What a treat this promised to be - a thriller set in the ballet world! I'm a bit obsessed with ballet at the moment, so I bumped this straight to the top of my TBR mountain. It started off really strongly, and I loved the background ballet detail. For me, it weakened a little after the first section, and I felt the final twist was a bit gimmicky. Having said that, I raced through it! Definitely a good summer read.

I enjoyed this book and being a previous ballet dancer I know how hard these dancers work to make their performances perfect. The blood, sweat and tears they all literally experienced was intriguing.

I was slightly confused in one part where it mentioned Los Angeles when I thought it was set in London but I think that must have been a mistake in the script.

It did take me a long time to read this book though so I don’t think it was the best read I’ve had however I’d like to read some of Erin Kelly’s other books.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read an advance copy in return for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy of this, but my review and my words are my own (etc.).

I read this almost 2 months ago now, and I still think about it and the main characters intermittantly - a sign of a good thriller for SURE.

This is a very character driven thriller, focusing on the Prima Ballerina at an elusive ballet company. 'Things' happen, and she is left isolated and alone in a house within a gated community. This is where she meets a homeless security guard, and they both bond over their shared lived experiences.

Given that this is Erin Kelly we're talking about, there are twists and turns galore, but these two main characters have stayed with me a lot more than these twists and turns.

Can't wait for it to come out in paperback so I can buy it for my Mam

Watch Her Fall is a psychological thriller set in the demanding and competitive world of Ballet. Nikolai Kirilov is the strict and obsessive director of the London Russian Theatre. Ava Kirilov is his daughter and star of her new production of Swan Lake. Ava knows there are many other dancers in the company who would gladly take her position, but what would they be prepared to do to get rid of her?
I am a huge fan of Erin Kelley, but didn’t enjoy this book as much as previous novels. It is slow paced, and Ava’s paranoia and passiveness was quite annoying.

Title: Watch Her Fall
By: Erin Kelly
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date: 01 Apr 2021
Goodreads:

Ava is a prima ballerina. She has just been given the lead roles in Swan Lake. Her father Nicky has finally bestowed the honour on her. Ava has wanted nothing more since the age of 12 and now, now that she has what she wants, it makes her wonder if it is the end of everything and not just the highlight she had hoped for.

She is sure that once her role is announced someone is out to sabotage her performance, but she cannot figure out who. Perhaps it is someone who wants the role for themselves or maybe it is someone who wants to take over the dance academy that she is to inherit. Either way the only person Ava can trust is herself.

Juliet only wants to become the next Ava. The next Prima Ballerina, so why is Ava so cruel to her?
Max was happy with his lot until his secret was found out. Now he may have to do something drastic to find peace again.

While the background of this book may be set to ballet it nevertheless deals with more common themes. Such as xenophobia, family bonds, manipulation, mental health, envy, jealously, anger, pride, ego, disability, and culture. The majority of these are shown through Ava, Juliet, and Max, though there are other points of view in the book.

I was worried going into this that my lack of ballet knowledge would hinder my reading. Thankfully due to Kelly's writing this was not a problem. I enjoyed the parts about ballet more than any other part of the book. This may be because I found the book extremely predictable. To the point that I wanted to DNF the book at chapter 31. Every page after felt like work and if it were not for the supposed red herrings, I probably would have DNF’ed it. It even caused me to have a reading slump.

The only thing all the "twists" managed to do was to annoy me by making me doubt myself, as I had already guessed most of the plot twists.

It felt as if there were chunks of the book that were not necessary. It was also infuriating to get so far into the story and then be dragged back to the beginning or in Max's case pre the main story. I almost felt like I was at an all you could eat buffet only I was being forced to eat the same meal repeatedly.

Though I liked Kelly's writing style it changed extraordinarily little from POV to POV. There were so many POV's that by the last fifty pages we got a new POV which was extremely frustrating. It is the perfect example of the phrase, one step forward two steps back. (if you are getting sick of POV in this review, that was the feeling I had for the book)

The plot was completely believable for me until the scene at the pool with Katya. It was as if Kelly was determinant to have this scene seem like a murder and had the characters react in an unrealistic way so that Lizanne would have a secret to keep.

The ending was contrived to fit what the writer wanted for their characters. And again, the reader is told a lie that is just meant to be another red herring.

This felt less of a mystery thriller and more of a YA.

Unfortunately, the subtlety in this book was as gracefully as a dancer falling off stage. Though I didn’t HATE this book I didn’t LOVE it either and have no plans to read more of their work.

I went from almost DNFing this one, to really enjoying it! I read the second half this afternoon and found myself engrossed. There was a lot going on, a lot of intertwining of the characters and storylines but the twists were fab....and unexpected. It was interesting to read so much about ballet and the difficulties of being a professional...definitely not something I had any knowledge of. Another great story from Erin Kelly.

Erin Kelly's thrillers are always meticulously plotted and this one has a really interesting and original premise - Ava is a ballet dancer and wins a coveted and highly-competitive role in Swan Lake but, as the blurb says, someone wants to watch her fall ...

There are lots of twists and turns to keep up with along with dollops of tension and forboding. There are three narrators - who can you trust? I loved it.

I wasnt sure what to make of a crime thriller set around ballet but I shouldnt have worried, it was wonderful - I saw someone else refer to it as 'a dark delight' which sums it up perfectly! Twists and turns and devious plot, even for a ballet newbie like me....

Erin Kelly proves drama and ballet go well together. I was intrigued by the premise but nothing had prepared me for the degree of claustrophobia and uneasiness that grabbed me while I was reading Watch Her Fall…

Ava is a prima ballerina. To be honest, I have always looked at ballet with wary eyes. The discipline can be so harsh… But so is the world of the dance. There is something toxic in the air and the author captured it with skill. It was brilliant to be the fly on the wall and see the behind-the-scenes and real lives of those dedicating their lives to the art, but it was also horrifying. The pain, physical and mental, penetrates the pages and the reader’s mind. You get to know each character through their roles in the company, and the sense that everything can disappear in the blink of an eye can be felt at all times. The grandiose artist is here, the threatened ballerina too, along with the seconds, the thirds… and the criticisms and competition. The closer to the top, the longer and harder the fall. I think Erin Kelly makes a wonderful example of this here! Despite my mind block about ballet, I was able to understand Ava’s feelings and connect to her in a way I would not have thought possible.

I did not know much about Swan Lake so it was a great to learn about it through Ava and through the story. Again, toxicity much??? I’ve always felt there was something dangerous about this particular piece, and the way the author twists it, over and over, to get every drop of the poison it contains, makes for a captivating read.

I thought I would spend a few hours reading about ballet going wrong, but I was far from the truth. We later meet more characters, whose POVs jumps from one to the other to tell a chilling story of the fall… Not just the one fall you were expecting. Juliet, Roman, Katya, they all have a story to tell and the more I read, the strongest was the chill I felt.

Each protagonist is given enough layers to feel multi-dimensional and add something to the plot. To me, they were like thorns in a foot. Each adding to the pain, to the blood, to the darkness. The tension oozes from the company’s home, but also from the street, from what should be a safe place. I truly admire how Erin Kelly transports the reader from one place and one character to the other without ever letting go of the main thread of plot.

Watch Her Fall is intense and dramatic, taking its power from Swan Lake and creating a tsunami of emotions and revealing hard truths and real faces, as if the swans’ masks were peeled off by Erin Kelly’s writing.

Watch Her Fall, my first by Erin Kelly is a splendid novel. Set in the world of ballet, Ava Kirilova is about to reach dizzy heights in her career, She has worked hard at the London Russian Ballet Company, however, there are those in her life who would wish to see her fail.

The intricate relationships, especially between Ava and her father, lay the foundations for this unpredictable mystery where nothing and everything is as it seems. Part mystery, but also heavily character-driven, I was soon enthralled reading this fabulous, riveting and incredibly well-structured tale. Watch Her Fall, is a thriller you really don't want to miss.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I'm a big fan of Erin Kelly, and enjoyed Watch Her Fall immensely. Beautifully written and intriguing, we're carried along on several narratives, each as convincing and well rounded as the next. There will of course be comparisons to Black Swan, but the element of the novel I found most compelling, Roman's story, elevate this away from another "ballet-based physiological thriller" and into a more meaningful and prescient observation into otherness and what it means to belong.

Watch Her Fall is a phenomenal thriller set in the world of Russian ballet company. The company is performing Swan Lake and the most coveted role is a dual role as both leads. The company director's daughter, Ava Kirlova has her shot finally, but someone in the company will do anything to watch her fall. Filled with excellent twists and amazing world-building - you can just feel the tension behind the scenes of the ballet company. The plot is multi-layered and very well-written. Put Erin Kelly on your to-read list!

This book delivered everything I've come to expect from Erin Kelly - psychologically complex characters, brilliant prose and a dark plot with some wonderfully timed twists. I stayed up till 3am to finish this - definitely Kelly's best so far!

If you are thinking of picking up this book, you should know that this is not really a mystery thriller and the description might be a little bit misleading into thinking it is.
Unfortunately I lost my interest around 40-50% into the book but decided to still finish it to see if it would still pick up for me and catch me again but sadly it just didn't.
Even though a small fragment of the book does talk about the competitive and hard world of ballet, contrary to what the synopsis implies, there's a large portion of the story that has almost nothing to do with it and, honestly, I found that a bit disappointing.
The book does play with the double identity of Swan Lake and our main characters. However the story was more based on a really slow paced exploration of characters than anything else. I did not find this book thrilling, intense or engaging. For a book advertised as a thriller it had no tension and no real mystery that you would expect of such a book.
In the end, I did appreciate the comparison between the ballet and the main characters and it is a well written story so I did not give it a lower rating for these reasons. However I was really sad this one did not meet my expectations.

I'm a fan of classical ballet and didn't quite know what to expect when I started Watch Her Fall. This is a tantalisingly seductive take on a Russian ballet school and the lengths that students will go to in order to get on. Don't be fooled into making any comparisons with the Natalie Portman film Black Swan, this exquisitely written novel is a dark thriller which exposes the pecking order, rivals and family code that must be adhered to at all costs. No one is quite who they seem and everyone is out for themselves. Intricately plotted, perfectly paced with twists I didn't see coming. Adored it.

Erin Kelly is one of those authors I’ve come to rely on for high-quality psychological thrillers, and I’m happy to say that this release is up there with the best of them. In Watch Her Fall, the author draws us into the cut-throat world of ballet, in a story pitched as Black Swan meets Killing Eve. A pretty irresistible combination, right?

The story opens with Ava, 30-year-old ballerina at the pinnacle of her career, who has just landed the coveted main role in Swan Lake at her father’s elite ballet school, London Russian Ballet. We meet Ava in the lead-up to opening night, and the atmosphere is tense from the outset.

“The spotlight was a shining cage, and it kept you safe or kept you lonely, depending on how you chose to look at it.”

I don’t know anything about the world of ballet, but Kelly does a great job of bringing it to life. The book is peppered with insights into the classic ballet of Swan Lake, the meaning and resonance behind it. I loved the little rituals she opens our eyes to, like the breaking in of new shoes. She captures the raw sense of ambition, but also claustrophobia and paranoia through Ava and her relationship with her father.

“She was her father’s invention. She was his precision missile.”

Ava is under immense pressure, having made sacrifices all her life to get to her position, on the cusp of the starring role of her career with a future destined to take over the helm of the entire prestigious school from her father.

Her father, Nicky, was a brilliant character. I hope real ballet teachers aren’t like him. With a strict Solveit background, he doesn’t mince his words and he doesn’t accept anything that doesn’t meet his exacting standards. His power over his ‘creatures’ (yep, that’s what he calls his pupils) was disturbing.

In the middle of the book, we move away from the ballet and out into the world, where those who have fallen from grace are left to fend for themselves after losing their spot in the institution.

“Stockholm Syndrome keeps his creatures captive long, long after the door is thrown open.”

And what a world it is – we dive into an underworld of illegal immigrants and stolen identities – places I never expected to go after the pristine, closed-off world of the ballet school.

I did find myself wondering in this part of the book if it had been slightly misadvertised, and wondering if we were ever going to get back to the ballet and find out how the Swan Lake tour ended. But, true to form, everything connects together in this multilayered novel with some killer twists. I don’t want to spoil any part of it, so if you’re a fan of psychological thrillers set in elite institutions, just try it for yourself.

Prima Ballerina, Ava Kirilova is at the top of her career at the London Russian Ballet Company. She's been training her whole life for the coveted roles of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake. Since the age of 12 her father, the great Nikolai Kirilova has guided and moulded her to become the very best.

Someone wants what she has and will do almost anything to make it happen....

The story moves to the fate of Juliet, a dancer recovering from a career ending fall. How will she survive. The company has looked after her since she was a child and now she is cast aside. Other characters enter at this point which make the story deliciously twisty.

It's a story of obsession, ambition, control and is truly un-put-downable. I highly recommend it.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.

I love books about ballet, especially if those books have a dark twist. Watch Her Fall caught my attention almost immediately but I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the blurb. I actually think the blurb is fairly misleading so I will give you a spoiler-free summary of the plot.

Watch Her Fall is the story of Ava, the top ballet dancer at the intensely strict school run by her father. She has a complicated relationship with her dad as he rules the ballet with an iron fist and hates her displaying any kind of creativity. As they begin a production of Swan Lake, Ava becomes increasingly paranoid about her father replacing her with another dancer. When that dancer becomes injured however, she realises she is ill-equipped for the real world and begins to plot how to take over Ava's life.

This is not a thriller about someone being messed with by a mysterious figure, at least not past the 20% mark. What this is is a thriller driven by characters and a plot which goes in a very different direction than you would expect it to. I wouldn't say I was ever surprised by this book which some people might see as a negative, but I was genuinely enthralled and the lack of twists didn't stop me enjoying the story one bit.

The main negative of this book is that it does a lot of 'flashback' narrative. That is, an event will happen and then it will switch POV to another character and take us back in time for a bit to see the events leading up to the thing we just read about. Sometimes this is welcome, sometimes I was uninterested. It definitely slowed the pace down which isn't a positive in a thriller. Still, I did appreciate the depth we got to know the characters to and it does build a really complete and complex story. I can see how it might build suspense for some readers if you don't think the surprises are obvious.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Kelly is clearly very talented at crafting thrillers with a unique setting and interesting characters. Having read/experienced a fair amount of 'dark ballet' media, I was pleased to see this book had new things to offer still. I think this book is definitely worth a read if you're looking for a compelling thriller, and I am eager to try Kelly's other work now I've seen her writing skills.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Oh my! This is the first time I have read a book by Erin Kelly but it certainly won´t be the last!!

This book is outstanding! It´s so clever, intricate and absorbing, I couldn´t put it down. You are drawn into the world of ballet and the sacrifices made by the dancers, dreams fulfilled and dreams dashed, cut short by ill fated events. Full of twists and surprises, you certainly don´t imagine the ending until right at the last minute.

Brilliant!

My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I love love love Erin Kelly, having enjoyed every single one of her previous books. I was a bit unsure how I would feel about this one, as I know absolutely nothing about the world of ballet but I can honestly say I enjoyed this just as much as her previous books. It was a complex clever book, full of twists and turns, and I was completely immersed in the story and gripped from the very start. I can just imagine this book on the big screen and I would highly recommend it, and all of her previous books too.