Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > The Dance of the Dolls

Slap a ballerina on the cover and I’m bound to want to read it. Sometimes it’s a blessing. Sometimes it’s a curse. This time, it was a blessing because I loved this book!

The Dance of the Dolls is a slow-burn psychological thriller that’s lovingly crafted by Lucy Ashe, who used to be a ballerina with the Royal Ballet. As such, she was not only more than capable of getting into the heads of Clara and Olivia, our two female protagonists (both ballerinas) but was also in possession of a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the inner workings of everything from how pointe shoes are made to what muscles are being used during each position a ballerina makes or what pose she holds. Her deep love and respect for ballet as an art form shows in the extensive research she did to set The Dance of the Dolls in a pivotal time for ballet in Western Europe, going so far as to insert as many real life heroes and heroines from the ballet world into the book almost seamlessly around the events of the book. If one didn’t know these people were real (as a ballet fan, I definitely recognized a great deal of the names), they’d just assume they were characters Ashe made up with a click-clack of her keyboard.

The worldbuilding of early 1930’s London is done impeccably, from the fashions of the time to the political upheaval happening all over. It was a dark time and it was about to get darker, and the British people invested their time and money in the arts just as Americans did, needing pretty diversions from their daily toils and troubles.

This is a psychological thriller, but it builds slowly. The ballet Coppelia, about a man falling in love with a perfect doll, is not only the name of the ballet Olivia and Clara are dancing in, but it’s also a metaphor for the two of them in different ways. Olivia is a perfect ballerina, the type to go all the way in the world of ballet and become a prima ballerina. As such, she captures the eye of the ballet’s pointe shoe maker and becomes his muse for designing costumes and tutus as he watches her from afar, fearing her perfection is not for him. Clara is wilder and more free, a stunning dancer but not as perfect as her twin. Olivia belongs to the ballet, and Clara doesn’t want to belong to anyone. But in the 1930s is it too much to ask for a woman to retain her freedom? Can she just be who she is and not belong to anyone but herself?

I’m not usually one for slow-building anything in books, but there was so much else going on in this book that I wasn’t bored for one second. It was entertaining, page-turning, interesting, informing, and engrossing. I highly recommend it.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Historical Fiction/Historical Romance/Psychological Thriller/Women’s Fiction