The Dance of the Dolls, Lucy Ashe
The Dance of the Dolls, Lucy Ashe
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Dance of the Dolls

Author: Lucy Ashe

Narrator: Polly Edsell, Ben Higgins

Unabridged: 11 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/05/2023


Synopsis

Caroline Kepnes’s You meets Black Swan in this psychological thriller about obsessive love featuring two ballet dancers—identical twin sisters Olivia and Clara Marionetta—with a terrifying climax set in the world of ballet in pre-war London. Fans of historical fiction books with strong female characters and suspense-driven thrillers will be enthralled!
 
“[As a] former ballerina, Ashe’s insights into the world of professional dance elevate this unsettling debut thriller about identical twin sisters and the toxic male attention they attract.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
 
The Dance of the Dolls tells the story of identical twin ballerinas rehearsing for the ballet Coppélia at the recently opened Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Superficially, even their differences are complementary: Olivia aspires to be the perfect ballerina while Clara is rebellious and independent. Clara has been seeing a pianist at the theater, the passionate Nathan, while Olivia is unaware that she’s cast a spell on Samuel, a bashful apprentice ballet shoemaker who steals into Sadler’s Wells as often as he can to watch her dance. But as the sisters rehearse, danger lurks. The story of Coppélia—about a young man who becomes obsessed with a life-size doll—threatens to become a dark and sinister reality. Samuel dreams of being recognized by Olivia and wonders how far he’d go to achieve his goal, while Nathan, a musical child prodigy, struggles to adapt to adulthood and begins to blur the lines between reality and his dark fantasy world . . .
 
Ashe has penned one of the most unputdownable books of 2023, perfect for anyone who found themselves captivated by the suspense-driven series and films Dare Me, Black Swan, and Luckiest Girl Alive. The Dance of the Dolls mesmerizes and will fulfill your sister books wish list and penchant for psychological suspense thrillers such as If We Were Villains, by M. L. Rio.
 


Reviews

Goodreads review by bookishcharli on December 17, 2022

I spent most of my life until my teenage years dancing (tap and ballet) so imagine my excitement to see there was a psychological thriller debut about ballet from a former ballerina! You don’t need to know anything about ballet or it’s world in order to like or easily read this book, the author does......more

Goodreads review by Paradise on January 17, 2023

4.5 stars This was an utterly glorious immersive journey into the world of ballet in the 1930s. Ballet may be beautiful, but it can also be very dangerous. It certainly isn’t easy and there are many challenges to overcome, both mentally and physically. Ashe deals with these themes well, addressing the......more

Goodreads review by Carlene Inspired on February 12, 2024

The Dance of the Dolls is a truly stunning debut novel from Lucy Ashe. A literary thriller, The Dance of the Dolls follows twin sisters, Clara and Olivia, as they live their lives around Sadler’s Wells Theatre and their upcoming performance of Coppélia. Olivia is a pedigree ballet dancer, where as C......more

Goodreads review by Emma on December 11, 2022

This is quite a debut, very assured and confident in the writing and this is also passed along to the audience, you’re treated with respect and confidence and never spoken down to in a way that over explains certain aspects of ballet or the theatre, and yet it’s easy to follow along. The book revolve......more

Goodreads review by Monika on February 13, 2023

London, 1933. Clara and Olivia Marionetta are 19-year-old ballerinas training at the recently opened Sadler’s Wells. Nicholas Sergeyev, a regisseur of Mariinsky Ballet is coming to their ballet classes to oversee the rehearsals for the new show Coppélia. The young women are identical twins, but their......more