The Unraveling

Choreographer Hamrick follows up First Position with another seductive tale of the ballet world’s glamour and darkness. Jocelyn Banks’s mother, Brandy, failed in her own quest to become a ballerina. While raising Jocelyn in rural Louisiana, she does everything she can to make Jocelyn a star—up to and including forcing her to purge certain foods, beginning when she’s 14. After graduating from high school, Jocelyn joins the North American Ballet in New York City. At 24, she quits in order to follow her artist boyfriend, Jordan Morales, to London. By this point, she’s long estranged from Brandy, and after learning Brandy has been seriously injured in a car accident, she begins picking fights with Jordan instead of going home to visit her mother. After attending a London ballet performance, Jocelyn resumes her ballet practice and falls under the sway of a charismatic but cruel dancer. As the novel reaches its crisis point, Jocelyn takes a big risk that might end her career. Hamrick satisfies with her twisty drama, where bad actors get their just desserts, and she delivers fine character work, as in her portrayal of Jocelyn’s reckoning with the sacrifices Brandy made for her. Readers will be swept off their feet. (Aug.)