I made it through for the sake of my book club. I disliked most of the characters and had to push myself to finish, while hoping beyond hope that at any time I would start to feel something for them. I agreed to read this knowing it's a book about ballet but I found myself skipping through the endless, painstaking descriptions of dance. The story was predictable and should have remained in its original form - a short story. I thoroughly enjoyed this, though perhaps not quite as much as Shipstead’s first novel, Seating Arrangements. It’s a multi-generational, multi-POV story set largely in the world of ballet. If I knew the first thing about dance, or even had taken a lesson or two as a child, I would doubtless have gotten more out of it. But I could still appreciate the obsessiveness of people living in a high-stress, ultra-competitive, semi-enclosed little world and how the pressures of professional dance could affect and cheapen and eventually corrupt friendships, love, and family relationships. I listened to it while running on the treadmill, and it somehow worked in that setting, though I wasn’t wild about the voice of the reader.
What do You think about Astonish Me (2014)?
Well-written and topically interesting enough to keep me going to the end.
—sahar
Seating Arrangements was much better. This book was pretty predictable.
—rbkrm
This book was fine. I still think ballet is dumb, though.
—vedlig
Yuck. That says it all. Don't waste your time.
—Annawilford
