WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW
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| “Someone stands behind me... a deep breath near my ear... cold fingers brush the skin of my bare shoulder and pull my braid to the side... a soft touch of lips on my neck... followed by both hands circling like a noose... fingers reach to nudge my chin up... a whisper... 'stand proud, darling, you're mine, always mine.'”- The Midnight Dance, Nikki Katz |
When the music stops, the dance begins.
Seventeen-year-old Penny is a lead dancer at the Grande Teatro, a finishing school where she and eleven other young women are training to become the finest ballerinas in Italy. Tucked deep into the woods, the school is overseen by the mysterious and handsome young Master who keeps the girls ensconced in the estate – and in the only life Penny has never known.
But when flashes of memories, memories of a life very different from the one she thinks she’s been leading, start to appear, Penny begins to question the Grand Teatro and the motivations of the Master. With a kind and attractive kitchen boy, Cricket, at her side, Penny vows to escape the confines of her school and the strict rules that dictate every step she takes. But at every turn, the Master finds a way to stop her, and Penny must find a way to escape the school and uncover the secrets of her past before it’s too late.
Seventeen-year-old Penny is a lead dancer at the Grande Teatro, a finishing school where she and eleven other young women are training to become the finest ballerinas in Italy. Tucked deep into the woods, the school is overseen by the mysterious and handsome young Master who keeps the girls ensconced in the estate – and in the only life Penny has never known.
But when flashes of memories, memories of a life very different from the one she thinks she’s been leading, start to appear, Penny begins to question the Grand Teatro and the motivations of the Master. With a kind and attractive kitchen boy, Cricket, at her side, Penny vows to escape the confines of her school and the strict rules that dictate every step she takes. But at every turn, the Master finds a way to stop her, and Penny must find a way to escape the school and uncover the secrets of her past before it’s too late.
Last year, one of the books I was looking forward to the most was a book called Glitter by Aprilynne Pike, purely because the plot sounded so awesome (and the cover was absolutely gorgeous) I couldn't bring myself to pass it up. Nikki Katz's The Midnight Dance reminds me of that book. Both books are basically uncategorizable. I mean, Glitter is a science-fiction-y futuristic novel with both fantastical and historical elements. The Midnight Dance is steampunk-y, kinda historical fiction with some thriller elements thrown in there, too. The difference between the two books is that with Glitter, I knew what I was getting myself into. With The Midnight Dance, I thought it was a contemporary with an added thriller aspect, because that's what Goodreads led me to believe. So it was a shock when the first chapter started out with 1859 under chapter heading. And I was even more surprised when the main narrative opened in the year 1879. Wait, is this historical fiction? I said to myself, pleasantly surprised. I mean, sure, it was Victorian historical fiction, which admittedly isn't my favorite thing ever, but any historical elements added to a story always makes it better (so says the history major).
Which made it all the more disappointing when there was very little historical fiction parts at all. Katz has this very abstract, likely fairy-tale influenced view of the 19th century and it's apparent in the book. I mean, if you're going to set your book in a time period other than the present, at least do some goddamn research. Not only that, she gave us a specific place and time, which was Italy. Italy during the years 1859-1879. And yet, not one mention of the Italian unification, lasting from 1848 to 1871. There were also lots of abstract descriptions of things like dresses and mentions of courts, and even a ridiculously attractive Prince showing up, Prince Jacobus (there was never a Prince Jacobus of Italy; that's not even an Italian name), and it was around that part that I thought maybe this was a retelling of... something. The Twelve Dancing Princesses, maybe? But that might be a reach, especially because of how little the bare bones of both stories have in common. But there is a fairy-tale quality to the book, albeit a very manufactured one.
The main issue with the book, though, is not the historical yet lack of historicalness setting, it's the characters. They aren't very good, for starters. There was a sort of specialness of Penny that I hated, and both her and Cricket bogged down the plot greatly. They just weren't all that likable or even interesting. Also, just a little nitpick, but Penny's name annoyed me from the get go. Penny's not an Italian name. Penelope's not even an Italian name. You couldn't even pronounce it in Italian, or at least not easily. Peh-neh-lo-peh (four years of high school Italian, baby). Her name stuck out to me, especially since most of the characters had traditional Italian names- Bianca, Maria, Cecilia, Nella, even Tatiana (Ana is close to a proper Italian name, but it should be Anna). Yes, I think about things like this. I don't have a social life.
There's also very little about ballet in here. Which is disappointing to say the least. I love reading about ballet. Also, the only Italian bit besides the setting is the food, which seems lazy and stereotypical.
I suppose that if this book is anything, it's steampunk. Of course, I could be way off the mark here since the closest I've ever come to steampunk is reading, yes, my beloved Marina, but the plot is pretty close to what I imagine steampunk to be, with a Victorian setting and Bioshock-like "body horror" (it's tame stuff, though). In fact, it reminded me of this middle grade horror novel I read last year called Broken Dolls. But at the same time, it doesn't embrace its steampunkness like the above books did. It doesn't go the extra mile to craft what could be a great, spooky, Gothic horror novel just in time for Halloween. I mean, the plot is just screaming for some like Carlos Ruiz Zafon to get a hold of it. In case you can't tell, I'm imagining Marina in an Italian ballet school and it's wonderful. Instead, Katz attempts to keep the book ground in reality, but not in a way that works in its favor. In the end, I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to get into the story, the way I could for books like Marina or even Glitter. Instead, I kept questioning things, like why Tatiana's hair was blue (the explanation is priceless: apparently, Tatiana needed a lung replacement and that turned her hair blue. Someone, please tell me that's actually a thing).
The pacing felt off, too. I never thought I would say this but this should have been a slow-burn of a book. It should have started out a lot slower, maybe made it so Penny didn't stick out right away as the girl who was different from all the other girls, the one who hated pink and ballet and rebelled against the system. As is, the book felt kind of juvenile.
In the end, The Midnight Dance is one of those books where I didn't hate it, but it didn't know what it was or what it wanted to be. A steampunk horror novel? A retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses? Historical fiction? A thriller? It's not nearly trashy enough to be as guilty pleasure fun as Glitter was and it's not well written enough to be a Marina-esque Gothic novel. It wasn't even enjoyably bad enough to be another Violet Grenade, another book that blends fantasy elements with a real world thriller novel. I wasn't as hard on the book as I might have been a month ago, but I don't think I'd reread it any time soon.
4.5 out of 10
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