I was excited to read this bc I love Center Stage and am forever chasing YA novels to give me that high. ([b:Tiny Pretty Things|18710209|Tiny Pretty Things (Tiny Pretty Things, #1)|Sona Charaipotra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413576484l/18710209._SX50_.jpg|26568298] so far was the closest.)

This book for me though....was not it.

I think there are aspects to like here--I think the Prince-centric 80s Minnesota setting is cool, I think the queer teen drag scene is cool, I think it's cool to highlight the talents & struggles of dancers of color.

But the plot itself was SO SWEATY, and not just because of all the hard dance practices. (Rim shot) It just felt like I could realllly see the seams where the author wanted X emotional effect and therefore Y had to happen and therefor character had to do Z thing even though Z thing didn't really make sense. Like for example early on we see that Rosa's sister is a paraplegic and it's clear that Rosa is hiding something about that (even though it's her own narration which is already kind of a shaky narrative device in the first place, of like why the narrator is clearly hiding something from....herself?) But the reveal that

Spoiler

her sister is disabled because she and Rosa were fighting at home inside the house and then Rosa got mad, took her sister's shoe out of her hand, went outside and threw the shoe into the street, and then her sister chased the shoe into the road and got hit by a truck??? whaaaat?!?! SO SWEATY, rly feels like the author could have taken another whack at that and come up with some less bonkers reason why Rosa might feel guilt about her sister's injury IMO!!!!

Anyway I'm leaving out a star rating because there aren't so many reviews of this up yet and I don't want this responsibility but I did not really like this book and I kept incredulously telling improbable details aloud to my coworker.

If this were a Disney Channel movie I'd definitely watch it but the problem is dance movies can get by on super thin plots/character developments because it's nice to watch dance performances but dance BOOKS have a higher bar to clear and IMO this one did not do that!!

I went from "not knowing very much about Elvira" to "FULL ELVIRA STAN" over the course of this book. What a treat!!!

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-184-yours-cruelly-elvira/

I read this after watching (and being somewhat confused by) the movie and found it to be enjoyable and entertaining--I was already sort of primed for the weirdness of it. Predictably I was very charmed by the America's Next Superhero reality show C-plot.

hot take: Kieron Gillen is a great writer? I LOVED the narration in this, SO weird and funny. Having read only this, Neil Gaiman's Eternals, and then the movie, I do feel like...none of these characters really have set...characters...per se? All three of these seem like wildly different groups of people. Which is fine, just like...an observation.

So personal and haunting.

ugh this is SO EXACTLY MY SHIT, exactly the blend of personal memoir + pop culture analysis that I craaave. And the structure is so smart and her writing is so sharp and I just! Must read everything else she's ever written! Immediately!

I LOVE that I'm now of an age where there are lots of great books out here that are very relatable for MY coming-of-age points of reference. Is this how middle aged white men have always felt? It's incredible. I love King's voice here, so confessional and with such good observations about trashy pop culture. Chef's kiss.

ok I know everybody's book club read this like 2 years ago but I just picked it up! Couldn't put it down! Clawed my face off with secondhand embarrassment at the white privilege antics!

Hmmm...I think the art is gorgeous and the concept is cool but this Vol 1 is so abbreviated, I wish they had waited to release this until they had more of it.

This book is gorgeous. I'm a little surprised seeing how many people tagged it as children's-but I suppose the text is relatively simple while the concepts are sophisticated. I do think teens/adults would be the best audience for this but it could work in a classroom setting, or certainly for some younger kids.