This one didn't work for me much. All of the problems I had in reading it sort of play into one another, making them harder to pull apart. First, maybe, is the age issue. Georgia's in grade 8 at the beginning of the story, when she tries out for the ballet academy. At the end of the book, she's trying out for grade 10. Maybe the middle is a year of time, but it's not clear what the passage of time is. For me, it felt like this all took place over the course of a month or two, given there aren't any actual ballet performances and the bulk of what happens in ballet classes is limited. I needed more indication of time and passage of time to make sense of the scope of the story.

That said, Georgia was uneven and hard to buy either as an 8th or 9th grader. Her voice feels very mature, but her actions are entirely immature. There was a real disconnect for me as a reader, and I likewise felt disconnected from her story because I didn't get to know who she was.

There were a lot of wonky messages about sexuality and male/female power in the story, too, and while it can be attributed to Georgia being immature, I'm not going to buy that argument easily. I think she's spot on age wise in her curiosity about sex and her own body, especially given the demand to have that physical awareness which comes with ballet, but the way she used it seemed evil and honestly didn't serve a real purpose. (view spoiler)[ So she's got it in her head that Roderick, her instructor, has a thing for her. He's given her some special treatment, but nothing in his actions, outside the rumors of other girls, suggests he's a predator. But not only does Georgia decide she wants to research sexual poses and practice them (again, not unbelievable in the least!), she decides to photograph them and give them to Roderick? She traps him. His actions in kissing her were wrong, and while I cannot blame the victim here, it's impossible not to acknowledge that had Georgia not led him on (because SHE DOES), it wouldn't have happened at all. Then there's the unnecessary rape scene with Kareem. It felt like the purpose of it was to build reader sympathy for Georgia, but she'd already lost enough of my interest by this point. I felt bad for this happening, but it didn't change the fact she'd already made me angry with her. (hide spoiler)]

I feel like the flap copy is a little misleading, since there's really not that much focus on ballet nor the intense practicing in a one-on-one environment between Roderick and Georgia. Likewise, I don't think Georgia's friends are all that sex obsessed. SHE certainly is, though. To be perfectly honest (view spoiler)[ I think Georgia has a mental disorder she needs to deal with, and it goes back to the really sad family situation she's been dealt. I think had the story focused more on THAT, rather than on this illicit relationship, it could have been a lot stronger a book. I mean, Georgia learns her mother married her father after her father cheated on his wife with her. That's huge. (hide spoiler)]

The mixed messages, the underdeveloped main character, and the inconsistency of pacing and passage of time made this a slow and ultimately disappointing read.