Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra (review)

Gigi is hoping to break free of the ballet world’s discrimination against African-American dancers; June wants to regain acceptance with the Korean dancers, who resent her for being half-white; Bette is determined to reclaim the starring roles—and the boyfriend—she considers stolen from her by Gigi. And that’s just the beginning of the melodrama in this ballet-school story, where sabotage past—a leading dancer who was deliberately dropped and terribly injured—threatens to recreate itself in sabotage present as Gigi receives an escalating pattern of threats and even harm. It’s good to see a classic stage soap opera updated to embrace and even champion contemporary diversity (Gigi and June both muse on prejudice in ballet); the details of ballet life are evocative, the writing propels things along at a brisk clip, and the multiple plot threads remain distinct but not overwhelming. As events mount, however, the book turns from melodrama into something closer to horror, with deliberate emotional torment and physical assaults becoming commonplace and burying the ballet story without giving full rein to horror’s frightening joys. Additionally, characterization flattens out, so that Gigi’s sweet naïveté gets a little tiresome, and Bette moves too often from bully to self-correction to bully again. There’s enough deliciously trashy drama to appeal, though, and readers may find themselves drawn into the ongoing villainy.