NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE: BIRDS OF PARADISE, STARRING KRISTINE FROSETH AND DIANA SILVERS. “A compulsively readable story. I was breathless and battling tears up until the very last stunning turns onstage and beyond. A dazzling, heart-wrenching debut.” —Nova Ren Suma, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Walls Around Us Would you die for the Prize? Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained since childhood at the Paris Opera Ballet School, where they’ve forged an inseparable bond through shared stories of family tragedies and a powerful love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves how far they would go for the ultimate prize: to be named the one girl who will join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic will make them shine, too? Would they risk death for it? Neither girl is sure. But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the Prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.Bright Burning Stars is a stunning, propulsive story about girls at their physical and emotional extremes, the gutting power of first love, and what it means to fight for your dreams.
Marine and Kate come from very different backgrounds but they forge a friendship that has gotten them through their time at the Paris Ballet Opera School. This friendship is one that they think will get them through anything, but as time goes on and things get more competitive everything changes.
Kate makes decisions and gets close to someone that doesn't really care about her. All while Marine is determined to do anything she can to get the top spot and stay thin enough.
We get to see their final year at the Paris Ballet school told in both their perspectives. This story isn't an easy one to read and has mentions of eating disorders and drug use.
Overall I had mixed feelings about this story. I really enjoyed the beginning and the ending of this story. I personally could have done without a lot of what happened in the middle, this part of the story really just dragged for me sadly.
Kate and Marine as characters I went back and forth on liking and not being able to stand them. This part was also what made me like this story, getting to see them grow and change throughout the story was realistic at times. They are young and learning and making mistakes as times go on and living in a very high-pressure environment. The author did a great job of showing how alienated all of the dancers were at times and how they each dealt with this in different ways. This part was really fascinating to me and I loved the ending so much because it really showed how much they had changed from the beginning of the story to the end.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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21 May, 2019:
Finished reading
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21 May, 2019:
Reviewed