Scan barcode
kselwyn's review
5.0
Intense, beautiful, painful, raw, wild and wonderful... This book was a whirlwind. A beautiful, all-encompassing ode to two girls on the brink of wildness, struggling against the pressures of society and parents and restrictive art forms and bedrooms that feel like cages. Jessie and Dawn carve out spaces for themselves in this world that was not made for them, and watching their struggle and their triumph was moving, inspiring.
This is a book about taking up space, something girls are so rarely encouraged to do. This is a book about stretching and reaching and unknitting the closely-pulled fabric of your rib cage until you can finally breathe. This is a book about remembering how to breathe in the first place. And the experience of reading this book in one wild, frenzied gulp, feels like a breath itself: the inhale, building tension, on and on until you feel as though your lungs will burst and you can't keep going because you're being driven mad -- and then the exhale. Freedom. Peace. Release. Expanse.
Read this book while outside. Give it to your girls, so that they may learn to be large and expansive, free and fierce and wild. Put it in the bookshelf next to Mary Oliver -- "Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?" "You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting." -- and let them sing to each other. Let the warm, fluid prose wash over you, fill you up, make you strong.
Read this book.
This is a book about taking up space, something girls are so rarely encouraged to do. This is a book about stretching and reaching and unknitting the closely-pulled fabric of your rib cage until you can finally breathe. This is a book about remembering how to breathe in the first place. And the experience of reading this book in one wild, frenzied gulp, feels like a breath itself: the inhale, building tension, on and on until you feel as though your lungs will burst and you can't keep going because you're being driven mad -- and then the exhale. Freedom. Peace. Release. Expanse.
Read this book while outside. Give it to your girls, so that they may learn to be large and expansive, free and fierce and wild. Put it in the bookshelf next to Mary Oliver -- "Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?" "You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting." -- and let them sing to each other. Let the warm, fluid prose wash over you, fill you up, make you strong.
Read this book.
alexfallgren's review
4.0
A stunning look at what it means to be a girl in a girl's body. Raw and visceral. As a former ballet dancer I loved Keyser's attention to detail - she is a former ballerina herself - and her portrayal of life as a dancer in a pre-professional program is the most accurate I've ever seen. And I've read a lot of dance books. Both Jessie and Dawn are painted in vivid strokes and we feel their connection to each other even as we struggle to understand it.
There was a moment I was worried it was going to turn all Center Stage on me, but then it didn't and instead the ending was something I wondered about but didn't think she'd actually do.
For anyone who likes animals or dance or girls or all three, this is a title to check out.
There was a moment I was worried it was going to turn all Center Stage on me, but then it didn't and instead the ending was something I wondered about but didn't think she'd actually do.
For anyone who likes animals or dance or girls or all three, this is a title to check out.
danikaellis's review
4.0
This is a fascinating book about two girls on the edge of wildness. Tense, engrossing, and raw. I liked the animal-like poetic writing for Dawn's thought processes in her fugues. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but I was completely engrossed in the book.
mxhermit's review
3.0
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pointe, Claw by Amber J. Keyser was one of those rare books that was a wild ride that culminated in my not being quite sure what I read while still being relatively pleased at the end.
The story of Jessie and Dawn is told in alternating points of view, each of which has its own advantages. Jessie is a ballerina working toward a career as a classic dancer whose story was very fluid, much like her style of dance. I noticed that certain elements of her story, particularly classically trained ballerina goes to ultra good school, does well but not well enough, gets thrust into an avant-garde performance, and ultimately doesn't get the role in the company she wanted, were remarkably similar to the plot of the movie Center Stage. It felt odd at times reading those chapters because it felt like I knew where everything was going as it was happening, so while I appreciated the style in which it was written, I would have liked a bit more originality in regards to Jessie's character and her plot development.
Dawn was a thought provoking character because I never quite knew where I stood with her. At the beginning of the story, it is introduced that something is wrong with her, but what? Her mother has dragged her to dozens of doctors and continues to do do throughout the length of the novel, each one more patronizing than the last. Her thought process was jarring compared to Jessie's, much rougher around the edges, and I enjoyed it at least as much, though in a different manner.
The, and I hesitate to use this phrase, "love story" portion of the book was difficult and sad. There were tragic elements resulting from parents thinking they knew what was best for their children, definite instances of homophobia, and Jessie and Dawn's life paths from those points onward. I'm glad that neither Dawn nor Jessie succumbed to self hate, given the behavior of their parents.
Now to the center of my confusion about this book: I'm not sure what it was trying to be. There are a few things that occurred within in that never quite got solved. Several threads ran through the story that felt supernatural, but could have been something else: no definitive explanation. There was a flash of something at the very end of book that seems like it might have answered some questions, but again, no definitive explanation. The connection between the two girls, for example: there were moments when it truly felt like something otherworldly was going on, maybe some kind of psychic connection, but at the end I wasn't sure where they stood in that regard.
Pointe, Claw left a lot up to the reader regarding the ending and that left a slight bitter taste on my literary palette.
The journey of watching Dawn trying to figure out what is going on with her was fascinating, what with the adults around her have next to given up on her and rather than submitting to depression or complete darkness, her struggling through and trying to discover the core of her being. Jessie's fighting for her dream, only to see it alter right before her eyes, becomes something that felt cliche but energetic, giving it something to stand on besides older stories.
An enjoyable book, though again, I wish I had some more definite answers about the ending.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Pointe, Claw by Amber J. Keyser was one of those rare books that was a wild ride that culminated in my not being quite sure what I read while still being relatively pleased at the end.
The story of Jessie and Dawn is told in alternating points of view, each of which has its own advantages. Jessie is a ballerina working toward a career as a classic dancer whose story was very fluid, much like her style of dance. I noticed that certain elements of her story, particularly classically trained ballerina goes to ultra good school, does well but not well enough, gets thrust into an avant-garde performance, and ultimately doesn't get the role in the company she wanted, were remarkably similar to the plot of the movie Center Stage. It felt odd at times reading those chapters because it felt like I knew where everything was going as it was happening, so while I appreciated the style in which it was written, I would have liked a bit more originality in regards to Jessie's character and her plot development.
Dawn was a thought provoking character because I never quite knew where I stood with her. At the beginning of the story, it is introduced that something is wrong with her, but what? Her mother has dragged her to dozens of doctors and continues to do do throughout the length of the novel, each one more patronizing than the last. Her thought process was jarring compared to Jessie's, much rougher around the edges, and I enjoyed it at least as much, though in a different manner.
The, and I hesitate to use this phrase, "love story" portion of the book was difficult and sad. There were tragic elements resulting from parents thinking they knew what was best for their children, definite instances of homophobia, and Jessie and Dawn's life paths from those points onward. I'm glad that neither Dawn nor Jessie succumbed to self hate, given the behavior of their parents.
Now to the center of my confusion about this book: I'm not sure what it was trying to be. There are a few things that occurred within in that never quite got solved. Several threads ran through the story that felt supernatural, but could have been something else: no definitive explanation. There was a flash of something at the very end of book that seems like it might have answered some questions, but again, no definitive explanation. The connection between the two girls, for example: there were moments when it truly felt like something otherworldly was going on, maybe some kind of psychic connection, but at the end I wasn't sure where they stood in that regard.
Pointe, Claw left a lot up to the reader regarding the ending and that left a slight bitter taste on my literary palette.
The journey of watching Dawn trying to figure out what is going on with her was fascinating, what with the adults around her have next to given up on her and rather than submitting to depression or complete darkness, her struggling through and trying to discover the core of her being. Jessie's fighting for her dream, only to see it alter right before her eyes, becomes something that felt cliche but energetic, giving it something to stand on besides older stories.
An enjoyable book, though again, I wish I had some more definite answers about the ending.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
More...