Review: "The Still Point" by Tammy Greenwood

The Still Point by Tammy Greenwood
Published February 2024 via Kensington
★★★★

Bea's dancing has been one of few bright spots in her mother Ever's life this past year, which saw the loss of Ever's husband and financial stability—and with a scholarship on the line, suddenly this season of dance matters more than ever. But Ever and Bea aren't the only ones desperate for that scholarship: Bea's onetime best friend Olive dances at the same studio, as does her nemesis Savvy...not to mention the other girls who dream of dancing in Paris. Not to mention their parents.

This is mostly a book about those parents: Ever, of course; and her best friend Lindsay, who might be more invested in Olive's dance prospects than Olive is; and Josie, who dreams of seeing Savvy having an independence—without relying on a man—that she herself never really had.

Greenwood is herself a dance mom—in the author's note, she describes the book as a "love letter" and "also a story of what happens when ambition becomes a dark thing" (loc.152*). But it's fiction, fortunately, a version of dark ambition that neither she nor her daughter experienced.

Ballet books are one of those things that I have no personal stake in but love reading anyway, which means that I've inevitably read my fair share of the darker side of things—ground glass in pointe shoes and all. (You'd better believe that made me nervous when a certain character was gifted some pointe shoes...) But this is the restrained side of dark, and it's better for it: yes, there are characters, numerous characters, who do not always act as stand-up members of society...but even when they're being petty and unkind, jealous and calculating, we can see where they're coming from and why.

A side note: There's a point(e) to be made here about the ways in which people who are successful (or attractive, or confident, or all of the above) in certain spheres are allowed to get away with far more than they should—the way a particular male character is allowed to run rampant through the pages, tossing out small grenades and then smirking to see them land. He is not in himself particularly interesting, but the blind eye that so many other characters turn is.

All round a satisfying read. I believe I've had my eye on one or two of the author's other books for quite some time, so I may have to bump those up the queue.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes may not be final.