I hadn't read any Megan Abbott books before, but I will now! 'The Turnout' refers to a ballet move where a young woman on the cusp of puberty turns her legs 180 degrees, almost backwards - and this is a book about sexual awakenings, both for young women (and sometimes young men) and middle-aged women seduced by some of that youth and beauty, or their memories of it - whichever seems more vivid at the time.

Dara, Charlie and Marie run a ballet school together, where they are preparing for the annual drama of Nutcracker Season, with all its tears, magic and masochism. They also used to live together in a big house on Sycamore Drive, but Marie has recently left, in her second bid for freedom - her trip around Europe only lasted a few months and she's got even less far this time, bedding down in the dance academy. When she sets a fire with an out-of-date space heater and a contractor arrives, dismantling their world as easily as the walls around them, buried secrets start coming to light...

Bold, nasty and hard to put down, The Turnout is an audacious arabesque of a book.

Megan Abbott gives us a truly repulsive picture of life within a traditional ballet school in ‘The Turnout.’ The bullying pupils, the pushy parents, the obsessive nature of the practice, the crazy dieting and self-harm are only some of the details that make this story so grim.
Marie, Dara and Charlie, all former dancers run the Durant ballet school, following on in the footsteps of the girls’ mother who was killed, with their father, in a car crash a decade earlier. Now Dara and Charlie are married. As the trio prepare for the annual production of ‘The Nutcracker’ disaster strikes. A fire breaks out in the school and they employ Derek and his team to repair the building. However, rather than making good, this signals the beginning of all manner of destruction.
I enjoyed the ways in which Abbott allows the story of ‘The Nutcracker’ to resonate her narrative. Sexual awakening, forbidden longings, negative feelings are depicted both on and off the stage. However, whilst the final third of the plot is pretty compulsive, if at times a little unbelievable, much of the story feels over-written and lacks pace. Perhaps one of the reasons why it is difficult to understand and sympathise with any of the characters is because we are given little of their inner lives. The sisters are close but they are furious with each other; Charlie marries Dara rather than Marie; their mother’s influence is unduly felt beyond the grave. Why? Some of this is explored in the final chapters but only superficially; the author’s main focus appears to be on giving us narrative surprises rather than an exploration of complex psychologies and truly authentic characters.
My thanks to NetGalley and Virago for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

It's rare that I feel completely seen in a book. Usually, the dance ones get a lot of things wrong, but this one? I just feel so exposed.

Megan Abbot managed to capture the beautiful and the ugly and honestly, I like it. I like that I'm in this book.

Still, The Turnout focuses more on strange family relationships and those just got more tangled as the book went on. I was not expecting everything that happened, and I think that part was the truly scary one, the contractor plot less so.

At the beginning, there wasn't much dialogue coming from the two sisters, instead it was mostly descriptions. Based on those Marie became my favourite. That quickly changed with the arrival of the previously mentioned contractor.

I didn't like who Marie became then, so I gravitated towards Dara (whose name means "gift" in my language). I dubbed her the sane one, and oh, how wrong I was.

Charlie I didn't like, and with good reason!!! Was what he did near the end necessary? Yes. But that's about it. The rest of the time he was just there.

The writing was beautiful, although graphic at times. The gruesomeness fit the story well. It was all the non-explicit, but sort of implied, sex scenes though, that I was on the fence about. I'm still not sure if certain things happened or didn't. Might be better not to know for sure.

With that said, the book felt long. And I don't think it's due to me devouring it in a day, it's the vibes.

The long feeling did have its benefits too. Since most of the story revolves around The Nutcracker and preparations for it, nothing felt rushed. It felt right. And the parallels gave me something to think about.

I too, was enchanted by Drosselmeyer as a kid, and continue to be to this day. And...I never thought about it the way it's described here, but I suppose it makes sense. A lot of things do, really.

See, Abbot has a way of bringing everything to life, much like Clara would her doll. I felt just about every emotion while reading because it was all described perfectly. So why not five stars?

Well, the mystery element wasn't strong enough. That, and the sex, and the long feeling all wrapped together in a nice bow.

So, four stars from me and my dancer feet ;)

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

A dark, min-blowing story about the desire that cannot be tamed.

An atmosphere of an old, sophisticated ballet school with strict rules and disciplined moves is an ideal background for this psychological novel. First though? The Black Swan, of course - one of my favorite movies at all, and I was so thrilled to get to such a story one more time. But this? This is much darker even from Black Swan. Much more complicated.

These relations are so complex that it takes time to fully understand what exactly is going on between the sisters and their partners. The ballet performances, classes, running a school, and taking care of their health and personal issue - this book is full of action and you feel the vibes in your veins that something is still behind the curtain. That this must be more. Something deeper, darker. And you cannot put it down until finding it.

That story is compelling. Page-turner, playing with the reader in many ways and create a world when desire, fantasies, and though hidden in the back of the head are exposed.

Must have for August.

An intoxicating and terrifying look at the insular world of Dara and Marie, two sisters who have never known anything but their family's ballet legacy. Having spent much of my childhood and teenage years in ballet class Abbott did a truly stellar job capturing the atmosphere of life in that world and how insane it really can be. Not one to read before bed--chilling and creepy and intense!

Thank you to Netgalley, Little Brown Book Group and Megan Abbott for my arc of The Turnout in exchange for an honest review.

Publishing: 3rd August 2021

Dara and Marie have never known anything but ballet. They were brought up on it, their mother a ballet teacher at the Durant Ballet School. Now the school is theirs and along with Dara’s husband Charlie, they teach ballet to young girls and boys. It’s Nutcracker season, the busiest time in the world of ballet when a suspicious accident occurs which throws the three of them into turmoil, old secrets and lies and darkness being uncovered.

Have you ever read a book that has left you feeling somewhat unclean? That’s what this book made me feel like, like I wanted to go take a shower and wash off the dark filth that lurks at its core. It’s a disturbing novel, exploring not only the toxic world inside the ballet studio but the toxic world of a family tucked up in secrets and horrors. A dark old mansion riddled with creeping secrets and sickening truths. A book hasn’t disturbed me this much since I read My Absolute Darling.

But despite all this the book is gripping. The writing style in particular draws the reader in, it’s a slow burn, you know something is lurking but don’t know what. It’s not until the final 20% or so that all is revealed in shocking clarity.

I don’t feel that I would shelve this under any kind of thriller genre. I don’t know where it belongs to be honest in terms of genre. But be warned that it touches on themes of pedophilia and incest and this may be disturbing and/or triggering for some.

There's been a few good ballet books out lately, so I was keen to continue with the theme. However, I found this one a little bit too slow paced to really really enjoy it. Some really shocking, hard hitting scenes but lacked pace.

Spellbindingly dark and atmospheric. This is the kind of book that stays with you long after you finish reading.

‘The Turnout’ might be the very definition of the slow burn crime novel. For the first two thirds or so very little happens. It’s richly atmospheric and has a wonderful sense of claustrophobia, and it kept me reading, despite the lack of incident. And then the final third happens and believe me, the wait is worth it.
This is a book with a plot very much in the style of 40s and 50s film noir. There’s simmering desire, betrayal, murder and, in that final third, twist after twist. Megan Abbott uses the ballet school setting brilliantly, packing in some fascinating detail about the lives of young dancers. There’s a sub plot running throughout about preparations for a staging of The Nutcracker and she uses this to introduce drama around competition between the students, as well as the pressure on the two sisters who run the school.
The kicking off point for the main plot is the seduction of one of the sisters by their aggressively masculine contractor and the book is ripe with themes around female sexuality. Abbott dissects the Nutcracker itself as tale of sexual awakening, but also writes in detail about the desires and erotic drivers of twenty something and middle aged women. I’m not sure I’d say that she does this with great subtlety, but the themes work perfectly with the plot and the book hangs together as a very satisfying whole.
The characters are somewhat archetypal and very familiar from the old movies that Abbott is deliberately aping. Like the themes, that doesn’t mean they don’t work. In fact this is a book where all the elements mesh together brilliantly. Characters, atmosphere, story and subtext compliment each other in a way that’s quite rare in popular fiction. Most importantly for a crime novel, despite the slow build up it’s gripping throughout and the acceleration of events in the final act is breathtakingly well done.

This compelling tale is set in a Ballet School run by Charlie, Dara and Marie who are preparing for the annual performance of The Nutcracker.

Their family backstory is one of dedication to ballet, and feuding parents who died when they were young. Because of their background and single minded focus on ballet, they are at times oblivious as to what lies in front of their eyes: the loneliness and despair they each carry, their confusion over the historical and current state of their own family, their ballet school , and the actions and motives of the new contractor hired to repair and renovate the crumbling old school building.
This a brilliantly dark slow burning story of revelations and resolutions. I was absolutely glued to from start to finish.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

Ballet has always been the world of sisters Dara and Marie. Their glamourous mother, a former ballet soloist, had kept them close and after the parents’ death, they have taken over the Durant School of Dance together with Dara’s husband Charlie who had become a family member as a boy. When a fire destroys one of their studios amidst the preparations of their biggest annual event, the performance of “The Nutcracker”, they hire Derek, a seemingly highly skilled contractor, to have everything restored as quickly as possible. Yet, they do not have the least idea of whom they let into their studio and lives. The fire was just the beginning of a series of dreadful events which will change their lives forever.

“No one wanted to face the truth. That every family was a hothouse, a swamp. Its own atmosphere, its own rules. Its own laws and gods. There would never be any understanding from the outside. There couldn’t be.”

Megan Abbott is a master of foreshadowing and again has created unique characters who reveal their full potential slowly throughout the novel. The title – “The Turnout” – is quite ambiguous but perfectly fits in several respects. A turnout is a demanding move in ballet and that’s what the sisters expects from their élèves. Secondly, it is also the moment where you are confronted with different directions and have to decide for one. Thirdly, it is a clearing out, an act of cleaning what has been spoilt. All three can be found in the novel. The preparation for the ballet performance is at the centre when the sisters get into a deep conflict in which they decide for different roads and, in the end, the initial state is restored and all disruptive factors are cleared. At least they might think so.

The novel moves at a rather slow pace but this adds the creepy atmosphere which makes the plot quite authentic. The threat does not come in in an obvious way, it is sneaking into their lives with a friendly and smiling face like a predator who observes his prey, gets closer and tenaciously waits for the perfect moment to attack.

It is also a novel about family structures and sisterly bonds. Quite obviously, their mother’s way of keeping the girls away from other children, of treating them in a special – or rather: strange – way to form them according to her own ideals cannot be healthy. Dara and Marie become like two sides of one coin, an inseparable unit which even cannot be divided by Charlie who integrates into their union. No wonder, at a certain point in life, such a bond is threatened and the lack of experience with people makes them even more vulnerable than others might have been.

From a psychological point of view, an outstanding novel which is also full of spine-chilling suspense.

What Megan Abbott is best at is creating atmosphere and she certainly succeeded doing exactly that in this book. You get drawn into the world of ballet from the very start and once you are in, you can't really stop reading until you finish. I did suspect some of the twists in the plot much earlier on in the story but it didn't bother me at all. The story is very driven by the characters who are a bit twisted and maybe even a little unreal at times, but this is necessary to propel the plot forward. The Nutcracker theme threads everything together nicely. Still, I don't know if I will ever be able to watch that particular ballet in the same way again. Great escape literature!

I loved this. I am a sucker for a novel set in the world of ballet, and I loved the twisty and lush writing of this thriller. The intensity of the focus on the weird bond between sisters was great, as was the propulsive plot. Highly recommend!

Not quite as gripping as some of Abbott's earlier books as this seems to meander quite a lot at the start and then hits us with a flurry of revelations in the home run. But powerful in parts, especially on the relationships of girls with their bodies, the complicated connections between pain and pleasure, power and sex, and the insidious presence of the unseen but not forgotten.

Set against the backdrop of a ballet school, The Nutcracker is an interesting paratext for this story (and nice not to have Swan Lake as *the* ballet story), but the dark version from Hoffmann's Nutcracker and Mouse King with its disturbing account of girlhood, nascent sexuality, and loss.

This is my fourth or fifth Megan Abbot book and I have to be completely honest - her books stress me out. And I mean that as a sincere compliment. Her novels are technically crime novels but more strictly they are psychological thrillers, and she slowly builds such a sense of foreboding and rachets up the tension, that at time I genuinely feel like I can't take it any more. But I always do. She is an exceptional writer and you get so inside the heads of her characters that you believe everything they do, and feel everything they do. Its immersive.

Dara and Marie Durant are sisters who run the Durant Ballet School, gearing up and getting ready for their annual performance of The Nutcracker. However this year, not only do they have to deal with parents and children angry about the parts given for the performance, they also have to cope with an unexpected fire and the repair works needing completing on their studio.
But suddenly the loving sibling relationship between Dara and Marie is put under the test when Marie starts to find romance with the contractor hired to do their repair work. He's turning Marie against Dara but is it out for more than just Marie?

This was such a fun book. I'm a sucker for ballet and dance inspired films, tv shows and books, so I snapped this up right away on Netgalley and was thrilled to be approved for an ARC. Megan Abbott is a great writer with good twists and turns but also building that increasing sense of dread and absolute belief in the horrendous situations the characters find themselves in.

The reason I'm giving this 4 and not 5 stars is because at times to plot floundered a little and it was very slow in some sections. However, I appreciated what it was trying to do and I stuck with it and I'm glad I did.

Recommend to those who love a little rhythm of dance to their thrillers, without a doubt.

I adore Megan Abbott's writing so I was excited to dive into this one, it didn't disappoint.

At the heart of this is a strange and oft divisive sibling relationship, sister's Dara and Marie have a knife edge symbiosis, the delicate balance of which gets disrupted by an outside influence..this sets the scene for a slow burn drama set in and around the ballet school they run together and it is utterly compelling throughout.

Theres an odd cadence to prose that keeps the reader slightly off kilter, the author gently offers us glimpses into the history and upbringing of these two, unveiling layers that play into current events until things are clear. The ballet aspects are fascinating and sit as a kind of background buzz to the character drama unfolding on the page.

Overall yet another excellent and intricate novel from Megan Abbott who is probably one of the best writers of psychological fiction out there right now. Very much recommended.

#TheTurnout #NetGalley
A good read.
Dara and Marie, inherit a ballet school and take over running it with Dara's husband Charlie. 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, 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.
It's awesome.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Books UK for giving me an advanced copy.