This one is hard to review. A teenage ballerina is breaking out of her comfort zone. Her childhood friend is having fugue states, and is obsessed by a caged bear. I did enjoy the read. ( )

Dawn and Jessie alternate telling the story of their destruction and rebirth. Dawn is experiencing fugue states, where she returns from where ever she has physically been smelling of earth, soil under her fingernails, scratches on her body, and barely able to speak. Jessie desperately wants to be chosen for one of two spots in the ballet company she has been training for since she was twelve. When she is tapped to perform a modern animalistic dance, it frightens and frees her at the same time.

This was a weird book, very weird. It is magical realism after all. I ended up skipping a chunk of it in the middle. But after finishing it, my once dormant, English lit critique brain woke up and screamed at me. There is such heavy symbolism about teenage girls in this book. Their animal natures, wanting to find their place in society, in relationships, and in family. The fierceness of both girls is fascinating. The ending...remember I said it was magical realism? Yeah, that. But it worked.

Not for Gateway. ( )

thank goodness she got the ending right. A few small flaws, but otherwise a great outing in magical realism. ( )