There are books that hold you fast—that move through you like music, or like a dancer shaking away the dust angels. THE LAST PIROUETTE by Janette DeFelice is filled with striking imagery and emotional intelligence; it's a novel that understands how women carry the weight of other women's lives, and the liberating journey towards finding their own.
The book is a story of mothers and daughters, autonomy and separation, choices and trauma. It's about young women and the men who take advantage of them. It's about the fractures (in limbs, relationships, and opportunities) that sometimes capture women and other times set them free.
Victoria and Delia, mother and daughter, are both dancers. Victoria wants to perform on the stage but can't, so she encourages her daughter to embrace that dream. Because of Delia's talent, Victoria can set up a dance studio. In the meantime, Delia wonders if there could be more to her life. When she wins a scholarship to dance in New York, being away from her mother means freedom—freedom to fall in love and create a separate path from her mother's.
The novel weaves through the effects that mothers and daughters have on each other. It shows how every woman makes different choices, as well as the words and stories that live in women's heads after abuse. This feminist tale of emancipation brings in an LGBTQ+ story of finding true love without needing to define yourself by a single identity.
The text is thoughtful, philosophical even, with Victoria holding her true self in conversation for what may be the first time since she was a small child: "Listen, in this world, this universe, nothing that is in existence now ever goes away — it just takes on a different form." There is beauty in the imagery of the dancer's studio, in the dainty shoes hiding mangled toes, and in the grace and athleticism of ballet.
The ending, which happens quickly, offers a moment in which you feel fully present in your life—where you see yourself, and know that you are enough. This book is like watching a movie you wish would never end. When it does, you will grieve it.
Janette DeFelice's THE LAST PIROUETTE: A Novel in Three Acts is a triumph that carries the sensual experience of dancing while searching for authenticity. This novel deserves to be placed in the hands of every woman who has ever wondered how her mother's world has shaped her, who she wants to become, and how to live every moment she has to the fullest.
~ Nicci Attfield for IndieReader