“Once, Genie Davis was the star pupil of her prestigious New York ballet academy, on track to become a prima ballerina. She was preparing for auditions. She was turning pirouettes onstage. Now she turns the wheels on her wheelchair. After a traumatic fall from the roof of her three-story apartment building, Genie has lost the use of her legs— and with it, her identity as a ballerina, Untethered from the things that used to define her, Genie has turned sour and sad, isolating herself from her dance friends, her ex-boyfriend, and her mom. The sole bright light is a cute boy at physical therapy— an ex-gymnast whose brain injury has halted his ability to compete and who, more than most, understands what Genie’s going through. And then there’s Hannah, a former dance friend, who refuses to let Genie believe she has taken her final bow. Together, they give Genie hope that her time onstage isn’t over. But before she can move forward, she has to confront her past, reckon with some secrets, and come to terms with her career-ending fall, which may not have just been an accident after all.”

~From the front flap of “Turning”

“Turning” is a book about grief, how to overcome the hardships of life, and acceptance. It’s a really good book and storyline and despite what the synopsis implies, this isn’t a love story. While it might have elements of romance because Genie is a teenager, the main focus of the story is healing and letting others help you when you’re in need. In the beginning of the book, Genie has to learn to balance between getting paralyzed, breaking up with an obsessive boyfriend, and struggling with her inability to dance and go to Company like she’s always wanted. Her mental health is not at its best. After Genie loses the use of her legs, she doesn’t know what to do and feels like her life’s purpose is unreachable.

Since this book is clearly focused on the world of ballet, it makes sense that there would be a ton of idioms, play on words, and jokes about ballet. I love the way this book uses the phrase ‘pas de deux’ which describes a ballerina and dancer (male ballerina) dancing together, and ‘pas de basque’ which is a dance step alternating from side to side in three counts that is characteristic of the Basque national dances. Using words like ‘barre’, ‘floor’, and ‘grande reverence’ symbolize the importance of an event, makes this book so beautiful and makes me feel like I want to get up and dance. The way the author describes things within the book using dance vocabulary and patterns is really beautiful. You can tell she knows the world of dance. Whether it be ballet or tap, the descriptions are spot on.

This book has wonderful themes in it and it makes me want to read it again and again. One theme is home. Home can be found anywhere, whether it’s with people you love, or a place. Another theme is mental health. Throughout the book, Genie is struggling with her mental health when faced with her wants and wishes for dance. She wants to dance, but doesn’t see music in her head anymore. It just won’t come while she has feelings of hopelessness. Genie is constantly pushing her friends and mom away because of this, too. She feels that all her friends are friends with her because of dance and that her mom only cares about her because of dance, too since she’s been doing it since she was two and dancing Academy since twelve, which was where she met her best friend Hannah. She doesn’t want to be reminded of dance, and that’s all she feels these people are doing. The final theme is acceptance, where Genie is slowly learning to accept herself for who she is and learning to dance in a new way: through choreography.

This book was amazing and I 100% recommend it to everyone! You don’t have to be a dancer in order to enjoy this read. The book’s humor is so well thought out and so well written that you can’t help but laugh. This book describes the stages of grief while balancing being a teenage girl really well and I can’t wait to see what Joy L. Smith writes next.