There was a bit of this i really loved but others that didn't work for me. I did like the world-building and the way the dance studio seemed like its own character with it own personality but that needed to be balanced with the human characters as there were a few moments of caricature in this. I liked were the story was going but i found at times the writing to be a bit boring and a bit of a slog to get through. It wasn't a bad book by any meanys, just could have been better.

Dara and Marie Durant were trained in ballet from a young age by their mother. Home-schooled and exceptionally close, the siblings now run by the ballet school begun by their mother after the untimely death of their parents. Together with Dara's husband Charlie, also a former dancer, the three form a tight-knit family. But when an interloper threatens their existence and all they hold dear, can the Durants stand firm as a family unit, or will they be destroyed from the outside in?

I loved this beautifully written domestic thriller set in the world of the ballet. The prose is lyrical, almost poetic at times, and the characters are beautifully drawn, with all the secrets contained in their histories being gradually - and skilfully -revealed across the course of the novel. I found the twists well-paced and surprising, the backstage-look at the ballet world fascinating, and the ending something of a wrench - I wasn't ready to leave this book behind.

A compelling and sinister novel that pulls the reader in from the beginning. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I believe reading a new Megan Abbott book is one of life’s absolute pleasures. She is one of my favourite writers and prose stylists and the fact that I was able to read her new book early? Whew!

She has such a specific way of writing the body – most of her descriptions of reactions and circumstances are rooted in the characters’ physicality. In her words, even the mangled pointe shoes of a tween ballerina can become an eroticised object. And I think that’s part of Abbott’s magic, everything that happens, no matter how banal or absurd, is charged with heat and sparkle.

Her characters are base and they make sense while also being completely unknowable to the reader and to each other. Dara, our main POV character, gives herself away mostly in what she says to the people she interacts with. Her poise and perceived self-control make her almost opaque to the reader and honestly, I found that completely fine. By the end, she can be seen by what’s left after everybody has reached their narrative end.

Marie, Dara’s sister and inverted double, is all Dara wishes she could let herself be – the whimsical, the animalistic. We don’t get to see as much of her POV as I would’ve wanted, but she is presented to us by her bodily reactions: always flushed, filled with longing and want, her feelings presented by Dara as something shameful and irrational, while secretly envying this openness and vulnerability Marie allows herself.

Our holy trinity is completed by Charlie, Dara’s husband and her and Marie’s practically adopted brother. Yeah, I knowww. Charlie’s the golden one, a martyr, always beautiful, always rational and by the book, the one keeping them all in one piece.

The backdrop of the shabby ballet school they devote their lives to and the absolutely banal villain that comes in and changes everything [which of course only happens in our characters’ minds because everything was going to change anyway etc etc] makes it seem like a small, claustrophobic story. This book is a family drama, pretty self-contained, but in Abbott’s hands it feels like a sweeping Greek tragedy. Her books always seem to me to be sharing some never-before seen facets of humanity and I’m constantly left grateful.

I will bang on about Megan Abbott’s prose until the end of time because if I could, I’d eat it. I’d coat it in honey and swallow it whole. And if The Turnout’s theory is to be taken at face value, that would be love. She compares dimples to stigmata, elevates pain to holiness with her beautiful descriptions, the way she understands and carefully explores the inherent darkness of children and teenage girls, the way she makes space for it, cherishes it, how she makes the rote and ordinary glitter. Reading a Megan Abbott book reminds me that anything can be beautiful; if it’s written, of course, by Megan Abbott.

Many, many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for the free review copy – you made my year to be honest.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an ARC in exchange of an honest review*

This book was so... ballet—its beautiful writing a façade for the hermetic brokenness of the story. The Turnout by Megan Abbott is a thriller set against the backdrop of a ballet school ran by the Durant sisters—Marie and Dara—and a former student and husband of the latter, as a fire in the school leads them to start hire a contractor who will break down so much more than the walls of the studio.

It would be perhaps unfair to not mention the school as its own character, the setting in this novel is ever present and envelops the reader in a way that I had never experienced, it is not that you don't want to leave the Durant Academy but rather that *it* won't leave *you*. And it is this exact same feeling of eerie urgency that characterizes this book, a page-turner that plunges right into the seemingly perfect lives of the characters whose cracks become more evident with each chapter.

The Turnout is a book for those who love character explorations that are not afraid to showcase the jagged edges of the human existence and, although a knowledge of the ballet world is not necessary to enjoy this masterclass in creating suspense, dancers will sure find themselves deeply understood to an extent that might even force them to confront their own darkness that leads to creating so much beauty.

I love anything to do with sinister ballet schools and I absolutely loved this book!

A slightly slow start but it’s easy to get over as the book moves forward! I found it a great read with the right amount of family drama with just enough crime elements to keep you on your toes... (pun intended!) and of course a lot of much needed details about a prestigious ballet school!

Thank you netgalley for an advance copy I would definitely recommend to friends and family!

have never read one of Megan Abbott’s books before, but the description caught my imagination. Dara and Marie are sisters, the daughters of Madame Durant a ballet soloist who set up an elite ballet school before her death in a car accident. Ballet is their life and they both teach dance, each having their own unique style as they are radically different in personality and appearance. Dara is strong, driven and focussed while Marie is vulnerable, sensitive and fragile. Dara is married to Charlie a former student of her mother’s and he has debilitating health issues which means he can no longer dance. Dara, Marie and Charlie are at the heart of this novel and have a seemingly unbreakable bond with each other and the house they grew up in. Following a fire at the dance studio, they hire a contractor, Derek to carry out renovations. He is bold, brash and loud. He seems intent on causing disruption and mayhem. Soon Marie forms a relationship with him and Dara loathes him. Whilst the story dramatically unfolds and the tension builds the Durants are preparing for the annual production of The Nutcracker. Soon Derek becomes an unwanted presence in their lives who risks shattering the family ties and revealing secrets best left undisturbed.
I would describe this book as: a sensual Gothic horror, thriller, family drama set in the fiercely competitive ballet world. What I particularly liked throughout was the building tension running parallel to the preparations for the production of The Nutcracker. I felt that the children and their obsession with dance was well described and I felt for Corbin and Bailey as their passion for dance left them lonely and insecure. Dara and Marie whilst not particularly likeable characters drew my sympathy for their unorthodox upbringing with parents who clearly hated and misunderstood each other.
The dance studio and life within it were so well portrayed and really set the scene for the unfolding drama. Less plausible for me was Dara’s insistence on continuing to want to live in a house that held so many bad memories. I didn’t immediately see what the outcome was going to be for all the parties involved, but the suspense was such that I could not stop reading until I knew how it would end.
Having read this book, I’m now excited to track down and read some of Megan Abbott’s other work.

I have seen that MEGAN ABBOTT has a tendency to gather both negative and positive reviews for her books. I have never read her previous releases so THE TURNOUT is my first foray into her writing.

I can tell why this book has mixed reviews. The way she has constructed the novel will work for some people but not for all. It didn't work for me.

There were parts I did enjoy/was horrified by. The language is dark. I got a grim feeling from everything on these pages. It's incredibly tense, even though it's hard to tell (until the ending) why it would be. I don't know much about ballet, but the way Abbott tackles the challenges of this "sport" gave me a good idea about it. I will never look at those shoes in the same way.

The novel is about two sisters Marie and Dara who have inherited a ballet school from their parents with they run with Charlie who was kind of part of their family since a young age. We follow Dara who has married Charlie and who is struggling with her slightly more enigmatic sister Marie. One day there's a fire in one of the ballet studios, right before the school starts their rehearsals for The Nut Cracker, which is when everything starts to unravel.

I'm in the middle of renovating an apartment, so I was horrified by some of the scenes in this novel when the contractor Derek starts working on the project. That's beside the point though.

Like I mentioned the novel is taut with suspense and dread, but at the same time I felt it didn't really deliver. I feel that Abbott creates a distance between the reader and Dara, which results in the shrugging of shoulders when we reach the ending.

In summary, I did enjoy the language and in a way the writing style but the fact that it didn't deliver means it fell flat for me. I don't think this book will stick with me. If you enjoy slow-burning novels that centre on family dynamics and deal with ballet, you might really like this. Don't just take my word for it, do check out different reviews if you're in doubt.

A novel set in such a closed environment - a ballet school filled with young girls - was always going to have a suffocating air but the overwhelming dread that you feel as a reader throughout The Turnout is just something else. The setting feels timeless except for the tiny mentions of modernity, like the dancers in rival schools being offered YouTube fame, but it is not these small intrusions which shatter the illusion of the Durant ballet school, run by sisters Dara and Marie and Dara’s husband Charlie. Rather, the falling apart of the studio and the contractor who arrives to fix it ruin the glamour of the Durants’ lives, revealing the blood and guts beneath the surface beauty of the building and the sisters. It was gripping, it was messy, it was beautiful.

What I loved most about The Turnout is the atmosphere which feels like something between a dark fairytale and a ghost story. This is infinitely helped by the haunting and lyrical writing and the dark insidious tone which infuses the whole novel. The Turnout really is beautifully written, so elegant yet at the same time viscerally sensual in its descriptions and imagery. The story builds slowly, becoming more and more unnervingly tense until, like a ballet, it reaches its dramatic crescendo. There is something truly brutal about the beautiful and magical world of ballet and Abbott skewers that violence perfectly. Her characters are not particularly likeable but hold such a dark fascination that it’s impossible to look away. I genuinely could not put it down. Ominous, sensual, intense and stunning – The Turnout is definitely one of my favourite books of 2021.

The Turnout is a story that explores the darkness under the surface of what looks beautiful. I am still uncertain to what extent we are meant to see this as symbolic of the relationship between our three main characters, but it certainly offered pause for thought.
The main focus of the story is sisters Dara and Marie, brought up in the ballet world and surrounded by traditions. They now run the same ballet school their mother ran, and each year they perform The Nutcracker. Our story takes place over a short period of time building up to the annual performance, but it focuses on so much more.
Dara is married to Charlie, their childhood friend. As the story progresses we learn more of their past and some of the circumstances surrounding them. I was struck by the darkness of their home environment, and how this had impacted on them.
Ballet will not be everyone’s thing, but the story surrounding Derek and the fragmenting of the relationship between the characters was intriguing. I found myself more interested in the stories alluded to on occasion, and was rather surprised at the turns taken in some situations.
Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this!before publication in exchange for my thoughts.

This is a real page turner as you get to glimpse inside the world of dedicated athletes all fighting to be the best. The characters are well described, and whilst you don't always like them you understand them and they are beautifully crafted. The workings of a ballet school fascinate and when disaster strikes, the author makes it so you are present and follow Dara and Marie in the games they play. It has sexy undertones and real suspense.
The four parts of the book build the tension although highlight the slow development of what goes on after the fire and as suspicions grow.

The Turnout by Megan Abbott is a tense, almost claustrophobic thriller set in a family run ballet school. Sisters Dara and Marie, along with Dara's husband Christopher work together running the ballet school they inherited. For years they have worked and lived together in harmony but recently the cracks have begun to show. It's the busiest time of the year for the school as they prepare for their annual performance of The Nutcracker, so when a fire damages one of the rehearsal studios they are keen to get the renovations sorted as quickly as possible. The contractor they hire comes highly recommended and is full of ideas for improvement , but Dara just can't put her finger on what feels off with him, and the more time she spends with him , the less she trusts him, a situation that is exacerbated by what she feels is the influence he is wielding over her younger and more naive sister.

This is a tensely woven story that depicts the less than glamorous life behind the scenes of the ballet. The relationship between the sisters is complex and delicate, and is one of the most interesting things about the book. The book is definitely somewhat of a slow burn but for the those who peseverve the dramatic climax is a worthy payoff. The writing style is vividly descriptive and the author does not shy away from the brutal and ugly aspects of the ballet.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Dark, riveting & disturbing, The Turnout is unlike any other book I have ever read! My first Megan Abbott book, which left me stunned & speechless once I finished it.

Synopsis -

Ballet runs in the blood of the Durant family. Dara, & Marie Durant, along with Charlie, Dara’s husband, now run their mom’s beloved Dance school. The three are childhood friends and are a close-knit family of their own making. A fire accident causes an intruder to enter their lives, just before the highly anticipated annual school event of The Nutcracker, threatening their entire existence.

Review -

The initial part of this book was tough to get into. Hardly knowing anything about ballet, I was grappling with the premise, unable to connect with the characters. They are not likeable, but Abbott makes sure you gradually understand the entropy & the nuanced relationship between them.

An eye-opener about Ballet, Abbott’s picturization of it was mesmerizing. The prose is spellbinding, adorned with beautiful lines of poetry timed appropriately.

The build-up towards the Nutcracker event was frustratingly slow burn. The twisted relationship between the sisters is portrayed in almost a sinister manner, that is often overwhelming. Their mother has a strong influence throughout the book, etching their minds with her preaching. Throw in Charlie, and all of them just seem to share a disconcertingly unique bond.

It was hard to figure out the point of all turn of events and true to the book’s name, it is only towards the end, the fog seemed to lift and the plot gained better clarity. It was at this point, I was really invested with the storyline.

The Turnout messes with your mind. The friendship, betrayal & the kind of toxic love in it, haunt you to the core. The twist as it “turned out” was superbly clever & intricately crafted, which was something totally unexpected.

Overall, the takeaway for me was the hypnotic narrative, that has the power to unnerve and unsettle the reader’s mind.

I look forward to read more from this brilliant author!

Thanks NetGalley & Little Brown Group UK for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest review!

Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.

The Durant sisters, Dara and Marie, run a prestigious ballet school that has hordes of pink-clad little ones running through its studio rooms every day. They are all waif-thin, bloody-toed, and eager for the leading roles in the annual <i>Nutcracker</i> performance. They all look up to the graceful siblings and all idolise Dara's husband and former ballet star, Charlie, whose performance injuries have resigned him to an office rather than teaching role. However, all would be less inclined to place the trio on a pedestal if they really knew what really occurring between them, behind-the-scenes...

Megan Abbott's skill lies in crafting absorbing reads full of toxic characters in competitive environments. These were the aspects I most loved about this book. I felt the world of ballet, complete with all the tantrums, sweat, vomit, and tears, come alive here. She never spared her readers any aspect of this world and really honed in on the betrayals, revenge plots, and isolation each rising star experienced, as well as all the shed blood, popped blisters, and formed bruised it took them to get there.

I felt less adoration when the focus shifted away from the actual academy, however, and onto the aspects occurring in the Durant trio's personal lives. Their entire existences revolved around the business and so any personal event also impacted the Academy, but much was kept from students and parents and left to play out when the spotlights faded and the changing rooms had emptied.

The conclusion provided many shocks and unforeseen twists that saw my initial immersion in the tale return and I closed the book impressed and unnerved at all I had read. This might not be my favourite Abbott thriller but it has cemented that I can always rely on here to deliver an enthralling and enlightening reading experience.

Sisters Dara and Marie grew up with ballet being front and centre in their lives. Their mother owned a ballet studio and made it clear ballet came first. The girls are in their late teens when they inherit the studio after their parents die in a car accident and run it along with Charlie, their mother’s protégé who later marries Dara (she’s also the sole narrator of the book). But a fire at the studio brings contractor Derek into their lives, tearing everything apart, dredging up family secrets and pitting the sisters against each other. I found the details of the pain and hard work behind the glamour of ballet interesting. The author also spends a lot of time setting up the characters, slowly dropping details of the sisters’ lives and the dysfunction of their world. I am a fan of Megan Abbott and wanted to love this book but the slow-burn approach started bordering on tedious and repetitive before the drama picks up at the 60% mark. In the end it was just a satisfactory read for me.

How I wanted to love this!!! I’m afraid I’m torn, but I guess good books are like that. They leave you conflicted. They divide readers, which this might do.
This remained me a lot of Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly. Both are ballet-based psychological suspense reads, but that one was ultimately so much better than this, I’m afraid.
Okay, so what was great about The Turnabout? The characterisation and their dynamic with each other. The relationship between Dara and Marie is intriguing. They’re so deliciously and relatable messy. The prose. I loved the observations of being a ballet teacher, and the ugly side of ballet. When the fire happens, afterwards lessons are still given in this renovating studio, and descriptions are so vivid. The filth, the dirt, the bruises, the broken nails (both nails included). Derek is such a compelling character. He’s the contractor and he pursues a lustful and powerful affair with Marie. Slowly, slowly he becomes demanding and permeates the studio like mould. Growing, stead, steady. Again, the prose is crisp and well-observed. I can’t stress that enough. Abbott conducts a sentences like mad orcestra conductor.
However, it was the suspense part that was lacking. It takes awhile for things to happen.
I think it’s important for me to stress that this isn’t a thriller or suspense read. This is a slow burning character study. A psychological drama than a suspense or a crime thriller. Go in with the right expectations.

I read my first Megan Abbott book last year, which I loved. It was Give Me Your Hand. I highly recommend that! 👌 I had high hopes for The Turnout, but unfortunately this book didn’t work for me. This is too slow of a burner for me, and I saw some of the twists from a mile away, so it wasn’t very surprising.
This book is narrated from the POV of Dara. She inherited her parents’ ballet studio when they died, and lives in her childhood home with her husband, Charlie, a former student of her mother’s, and her impulsive sister, Marie. For the first 15% of the book it’s mostly character-building and setting the scene. Then we have the horrific fire, and enter contractor Derek. Derek begins a passionate affair with Marie, and slowly seeps his way into Dara’s life, manipulating Marie, and playing on their fractured relationship...

I thought the prose was good, and dynamic between the characters was compelling, but the plot just wasn’t there. Something happens around the 60% which leads to plot and better pace. Had that happened earlier, it would’ve sustained my attention more. Regardless the twists and reveals in the latter just weren’t compelling or surprising enough for me. I’m afraid this 2/5.

What a gripping read! Dark, gritty, sinister and with an underlying haunting sense of menace that keeps you on edge the whole time. It is just so very deliciously Megan Abbott - no one captures the ugly side of beautiful like her and I couldn't have asked for more.

The Turnout is a revelatory, mesmerizing and game-changing new novel set against the hothouse of a family-run ballet studio and featuring an interloper who arrives to bring down the carefully crafted Eden-like facade tearing their insular world wide open. Ballet flows through their veins. Sisters Dara and Marie Durant were dancers since birth, with their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, homeschooled and trained by their mother. Decades later the Durant School of Dance, opened by their mother in the 1980s, is theirs. The sisters are aided by Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prize student, who also became a surrogate sibling to the two girls after his mother emigrated to England. They inherited the school after their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago. Marie, warm and soft, teaches the younger students; Dara, with her precision, trains the older ones; and Charlie, back broken after years of injuries, rules over the back office and takes care of all of the necessary daily operations as he is now unable to dance due to chronic pain. However, the delicate tulle and the equally delicate moves conceal the pain, blood, sweat and tears of a difficult career and the toll decades of ballet performances have on the human body.

It's a competitive world far removed from the fairy tale envisioned by those who take up the art when young. The sisters' connection is intense, forged by a glamorous but troubled family history. But after they hire Derek, a charismatic, possibly shady contractor to renovate the studio after a fire, Marie throws herself into an intense affair with him that threatens their tight bonds and brings forward family secrets until an act of violence overturns everything. This is a riveting and exciting noir fable with a fairytale-esque feel to it. It carefully draws on the sisters' complex relationship and the dynamic between them and is woven into a pitch-perfect, unnerving gut-punch of a thriller set in a world full of toxicity, jealousy, and backstabbing where each dancer is fighting for the attention and the limelight. There are petty confrontations, dark secrets and a simmering tension running throughout and Abbott really is an expert at ratcheting up the tension and pushing her characters to breaking point. A quiet rage lingers beneath the elegant exterior of these dancers and the author highlights impeccably the disturbing side of the competitive dance sphere and how it can lead to fractured relationships. A moving, scintillating and exceptionally written tale. Highly recommended.

Megan Abbott, The Turnout

Megan Abbott’s The Turnout is a mesmerising novel, wonderfully written and vividly imagined. At once brutal and delicate, it takes place in the world of a decaying, secret-laden ballet school. Some of Abbott’s most remarkable earlier crime novels have also explored, to stunning effect, the obsessive, competitive lives of teenage girls who commit themselves to intensely demanding physical disciplines – the cheerleaders of Dare Me, the gymnasts of You Will Know Me. The ballet performances at the heart of The Turnout require an even more extraordinary level of dedication, offering success only to those select few capable of giving themselves over completely to its punishing and traumatising discipline.

The novel’s title refers to a freakishly difficult dancer’s skill – one that acquires a wide range of imagistic significance. Achieving turnout is “a rite of passage”, an unnatural and extremely painful accomplishment that enables dancers to rotate their legs from their hip sockets. The founder of the school loved to tell her daughters how, at the age of ten, she had mastered turnout under the tutelage of a Great Diva:

“Suddenly, something snapped inside and her hips and legs felt infinitely pliable, soft taffy, a slinky expanding. Her hips, hot and newly supple, opened like a book from the center of her body. It felt glorious and so painful she saw stars. But she did not stop. Why would she? That feeling, that sensation hot in the center of her… It was, she told them, the greatest feeling of my life.”

The ecstatic torturing of one’s own body is one of The Turnout‘s defining themes. Again and again, the barely pubescent dancers experience this merging of agony and pleasure. Longing to ascend to the highest degree of perfection, they force their bodies into unnatural shapes, enduring torment to achieve ballet’s illusion of effortless, ethereal beauty.

The nurturing of such perfection has long been the mission of the Durant School of Dance, which has been in the family since the mid-1980s. Since the death of their mother, who created it, the sisters Dara and Marie, together with Dara’s husband Charlie, have presided over all aspects of the school. The three have lived together in the same house since their early teens, when Charlie was taken in by their mother and became part of their household – a boy of great beauty and talent, who at the beginning was a dancer himself, but now suffers from a back ruined by years of ballet injuries. It is a claustrophobic gothic fantasy saturated with both pain and sensuality. The entwining of the three of them is at the heart of the novel: “Back then, it seemed impossible to be any closer. The three of them, so entwined. Charlie was Dara’s husband, but he was also so much more. Dara, Marie, and Charlie, their days spent together at the studio, their nights in their childhood home. Back then.”

Their childhood home, their dance studio and their intense private world are all put under threat when fire ravages a part of the already run-down studio and their lives are invaded by Derek, a larger-than-life contractor who assures them he will put right the damage. He also, however, aims at far more, as his familiarity with family members becomes increasingly charged with seductiveness and menace: “This monster, this Big Bad Wolf, this bloodsucker who never should have been let in, this stranger who never belonged…” To Dara, he seems to become larger by the day, swinging his long hammer and flashing his preternaturally white smile – “smiling with hundreds of teeth” as his manly boots track mud on the steps of the ballet school: “mud tracks, his signature tattoo, his imprint all over the studio every day…a man who goes as he pleases, who knows no boundaries, who leaves messes in his wake.” Like so much in The Turnout, the swaggering Derek carries with him echoes of the darkest fairy stories, wielding power not only in his apparently never-ending changes to the building but in his assault on the very fabric of the family group.

The whole of Abbott’s narrative is mapped on to the dreamlike world of the school’s annual production of The Nutcracker, “a young girl’s dream of peering over the precipice into the dark furrow of adulthood and finding untold pleasures.” The frightening but mysteriously compelling contractor is echoed by the figure of the Nutcracker – its huge papier-mâché head faded by time but its “bared-teeth grin” looming as large as ever, presiding over “a dream of hunger, of appetite” that was, like all fairy tales, “much darker, stranger than you guessed.” The version of the story read to Dara and Marie by their mother was E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Nutcracker and Mouse King, illustrated by “gaudy, frightening images” that underscored the darkness of the story – “a warning for those who become lost to desire.” Abbott’s hypnotic, beautifully modulated style carries her readers into an erotic noir fable, in which human fragility is at every point threatened by the deceits, dark desires and murderous impulses that are never as far from the radiant surface as we imagine them to be.