Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
59 global ratings
5 star
59%
4 star
19%
3 star
14%
2 star
5%
1 star
4%
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Review this product

Customer images

Customer image
Customer image
Customer image
See all customer images
Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Customer 598
5.0 out of 5 stars The dancers leap off the page
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
A.K. Small is a wonderful storyteller. She documents with love and understanding a world most people do not know and fills it with complex challenging characters. The world is the Paris Opera Ballet School in Nanterre, a school for 9 to 17-year-old girls and boys.
Why do you remember the characters, young girls of 17? They are competing for a place in the Paris Opera Ballet. They might die for it. They might kill for it. A.K. Small shows the reader what it is like to put such an inordinate amount of pressure on girls who have known nothing but ballet since they were 7. How do they retain the norms of civilization, or society in such a world. The characters and story transcend their ages and setting and ask questions that are often asked about the larger world.
French phrases and ballet terms, unknown to the neophyte, are used in a way and explained in a way that deepens the narrative.
A.K. Small leaves the reader with an understanding of the price of the ineffable beauty we see on the stage and a greater appreciation for it.
Read more
Shelley Blanton-Stroud
5.0 out of 5 stars When you want something desperately
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2019
Verified Purchase
I love lingering in this particular world—ballet, Paris, adolescence. To read this is to remember how dangerous and intoxicating it is to want something so badly. Especially when it conflicts with the other things you want.
Read more
review image
Carrie E Gish
5.0 out of 5 stars Real problems for teens are addressed.
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2019
Verified Purchase
I have a 17 year old daughter. Sometimes I read her books. I loved Bright Burning Stars! It was educational. I learned so much about the ballet world. Detail was perfect. The best part of this book is that the author addresses real problems facing teen girls. I highly recommend this book to all teens and their parents to read.
Read more
kittykaks
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written and fascinating insight into the world of dance ...
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
Bright Burning Stars is advertised as young adult literature, but I am an "old adult" and I loved it! A.K. Small painted a vivid image of teenage angst set in the high pressured world of the elite ballet world - and she threw in an intriguing storyline .... I look forward to more from this author!
Read more
Toni Mandelbaum
5.0 out of 5 stars T. M.
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
This was an engaging novel that dealt really well with important teen issues (i.e., eating disorders, depression). It was a fascinating glimpse into the world of ballet dancers, highlighting the intense competition but also shedding light on why dancers perservere.
Read more
christine hilliard
5.0 out of 5 stars Page turning perfection!
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
Brilliant. More than a YA book. More than a ballet book. It’s electric in not only the understanding of the young adult psyche but the fragility of friendships and the ache for perfection. Very real and so authentic. Well done!
Read more
Lola R.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read... definitely a page turner!
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
I couldn’t put this book down! It was exhilarating at every turn (or pirouette)! Loved how it touched on such important topics without veering away from the depth of the story. Great read!
Read more
KCalkins
4.0 out of 5 stars For ballet lovers of all ages
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019
While this story covers a lot of the same ground as other novels about ballet schools and young dancers, I really enjoyed it. Marine and Kate, best friends and rivals for the top ranking at the Paris Opera Ballet School, are complex enough characters that I enjoyed spending time inside their heads. It's kind of a typical story about friends drifting apart and becoming consumed with their own problems and insecurities and secrets, all set in the emotionally heightened setting of a competition. You get all of it: drugs, boys, sex, disordered eating, mean girls, gossip, rivalry, other bad decisions, triumphs, and failures. Yes, it's melodramatic, but it's about teenagers at a residential school for prodigies, so OF COURSE it's melodramatic! I think anybody into ballet and/or who is a teenaged girl is probably the target demographic for this.

I've seen other reviewers complain about the "double French," but it made perfect sense to me and would also, I suspect, to anyone familiar with ballet. While the setting is Paris, the book is in English and the ballet terms that would be in French--whether you're dancing in the U.S. or China or Russia--are in French. Nobody is ever going to translate "coup de pied" into English. This is not weird and I wasn't expecting to see reviews point it out.

Note: I received a free ebook ARC from Algonquin Young Readers via NetGalley. This is my honest review.
Read more
See all reviews