THE DEVIL'S IN THE DANCERS

An elite summer dance program holds a deadly secret.

Sixteen-year-old Marianne “Mars” Chang has landed a scholarship to Allegra Academy’s summer program, an elite ballet intensive that Mars plans to leverage as her ticket out of suburban Clarksville, New Jersey. Her dream is obtaining a full ride to Harvard. Allegra Academy, it turns out, is full of rich girls—really rich girls. Mars’ roommate, Alexandra Bechler, turns out to be a member of the pharmaceuticals family that founded the academy and funds her scholarship. Alex can do whatever she wants, and Mars finds herself caught between jealousy and attraction. As competition for the lead role in the recital escalates, Mars starts to think that something else is going on at the academy, something dangerous and maybe even deadly—and that it involves her roommate. The elite ballet school setting provides opportunities for examining race (Mars is Chinese American), class, and privilege, and provides a backdrop for high-stakes plotlines that parallel the more ordinary dance-world realities of perfectionism and competition. Gory descriptions of injuries come together with dramatic behind-the-curtains plotting to create a tense, foreboding atmosphere with only occasional stumbles as the characters whirl from scene to scene; the author often seems not to trust readers to make connections and instead spells things out unnecessarily.

A lot of scheming and touches of horror unfolding within the intensity of the ballet world.