“The Turnout,” more like The Burnout

I finished reading “The Turnout,” from Megan Abbott which is about twin sisters Daria and Marie who are identical in how they look but their personalities are polar opposites. The sisters run a ballet school that their parents ran with Daria’s husband Charlie who used to be a student of their mother. A man named Derek comes to fix the school after a suspicious fire starts and he’s of course bad news. Honestly the plot about a mystery at a ballet school was great on paper but unfortunately it fell flat.

Pros

The plot at least had a great idea. I like that the setting is in New York City. Unfortunately that was all that was going for it. The ending was the best part as unrealistic as it was.

Cons

Theres a lot to unpack with what doesn’t work with the book. None of the characters were that likeable. Marie was halfway likeable but she was an idiot sleeping with Derek who she barely knows and there was one scene where she was sleeping with Derek while her students were waiting for her. Daria is just stuck up and her husband is bland. There also seemed to be a ton of weird sex scenes and I’m thinking, “What does this have to do with the story?” The book also seemed to take forever for something to happen and the end was the best part it almost seemed like someone else wrote the ending. Also it seemed as though the twin girls mother was a sexual predator before dying in the car crash.

Overall

Overall I didn’t like it. There was potential there but unfortunately it was wasted. I think if a different author wrote this maybe it would have been better than what I was expecting.