Thank you Netgalley and Kensington for the eARC! The Still Point is a contemporary fiction novel with some domestic/psychological suspense vibes. Looks at sacrifices, mother-daughter relationships, and a dark, cutthroat world of ballet 🩰 

I love ballet and danced for 4 years so I was very excited about this and it didn’t disappoint! Love that some sections are titled Acts or closing curtain! I was pulled in immediately by the suspense/tension of what was going to happen.

The novel is told through switching POVs between 4 characters-Bea, Ever (Bea’s mom), Lindsay, Josie. The characters are complex and well written! I could get a clear voice for each character chapter. A couple of characters were extremely unlikeable at times, but in a complicated love-to-hate-them sort of way. By the end of the novel, the characters had all grown and developed, which I always appreciate! 

The ending was well done. It wasn’t perfect, it was messy and semi open ended which fits the rest of the novel really well! There were some twists I didn’t see coming and I was wrong on every one of my guesses which was pleasantly surprising 😀

The one “negative” was that the pacing was a little all over the place- it had a great start that pulls you in, but then it starts to slow down by the end of the first third. Luckily it did pick up again around the second/last third. I think if some unnecessary things were cut and the pacing was maintained it would’ve flowed better. There were some instances of telling instead of showing that didn’t add to the story or characters. Also there was one instance of a minor plot line that was mentioned but was abandoned at the end, which confused me.

Overall an entertaining story that held my attention (mostly). Recommend if you want the complex characters and domestic suspense of Little Fires Everywhere, the drama of Dance Moms, and the dark ballet vibes of Tiny Pretty Things!