This was a great ride - fun and dark and twisty, I raced through it and the other book in this duology. Great, horrible characters and I loved the world of ballet.

I was not able to read this one in full as it was archived before I was able to download it successfully.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins, Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra for my arc of Tiny, Pretty Things in exchange for an honest review.

Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars is how this book is being promoted and I think that's a fair assessment. It sat middle of the road for me. I was drawn in by the PLL parallels as I adore the tv series so I was interested especially with this becoming a Netflix tv show soon too.
I found the book to be relatively fast paced, told from three perspectives, Gigi a black ballerina who has moved from California to join the prestigious dance school The Conservatory and is struggling to fit in, in the toxic, competitive world of ballet. Bette a white ballerina, the girl whose sister shone at the school and in her footsteps she must follow no matter the cost. And finally June the half Korean ballerina who is desperate to be noticed and will do whatever she can to achieve it.

The story follows the three girls and their classmates as they prepare for the winter performance of The Nutcracker and the dramas that unfold throughout. The story definitely kept me reading and wanting to read and I will go on to read the sequel and likely watch the show too!

I did have a couple of issues with the book mainly the fact that Gigi was a bit of a snowflake. At no point was her character outside of being perfect, kind and friendly. She was definitely a Mary Sue. Even when people are mean to her she's still kind and honourable, doesn't hold a grudge, acts friendly, doesn't see what's right in front of her and does all this perfect giggling stuff. Even in the chapters from her POV she never has a bad thought about anyone. Personally I like my characters a bit more realistic none of us are innocent of a b*tchy thought or two. I felt there was a lot of racial stereotyping going on too especially toward the Korean characters. I'm not Korean so I can make no claims about what would make a Korean reader feel uncomfortable but there were parts that just didn't sit well with me. Finally, I think the book could have benefited from a trigger warning about its exploration of eating disorders and sexual abuse/assault. While these issues need to be explored in books for certain, they also need a warning to say they will be so that people can make an informed decision about whether this is suitable for them or their child to read. Hence the loss of 2* in my final rating.

Overall, I liked this book other than the few issues listed above and I'm looking forward to reading book two.

✨“The Sugar Plum Fairy has the farthest to fall.”✨
― Sona Charaipotra, Tiny Pretty Things

Guys, I completely forgot how much I enjoy books with a dance setting. There is just something addictive about the drama behind the curtain. And the amount of issues dancers face is just so heart-breaking!

Tiny Pretty Things is described as Black Swan meeting Pretty Little Liars, which just sounds awesome, doesn’t it?🥰

This book has three perspectives: Bette, June and Gigi. Bette is the classic ‘mean girl’, June is always ‘second best’ and Gigi is the ‘best’. And in the New York dance company, status, personality and talent matter. Your options are simple: be the best to get the spotlight or get cast into the shadows.

But guys this isn’t just a book about dance. There is mystery and a ‘whodunnit’ component added into it. Who’s threatening Gigi? Who wants her spotlight?

But in a world where girls hunger for greatness, nothing will stop them from attaining it. The lines here aren’t blurred but crossed over and over again. They will do anything and everything!

Highly recommend for fans of dance books!

Thank you so much NetGallery and HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks for this early readers copy! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Read. Be happy. Stay safe.

This was such an interesting read! I loved the intense atmosphere, the morally grey characters, the ballet setting. It was beyond intriguing and I can't wait for the sequel.

A brilliantly written contemporary YA book set in the cut throat world of a modern ballet school in New York. Our three protagonists are just 16 but have the world on their shoulders as they try to live their teenage lives under the fierce microscope of teachers, parents and other students. Back-stabbing and terrible pranks twist the tension on the girls until something has to break...

This one, much like ballet, is not for the fainthearted. I'm not really one for trigger warnings, but readers should beware of graphic descriptions of eating disorders, bullying, blood, and gaslighting.
That being said, it doesn't stop it from being one heck of a good read. For all that I found it hard to read in long stretches, it really stayed in my mind. The characters are excellent, if occasionally a little too cookie-cutter. Gigi for example, is so perfect - how perfect? She doesn't bother with diets, but has the perfect figure. She keeps butterflies as pets and talks to them. She is endlessly kind and forgiving. She is just naturally better at dancing than anyone else. Boys fall all over themselves. At times it got a bit sickly, I won't lie, when even the people who hate her were fawning over how beautiful she is.
The characters who were (probably wrongly) a bit more relatable were the villains of the piece. June and Bette. At first Bette seemed very much like another cookie-cutter character, The blonde mean-girl to Gigi's effortless, natural beauty. But she grows and changes, and though I never felt sorry for her, she was a fascinating character to watch. The same with June, who has possibly one of the biggest, and darkest, character arcs of the book.
The drama fluctuates between being high-key and low-key, but the pacing is spectacular. There is always something happening, often multiple things at once, but the narrative doesn't let up with any of it. Even the smallest, exceedingly personal little issues become motifs and help the characters to change and grow. A great example (and one with minimal spoiler potential) is June's inability to read or speak Korean, and the subsequent isolation she feels from her own community.
To sum, I'd have to say that this is one of my most surprising reads if the year. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this wonderfully twisty little thriller. I've heard it's going to be a Netflix series, and it's certainly one that I'll be watching.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one because even though I looked through a bunch of reviews nobody included the trigger warnings of someone making themselves throw up and as someone who is scared of vomiting now because they used to make themselves throw up then it triggered me really heavily.

I've been wanting to read this book for quite some time but unfortunately it wasn't widely available so imagine my surprise and excitement when I happen upon it on Netgalley!

If you are a fan of things like Pretty Little Liars then you are going to love this series.

Enter the world of up and coming ballet dancers.

Be prepared, it's going to get brutal.

With subjects such as bullying and bulimia, this novel pulls no punches.

When you see ballerinas on stage they appear beautiful. elegant and I guess almost perfect, what we don't see is their real personas.

This is a story about friendships, enemies and who can get the upper hand.

I think you'd put this under the YA genre however I think this book will appeal to many.

The real question throughout this tale is just how far will someone go to get to the top, to be the best at their craft? How dangerous can a ballet dancer really be?

Tiny Pretty Things is a fantastic start to what looks to be an explosive series!

I'm so hoping this series will become more widely available in the UK, as I've been familiar with it for years yet stuggled to access copies.

Bullying in a ballet school? How could this not be awesome? And it was! I loved the diversity, the characterisations, the breaking of cliches, the class commentary. None of these characters are evil (teachers aside) and this book is brilliant at conveying the impact of pressure on the students. The acts of bullying were genuinely shocking, especially with the background of the need for physical excellence. As a story about ballet the book treads the line between accessible and informative, looking at the Nutcracker it is unafraid to use terms of reference details. Great fun.