Name: The Other Side of Perfect
ISBN: 9780316703406

Mariko Turk

"An emotional story about a former ballerina who is thrust back into 'normal' high school after a life-changing injury, and who comes to terms with life without her passion as well as discrimination in the ballet world"--

The Other Side of Perfect

Estefany 

Me gustó bastante. Me sentí muy identificada con Alina en muchos aspectos, sobre todo, en lo frustrante que es dejar de hacer algo que te apasiona por razones ajenas a ti que no puedes controlar. Como bailarina de ballet que era sufrí con ella en su travesía por encontrarse a si misma fuera de lo que ella siempre ha conocido que en este caso es el ballet.

Creo que el desarrollo de la historia es muy bueno y bonito. Ls personajes son muy entrañables todos, y me divertí con ellos. También la trama envuelve temas sensibles como lo puede ser el racismo y los prejuicios que eso conlleva.

As a dancer myself I enjoyed this book. Lately I haven't been into ballet as much as the other dance styles I do and reading this really reignited my passion for it. Also the romance is so cute! I finished this book in a day.

Lily

Emi Gilmore 

4/5 stars

Ahh this book was such a pleasant surprise. I absolutely loved it. 

There was so many important conversations about race and stereotypes and unnormalizing racism and internalized sexism. And it was done so beautiful, in a way that I think some books strive to do but often miss the mark. 

And the main character, Alina, was so consistent. I absolutely loved her. The way she acted and responsed to events that took place around her seemed so realistic for a 17-year-old girl trying to reevaluate her life.

I loved this and not enough people are talking about it. Highly recommend.

Ahaana Bhargava

all the feels !! read my interview with the author 
  
    here

A stunning and unique story about healing that offers a gentle hand to anyone who struggles with perfectionism, competition and an all-or-nothing mindset, as well as those who don't understand ambition.

dawn

I am so pleasantly surprised by this book! I went into this thinking it would just be another YA contemporary book but this book truly spoke so much to me. Mariko Turk has done a remarkable job in encapsulating such relatable concepts that I honestly used to think I was alone in feeling so. Ballet is complex – while it is such a big part of my life that I love and am passionate about, it would be blind of me to ignore its flaws that I have inevitably come to realise as I grow up – and Turk has successfully tied in this concept into the book. Other things I found painfully relatable include Alina's impulsivity, Alina's 'jealousy bomb', Alina's tendency to cry in certain situations, Alina's inability to express herself in words sometimes and wanting to tell people things but not knowing how to, Alina finding parallels in herself and other supposedly bad people... okay we get it the MC is relatable lol. I expected a fun ballet story and I got so much more than that (in a good way). This is a fantastic debut and I cannot wait for what Turk has in store for us.

Caitlyn DeRouin

Belle Ellrich

The Other Side of Perfect is a glittering, evoking story with characters you can’t help but connect to and want to fight the world for. As an ex-ballerina myself, I knew I’d be jumping into a book that would hit a bit close to home. But not only did this book ‘wow’ and amaze me, I fell completely in love with the story and its characters.

Alina is a girl who’s grieving the loss of the biggest thing in her life. After a shattering injury (no pun intended), she’s forced to step away from dancing on pointe. She’s in pain, she’s angry, and so many other emotions any reader can find themselves understanding and connecting to. I think the author captured every part of Alina’s feelings and emotions really well. People change after losing something important to them, and to see Alina undergo that change and learn to live without the constant pressure and timing of ballet in her life was really amazing to see on the pages.

On top of that, this was one of the few books where I felt like the relationships between the characters were genuine. This book honestly was made for teen readers, and you could just tell by the way the characters spoke and acted around each other. Of course, there were a few cliche scenes, but instead of being obnoxious, they were welcomed and needed additions to the story.

My only dislike about this book was the length. I feel like this book could’ve been shorter, and there were a few scenes I felt dragged on longer than the others. Don’t get me wrong, I loved every part of this book, but some of those parts were just too long, pacing-wise, for my liking.

Lastly, I wanted to pinpoint a pretty large topic of discussion this book brought up. Ballet may be a beautiful art, but there are a lot of pieces and factors that are overdue for change and inclusivity. I completely agreed with the characters when it was brought up that, for dances like Chinese Tea and Arabian Nights in The Nutcracker, there are some very racist stereotypes performed in the dances. As someone who danced as one of the Chinese Tea dolls when I was a younger girl, you never really questioned it. Alina brings up in this book that ballerinas are taught to withhold things and to take what they are given with pride. But what is prideful about upholding the stereotypes and racism, especially in such a popular performance that is performed every year like clockwork? I loved seeing the call for change in ballet with dances such as those two, and I hope we see more of it in the coming months and years.

Overall, I really loved The Other Side of Perfect. It was a book I can definitely see myself re-reading, and I hope to see more from Mariko Turk in the near future. For that, I rate this book 4.5 stars. If you haven’t already decided to pick it up, I’d highly suggest doing so, as this is one you’re not going to want to miss out on.