Publisher: Penguin
Series: Stand Alone
Pages: 352
Genre: Contemporary
Synopsis: Theo is better now.
She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.
Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.
Review: Pointe looked like a great book. I picked it up for the ballet, and the kidnapping was just an added bonus. Unfortunately, this book in no way met my expectations.
The writing is good, no problem there. However, the plot progresses extremely slowly. I thought it would pick up, but it never does. It's an okay story, but it gets increasingly boring. The story line doesn't sit right. Right at the start, you find out Donovan is alive, and you spend the entire book anticipating his reunion with Theo, which doesn't happen until the very end. Even then, it is only for a brief sliver of time. The mystery of him and his experiences are not explored until then, either, and even then, it is disappointing.
Theo's eating disorder is alluded to, mostly as a past tense sort of thing, though her previous issues with food arise again when Donovan returns. Not enough time is spent on this to make it seem like an important part of the plot. It is more of a side story than anything else.
I neither like or respect Theo as a main protagonist. She claims to love ballet, to take it seriously enough to pursue a professional career in it. And then she goes and drinks alcohol and ruins her lungs smoking. You quickly lose patience with a character who thinks these things are okay. Her few redeeming qualities in no way make up for the rest of the absurdity. She is an inconsistent character. The secondary characters, too, lack dimension. I found myself wanting to know what happened, but not really caring what it was or how it affected any of them.
The amount of drinking and drugs in this book are unnecessary. The use of them is nonchalant and make me seriously doubt the characters rationality. The author seems to be trying to put in multiple adult themes in an attempt to make this book more meaningful and dark, which is an endeavor that does not pay off.
The so called 'romance' is unimpressive. Theo picks the wrong person and puts herself in a difficult situation that will ultimately only hurt her. It is a disaster of a love affair.
I went into this book expecting more ballet than there is. Aside from a few short pages of Theo practicing or worrying about her future, there is more to be desired from that aspect of the novel.
The ending is too perfect and too sudden. It wraps up too nicely, considering all of the problems that are introduced.
I really want to like this book. It has an interesting premise and quality writing. Pointe tries too hard and does too much at once. It almost seems like a few different books compressed into one, none of which I am really satisfied with. The plot and the characters are unsatisfying. The eating disorder is not given enough attention, Donovan remains a ghost for much of the book, and ballet is nothing more than an afterthought. Overall, I am not impressed.
2.5 Keys
No comments:
Post a Comment