Warning: This article contains spoilers.
Catherine Yu’s latest novel, The Devil’s in the Dancers, follows scholarship student Mars Chang who is spending her summer at the prestigious ballet-intensive Allegra Academy. As the book’s title suggests, Mars quickly finds out there may be something sinister going on at the school. What happens when the young dancer must choose between her morals and a guaranteed successful future?
Allegra Academy is the dream school for all aspiring ballerinas, as it’s reserved for only the most elite and brightest talent. When Mars is accepted to the school as a Bechler Fellow, she’s ecstatic, though a bit nervous. While most dream of becoming a primadonna ballerina and starring as the lead in the renowned recital, Mars simply sees her scholarship as the perfect opportunity to get out of her small hometown in New Jersey.
Ready to do whatever it takes to stay out of the way of her classmates, she’s shocked to discover her rommate is Alex Bechler, a naturally talented ballerina and the heiress to the Bechler empire. Soon after meeting Alex, the academy’s headmistress offers Mars an opportunistic task—give her niece Alex supplements to ensure her success in securing the lead role of the school’s 50-year anniversary recital. While she works toward this goal, Mars realizes the Bechler empire is built on calculated misfortune and death, and that Alex has no one she can trust.
Though Mars is the protagonist and winds up “saving the day,” she’s far from being a perfect person. She’s self-centered, greedy for success, and easily crumbles under pressure. She lets her emotion take control sometimes, and she can become irrational. While these are inherently negative traits, they serve to make her more human and realistic. After all, she’s just a teenage girl trying to secure a successful future.
As the story progresses, she begins to change when she develops a strong bond with Hannah, another Bechler Fellow. When Mars chooses to give up an opportunity to protect Hannah, she starts to put others and her safety first, even if it means that she’ll face some setbacks. Not only does she put everything on the line to protect Alex, she also sets her romantic feelings for Alex aside in an effort not to overwhelm her. Impulsive, self-serving Mars has evolved into someone empathetic and selfless.
Though it was great to see Mars evolving and changing positively as a character, there aren’t a lot of chances to see the same in her classmates. In fact, most of them had initially seemed kind and caring, but turned out to be selfish, rude, and eager to betray others for their own benefit. Hannah winds up betraying Mars, only to realize the damage she had caused when she’s on the brink of death. Meanwhile, Alex’s friends all seemed kind, though obnoxiously out of touch with reality due to their wealth, but in the end, they’re revealed to be demeaning, backstabbing, and self-centered. This contrast shows the uniqueness of humans—though they are together facing the same situations, albeit under different circumstances, they respond to them differently. As a result, they all change, for better or worse.
When it comes to the story and execution, however, the novel did fall a little short. With it being fairly short in length, there was a lack of detail and background on supporting characters that would have helped with the novel’s world building. While the novel delivered on promised topics like ballet and the nature of evil people, everything felt like it only grazed the surface. When it came to the book’s climax and the most “devilish” of moments, it felt a little too outrageous. It’s reminiscent of a gory Final Destination moment in an old historic theater. While that has its own appeal, it felt out of place in the novel, not fitting with the rest of the novel’s pacing.
With such a unique plot, The Devil’s in the Dancers was a novel worth a read. Audiences commonly agree that the original novel work is better than its film adaptation, but there are rare occasions like this where the idea of seeing this story in motion could better enhance the story and fill in the details.
