpse of the world of ballet watching Hannah struggle between her diet, her best friends who are also her greatest competition, her family ties and her potential career, rehearsing every working hour and then working out the remainder of the waking hours to maintain the tiny and straight line that a dancer's figure should have and that she has been instructed to achieve. Her love for this world was blindingly clear and passion oozed out every pointe shoed step, and it was contagious. But with even just a taste of the world outside of the ballet, a world with Jacob and us pedestrians (that is what we are referred to by the dancers - outsiders) a seed of doubt is planted and slowly starts to grow. As that seed grew I was gripped, watching Hannah fight for a chance to become a ballerina, to be noticed, I watched her suppress her curiosity for the outside world and what it may contain including Jacob. I watched her grow as a person and come to terms with the age long internal dilemma that we all go through: what do we really want.
The ballet world promises a lot, but at a steep price. It will never get easier, but Hannah's heart has been dancing a pas de deux since she was 5, the pedestrian's world promises ease and mysteries and adventures and with every new experience her heart skips beat, but the two cannot coexist.
Sophie Flack let me see behind the stage and the make up of this beautiful world to the iron will and sacrifices that it demands, and with it the story of a young Bunhead and her coming of age and growth from a young girl into a woman.
This isn't my genre of book as I'm a bit of a sad, pink, warm and fuzzy kind of person who generally escapes to books for romance and an alternate reality, but Hannah's story was a compelling and intriguing one, that has given me an incredible appreciation for dancers and what they go through to follow their passion, and so that us pedestrians may share it ever so briefly.
Bunheads is indeed about a ballerina, a boy or maybe even 2 and a love story, but the romance is not at the heart of this book. What I found was the complicated life of a bunhead, and I do mean bun head and not ballerina because as she will tell you in the very first sentence: her name is Hannah Ward and do NOT call her a ballerina.
Bunheads wasn't what I was expecting but I enjoyed it even more because of this and the world it introduced me to.
I've always thought that you work hard to become a ballerina but once you do that's it and you only perform when asked, or when there's a show. I never viewed it as a job, as a gruelling and ruthless world of exercise and competitiveness, where even once you've made it to the top your future is still an uphill struggle. Bunheads only become ballerinas when they become soloists, so until then they cannot call themselves such, and this is a story of a bunhead fighting and dancing her heart out to become one.
I followed Hannah initially with the trepidation of a promising love story with a young and gorgeous musician Jacob. Hannah however was soon torn between her career and maintaining any contact with him. Sophie Flack's simple and earnest style of writing then dragged me through every pas de deux, every grand jete and arabesque. I felt like I caught a brief but firm glimpse of the world of ballet watching Hannah struggle between her diet, her best friends who are also her greatest competition, her family ties and her potential career, rehearsing every working hour and then working out the remainder of the waking hours to maintain the tiny and straight line that a dancer's figure should have and that she has been instructed to achieve. Her love for this world was blindingly clear and passion oozed out every pointe shoed step, and it was contagious. But with even just a taste of the world outside of the ballet, a world with Jacob and us pedestrians (that is what we are referred to by the dancers - outsiders) a seed of doubt is planted and slowly starts to grow. As that seed grew I was gripped, watching Hannah fight for a chance to become a ballerina, to be noticed, I watched her suppress her curiosity for the outside world and what it may contain including Jacob. I watched her grow as a person and come to terms with the age long internal dilemma that we all go through: what do we really want.
The ballet world promises a lot, but at a steep price. It will never get easier, but Hannah's heart has been dancing a pas de deux since she was 5, the pedestrian's world promises ease and mysteries and adventures and with every new experience her heart skips beat, but the two cannot coexist.
Sophie Flack let me see behind the stage and the make up of this beautiful world to the iron will and sacrifices that it demands, and with it the story of a young Bunhead and her coming of age and growth from a young girl into a woman.
This isn't my genre of book as I'm a bit of a sad, pink, warm and fuzzy kind of person who generally escapes to books for romance and an alternate reality, but Hannah's story was a compelling and intriguing one, that has given me an incredible appreciation for dancers and what they go through to follow their passion, and so that us pedestrians may share it ever so briefly.
A diet of celery and water was occasionally attempted, pointe shoes were broken and Hannah danced her heart to the beat of the music of life.
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