This book should come with several trigger warnings for abuse and brief scenes of frightening encounters between the master and the dancers themselves. This is a pretty dark book that tells a gloomy, somewhat hopeless story. One that some will appreciate and crave more of, and some will read the synopsis and turn to another book with a different story that is more lighthearted.
I’ve never been a dancer but have been an avid reader of fictional books about ballerinas especially, since a young age. Something about the lifestyle is both dreamy and somewhat frightening, as most ballerinas are forced, in a roundabout way, to be disciplined with their appearance while dancing and also while living their day-to-day lives.
Girls of Dark Divine takes the ballet theme in a bit of a different direction, one that places a group of dancers called the Marionettes under the abusive and terrifying eye of a master named Malcolm, who couldn’t care less about how his dancers are cared and provided for. In fact, throughout the book it is made very clear that he cares more about what he can gain personally from his troupe than keeping them alive and well and able to dance their beautiful footwork.
Emberlyn has been a Marionette for a while now and has seen the ins and outs of how the girls are treated, often falling under the wrathful hand of Malcolm herself. It was easy to pick up on the idea that Emberlyn was a big sister figure to the rest of the dancers–trying to encourage them to keep their chins up and continue on, no matter what the cost. However, Malcolm is a greedy man who has no fear of others. Even when it seems things might not be going his way, somehow, he always manages the upper hand.
The parts of this book I enjoyed the most were the ones that are more grounded in reality–descriptions of architecture and books that gave me a nice little image in my head of the safer side of things the world in Girls of Dark Divine has to offer. I look forward to seeing more from E.V. Woods and what books she will write in the future!
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from Random House Children’s Books
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 2 religious exclamations; 5 mild obscenities; 2 religious profanities; 1 offensive hand gesture.
Violence/Gore: A brief chaotic scene occurs where a young woman is reportedly dying from some sort of curse and her peers are witnessing it and screaming and sobbing; young women are mentioned to often die unexplainable deaths that are chalked up to a curse that a man who leads their dance troupe holds over them, this curse is briefly described to be something that rots them from the inside out; a brief scene occurs where young women are mentioned to prepare to bury their young friend who died in the beginning scene; a short discussion is had between young women about the curse and how/why it kills young women; the male leader of the dance troupe is mentioned and depicted multiple times throughout the book to be both verbally and physically abusive to the young women that dance for him; a young woman is reported to threaten another young woman with a knife to her throat out of fear; a man threatens unimaginable pain upon a young woman if she does not stop crying and carrying on about a recently deceased friend; a brief scene occurs with a man wrapping his hands around a young woman’s throat until she loses consciousness and begins to have her life leave her, he then uses a knife to cut his palm and her palm and is described to drink their blood; a glass slips out of the hand of a young woman and causes it to break, some shards nick her hand and she is mentioned to bleed; a brief scene occurs where a man uses a candlestick to bash against a young woman’s head, causing her to feel immense pain and begin to bleed; a man forces a young woman to dance without her pointe shoes, causing her to break several toes and be in great agony; a young woman is mentioned to smash her head against a mirror repeatedly, under the control of her dance master, until the mirror is shattered and she is bleeding; a brief chase within a building ensues between a young woman and someone she can’t get a glimpse of, causing her to be very fearful and anxious, especially when the unknown pursuer throws a big book at her head; a young woman thinks a lot about running away from her abusive situation and how she could make that happen which would involve killing the man who she dances for; a book is mentioned to be perused and have violent images within it, scenes of death and blood; a brief scene occurs where a young woman attempts to plan her escape from an abusive man and reaches for a candlestick to use to hurt him if she gets the chance; a young man mentions that he was almost killed by a man who held his head over a fire until the smoke and heat caused him to come close to death; a brief scene occurs with a building burning and people trying to escape, mention of burning clothing and skin and smoke inhalation and a young man falling from a height into burning pieces of wood and destruction; a man is described to have burnt skin and a blood streaked face and still be threatening his dance troupe with death; a brief scene is described where a character sees someone they are falling in love with turn to dust and disappear.
Sex/Nudity: A young woman kisses the top of her friend’s head in comfort; an insinuation is made that an unmarried young woman fell for a young man and ran off with him as she was pregnant; a young couple slowly become more and more interested in each other, eventually a scene occurs where they kiss and embrace, with their hands mentioned to touch each other; a brief scene occurs with a young couple holding each other close and obviously developing feelings for each other, with little detail given; a brief scene occurs where a young woman asks a young man to loosen the laces of her bodice so she can feel closer to him.
Mature Subject Matter:
Magic; verbal and physical abuse; death; curses; dark scenes and themes.
Alcohol/Drug Use:
An adult man is mentioned to drink alcohol; champagne is served to young women at an event; an adult man is described to drink wine and have behavioral changes when he drinks too much.
