Tiny Pretty Things (Tiny Pretty Things, #1)

by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra

Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy, drama-packed novel featuring diverse characters who will do anything to be the prima at their elite ballet school. Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance-but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet-star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

• ISBN10: 0062342398
• ISBN13: 9780062342393
• Publish Date: 26 May 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 10 April 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperTeen
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

When my reserve at the library became available, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it. Was I in the mood for a soapy, catty, backstabby drama?

Turns out that yes, yes I was.

The soapy, catty, backstabby dramatics were gloriously off the charts, and I especially had fun with the chapters where we're in the head of the meanest mean girl who has a delusional amount of entitlement. For essentially being a soap opera, it was really well written and each of the three main characters had a distinct voice.

It does end on a sudden cliffhanger-ish note with most things unresolved, so just a warning to potential readers - be smarter than me and acquire it BEFORE starting book #1.

[Chelsea]

LIKES
- First of all, I love dance books/shows/movies so this was a great book for me.
- I loved all the dance drama. Ballerinas are vicious.
- I also loved how each character had different stuff going on but they also interacted together at some points.
- At the start I was a little annoyed with the three different POVs but I got used to it and ended up really liking it.
- There was a lot of diversity in this book! Which is great because ballet isn't a sport we see a lot of diversity in!

DISLIKES
- My only real issue here is that NOTHING WAS RESOLVED. Normally the plot has a climax and then you find out some stuff and yay you know who did stuff but that wasn't the case here which drove me crazy. I know there's another book but we don't know what even happened in this book.
- The book was a little long, it could have been cut down a bit. Mostly on June's parts because her storyline didn't feel like it fit like the other two did.
- It also bothered me that there was a lot of bullying happening and the school clearly didn't care. The only time they made a little effort was when someone got hurt.

[Sam@WLABB]

This book is filled with cruel and heartless girls, who are clawing their way to the top and taking out anyone who gets in their way. Wow! They were so sinister, yet sometimes, I found myself feeling bad for them. I found myself not wanting to stop listening, because I had to know what happened next. I gasped and was left slack jawed many times. My head is still spinning a little trying to nail down that ending. Deliciously addicting!

[girlinthepages]

Tiny Pretty Things had all of the makings of a book that I thought would greatly polarize me into the camp of loving it for its darkness and beauty or abhorring it for its drama and pettiness. While the novel definitely did both, I found Tiny Pretty Things to eventually win me over as a compulsively readable story that featured a form of art so often associated with beauty, delicacy, and primness and contrasted it with its harsh realities of its demands, pressures, and feats of athleticism. Charaipotra and Clayton built a novel that showcases so many elements, from cruelty and bullying to diversity and awareness, all wrapped up in an addicting package that is still running as an undercurrent to my thoughts a week after finishing it.

I think the undeniable aspect of this book, from the cover to the synopsis to the way it's been pitched and received, is its tone. Perhaps piggybacking on the popularity of Black Swan, it uses the backdrop of ballet as a vehicle for stress, sabotage, and cruelty. While I was afraid some of these aspects, such as the "pranks" the characters "played" on each other, would seem childish, they veered much more into the land of unsettling and sometimes downright dangerous and disturbing (which is a horrible thing! But made for very entertaining and compulsive reading...) I will say that sometimes the constant horrible things that the dancers were doing to each other and often to Gigi wore on me, and sometimes I would have to take a break from the negativity, cruelty, and suspicion that permeated each page.

Tiny Pretty Things is told in three alternating first person point of views, and I found the format to really work. You have the literal "ice queen," cruel Bette, the sweet, new girl Gigi, and the sort of morally ambiguous June, who straddles the line between friend and foe the entirety of the novel. I think this juxtaposition of three characters who all hovered on different ends of the "mean girl" scale was a fascinating way to construct the novel, and while I found it hard to sympathize with a lot of them at times, I appreciate that the authors tried to give each one depth and reasoning behind their behaviors, rather than make them terrible for the sake of plot. The arc of the three POV characters, especially the deterioration of Gigi under the stress and cruelty of her peers, is simultaneously heartbreaking and fascinating, and is done with a gradual hand.

Tiny Pretty Things is also a book that writes wonderfully complex secondary characters, who are able to enthrall and disgust you at the same time (I'm looking at you, Henri). Characters like Cassie, who are off the page 95% of the book yet manage to have such a presence over the plot, and characters who are only brought into sharper focus once certain plot points are revealed, but were placed expertly in the background. I trust no one, can overlook no one, and even the "bullies" aren't safe from being targets of harassment or scandal. I appreciate while some characters certainly suffer more than others (or arguably, in different ways) that each one clearly has their demons, whether major or minor, and are written with complexity and intent.

One thing that I repeatedly heard expressed about this book before I had a chance to read it is that it portrayed quite a bit of diversity, representing multiple minority communities. Tiny Pretty Things did not disappoint in this aspect, and managed to not feel heavy handed at the same time. Race plays a predominant role in the novel, not only in the sense of having characters that reside in the minority represented in a mainly White community (Gigi is Black and June is Asian) but it focuses on the deeper racial tensions that exist within the ballet community. The conservatory they attend practices the method of Russian ballet, and it's even mentioned at points of how the traditional Russian ballet companies prefer the look of a homogeneous white cast. This knowledge makes characters such as Gigi and June hyper-aware of the roles they do and do not get, and causes them to question what decisions are made based upon talent, and which upon racial politics, which can be a very real question in many industries, performance based or otherwise. Other forms of diversity are featured as well, especially that of mental illness in regards to eating disorders. Several of the major and minor characters struggle with anorexic and bulimic tendencies despite the conservatory's commitment to keeping dancers at a healthy weight, and I personally saw the abusive relationship some of the dancers develop with food (or lack thereof) one of the more gut-wrenching aspects of the novel. It's a very stark look at the pressures of body image that exist in any entertainment based industry, and a nod to the fact that not enough is being done to address the eating disorder and body image disparity epidemic, even with well-intentioned programs in place.

Overall: Ultimately, this book compulsively kept me reading because of the elements that at times made it hard to read. It tackled issues that were at times uncomfortable, often cruel and scandalous, and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it usually did (and then some). The writing was layered and nuanced and the characters manipulative and well balanced, and it did a good job of implementing diversity not only in a YA novel, but also in a setting where it's not always seen. If you like your sabotage and mystery set against beautiful descriptions of ballet, depictions of diversity, and potentially crazy mean girls, Tiny Pretty Things is for you. Be warned though: there is a frustrating lack of closure at the ending, and I will be counting the days for the sequel, Shiny Broken Pieces, to be released.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

[Angie]

Ballet is freaking intense, and Tiny Pretty Things puts us right in the midst of a very competitive ballet conservatory where the girls will do whatever it takes to be the star. Bette and June have been at the American Ballet Conservatory forever. Bette believes that she is the best, while June is struggling to get noticed. Then, new girl, Gigi suddenly gets the starring role in the Nutcracker, June is her understudy, and Bette is just furious. She takes matters into her own hands, but she might not be the only one out to get Gigi.

Tiny Pretty Things was super good! Following the three girls’ POVs put us deep into the world of ballet. It’s just amazing to me how far dancers go to perfect their craft. Not all of it is safe though, and I liked that the authors pointed that out. For instance, June keeps her weight unhealthily low and has some tricks to make the scale think she weighs more (but still underweight). Meanwhile, Bette self-medicates to keep her focus, and Gigi basically tries to ignore her heart condition. I was completely fascinated, but also horrified by all of this, and it certainly kept me flipping pages to see what would happen to these girls when they push too far.

I also really loved how Tiny Pretty Things highlighted diversity, but also shed light on the discrimination that dancers face. Gigi is black and very aware of that fact, because pretty much all of the dancers are white or at least white-skinned. June is half-Korean, but doesn’t fit in with the other Korean girls or the white girls; she feels invisible. Then there are gay side characters (male and female), and we get some bits about how the gay male dancers are viewed unfavorably by their instructors. There’s just a lot going on on this front and I enjoyed it.

Of course, there’s also an awesome suspense plot at the center of Tiny Pretty Things. And even though we get three POVs, it’s never totally clear who is the culprit. Someone really hates Gigi. Bette is obviously one of them and she is behind a lot of what’s happening, but then there’s June who is always in Gigi’s shadow, waiting for her chance to shine. By the end, the pranks have gone way too far. And that ending chapter? I must know what comes next! That certainly throws a wrench in these girls’ plans!

Tiny Pretty Things was really great. I loved getting to know these girls, even if two of them are quite awful at times. I loved to hate them! I just had to know how far they’re willing to go to get the lead role! There’s also the mystery of who June’s father is, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[whisperingchapters]

This review was first published on Latte Nights Reviews.

Intense…that’s what the characters in this book are. They are intense. They will anything and everything to reach the top even if it means causing some incidents to put others down.

Gigi is the new black girl at ABC and surprisingly, she lands a soloist role in a ballet, a solo that should have been Bette’s, who has been in the ballet company for a while. This doesn’t sit well with Bette and she goes to great lengths to get Gigi to break down and leave. June is the quiet half Korean, half American girl with a dark secret that no one knows about. And you know what they always say: “Watch out for the quiet ones.”

I love the story that these two fantastic authors wrote. I keep saying the story is intense, because it is. The girls strive for perfection, strive to be on top and if they have to make threats and act on them, they will no matter what. The only girl that I really loved in this story is Gigi. Her personality is beautiful. She is sweet, kind, caring, even in this world that is so filled with ugliness. Bette, while she is mean, I liked her because she really goes after what she wants, or at least tries her hardest to do so, which many of us do. June is a very conflicted character and probably the most flawed of them all. She feels alone in this ballet world, with no one to trust. There is only one person she knows she can trust and she is the person that June wants to bring down.

The supporting characters are ones that made the story even more interesting. My favorites have to be Will and Henri. Will is a guy who is gay and loves his straight best friend. He wants was best for others and he really cares for everyone. Henri is the French guy that wants revenge over what was done to his girlfriend but he is very careful with how he plans his revenge.

As you can see, this is a story that deals with a lot of betrayals, from people most closest to you. If these kids don’t watch their backs, they could get kicked out or even worse, at a hospital. This tale is dark and so not how I was expecting it to be. I loved how it’s pace was fast and kept me wanting to read until the very end to figure out what was happening. In the end, I was left conflicted, not knowing if this will be continued or not. If it is, I’m buying it in a heartbeat. Don’t get wrong. The story could very well end where it did but I would love to dive into this world and these characters again.