Ballerina cover art

Ballerina

A Novel

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Ballerina

By: Edward Stewart
Narrated by: Angela Goethals
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About this listen

Before Black Swan, there was Ballerina: Edward Stewart’s acclaimed novel that follows two young women into the cutthroat world of professional dance.

Stephanie Lang and Christine Avery meet in ballet school. Although they share the same dream - to become great dancers - they could not be more different. Ballet is in Stephanie’s blood; her mother, Anna, is a former dancer who lives to see her daughter achieve the fame she herself never attained. Christine has lived a sheltered life, secure in the love of her family. But her privileged upbringing conceals a devastating secret.

Two teenage dancers, one chance to make it. From the thrill and terror of auditions through years of meticulous training to landing a coveted spot in a professional company, Stephanie and Christine relentlessly pursue their ambitions. As they give their all to dance, they become inseparable - until they are torn apart by their passion for the same man, a brilliant Russian dancer whose seductive, mercurial temperament will have unforeseen consequences for them all.

©1978, 1979 Edward Stewart (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Coming of Age Genre Fiction Psychological Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant  
Very engaging. Found the descriptions of the ballet performances amazing. Such detail and the descriptions really brought it all to life. Very good at character development. However I found the personalities or lack thereof of Stephanie and Christine a bit hard to take. so passive and driving minuted in their relationships with men. I felt the story went on a bit long and the end was a bit hard to believe. Overall an enjoyable experience, though!

Superb

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I felt so caught up in this book, it was like living another life! I now know what it's like to be a Dancer, and Ballerina. This is one of the most BRILLIANT books I've ever listened to!
Pure, beautiful and Magickal. Thank you .

OMG! What have I just listened to?

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How had I never heard of this book?! So gripping, can’t believe it’s included with membership. Such good story, brilliant narration.

Loved it

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I didn’t think I would get through this to the end. It was slow and ponderous. Redeemed only by the last chapters. Was I glad to have listened to it? No. Can’t recommend.

Tedious beginning and middle.

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Wonderfully drama packed. Besides the attempt at danish accents, the narrator conveyed the story beautifully

Reads like a drama series on telly

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I’m crying finishing it, what a fantastic book, I have no clue about ballet and absolutely loved it. I loved how we found out the story of many of the characters.

Amazing book

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A highly predictable tale of two friends, each with monster mother. Undeveloped characters in unrealistic situations. An undemanding beach read.

Ideal for ballet mad teenagers…

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This is AWFUL!!!
I cannot understand the rave reviews here and on Goodreads.
I have this annoying thing about finishing books I start so I now know that the Audible speed limit is x3.5 - I wanted to increase it more but it wouldn't let me.
The story is just so very, very BORING!
The characters themselves and the relationships and interactions between them are wooden, contrived and unbelievable.

There are tons of things that bothered me about the plot but I think the one that annoyed me the most was the fact that Chris had a very serious, rare condition and at the beginning we're led to believe that her parents worry about her a lot and are most concerned with her health.
Then without much consideration they allow her to move in with a stranger and are pretty much never in her life again. They don't really seem to visit or speak on phone or check in about her health or anything at all. And actually the reasons they had for not supporting dance, along with the reasons for letting her live with a stranger (she's not good enough to make it as a dancer) are beyond ridiculous.

Poor writing, stilted dialogue. Very poorly put together. The sentences throughout are short and clipped which is really jarring. And it's WAY too long - It just goes on and on and on and I just wanted to bash my head on the wall for most of the time I was listening to it.
There is literally nothing redeeming about this book. The worst book I've read/listened to in months.

Ballerina

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