review: tiny pretty things by sona charaipotra & dhonielle clayton

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Tiny Pretty Things focuses on three ballerinas competing first for roles in The Nutcracker and then for roles in Giselle. There’s Bette, the ice blonde who dates one of the male students; June who is part Korean and feels she doesn’t fit in; and Gigi, an African-American who has moved to New York from California and rooms with June. When Gigi is cast in the top roles over Bette, someone begins torturing Gigi in a fashion all too similar to what happened to another dancer the previous year. In a story that combines a cutthroat world of high school dancers (although it’s a bit light on actual dancing scenes) with cliffhanger mystery, no one in Tiny Pretty Things is safe from a fall (both literal and figurative). With the chapters alternating among the three girls, some of their secrets are made known to the reader, but it remains difficult to guess who is after Gigi. There’s no real resolution at the end; only a hint at what might have happened and the setup for the next book.
3/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.