Shiny Broken Pieces (Tiny Pretty Things #2)

Tiny Pretty Things was my favorite guilty pleasure in 2015, so I was very eager to pick up this sequel and find out what was in store for the amazing characters that were introduced in the first novel. I loved the fact that this is truly a sequel! It’s not a companion, it’s a literal “this is what happens next” story that I greatly appreciated. The diverse cast of characters are all back, still trying to pursue their dancing dreams as they face their senior year and the possibility of earning a coveted apprenticeship. They must decide if college is in their future or dance, and all the same intrigue, bad behavior and intense emotions are back in full force. The authors manage to change things up, giving their bad guys a new dimension that make us see them in a new light, and giving our “good guys” an unexpected dark side.

It’s easy to forgive the authors for coming up with more than a few contrived situations that strain credibility when they continue to offer up complex characters that capture your heart and imagination. The dialogue is authentic, and the style is very readable. I would recommend that readers start with book 1 in this series, in order to fully appreciate all the story lines. This series remains my favorite guilty pleasure and is a recommend for anyone with an interest in ballet.

I think I mentioned last week that as soon as I finished Tiny Pretty Things, I turned around and bought the sequel.

I didn’t regret it.

The book starts a few months after the first one finished, with the girls heading into their final year at the conservatory. Well, all the girls except Bette who has been suspended for her role in last year’s tragedies. More is at stake this time, with only two spots in the Company and every dancer hungry to take one of them.

The cutthroat, competitive world of the ballet school was set up well in the first book, but in this one, everything is taken up a notch. Even sweet, lovable Gigi gets in on the action, not wanting to be a victim anymore. And she’s learned from the best.

Interestingly, my least favorite character from the first book, June, the bulimic, Korean dancer who had no friends, became my favorite character in this one. She is the only one who doesn’t get in on the endless and increasingly dangerous pranks. Instead, she starts to recognize she has a problem and works on it, albeit under pressure from others.

With their future careers at stake, the other girls are ruthless in their competitiveness, stopping at nothing to keep one step ahead of the next dancer, to be seen, to shine. While I know ballet is super competitive, I hope dancers aren’t as vicious in real life as these girls are. I suspect though, what we’re seeing here is the tip of an iceberg and the reality is even more horrific.

While I didn’t love this one quite as much as the first book, there is still a lot to enjoy here. It’s just harder to find a character to side with because they’re all behaving so badly. But in a way, don’t we all secretly wish we could? If there were no consequences?

I was a big fan of TINY PRETTY THINGS and gobbled that book up in a single day. My expectations for SHINY BROKEN PIECES were pretty high–and I wasn’t disappointed. The characters pick up at the start of the next year of ballet school (their Level 8/senior year), and all the girls have big choices to make. Low self-esteem, perfectionism, elitisim, body image and eating disorders plague the ballerinas, and to make things more intense, the bullying from the year before become more extreme yet under-the-radar to avoid causing further scandal for the conservatory. Each of the characters show their growth and development as they start to figure out who they really are.

This is a fun, young adult read, and it was better than I expected it to be, but it struggles to cover a lot of real issues thoroughly. The characters go through quite a few deep, serious things, but I did not feel that there was enough room in this book to really cover that depth.
If you like ballet and drama, and can understand the limitations of the book, it is a worthwhile read.

The conclusion to the epic Tiny Pretty Things. The book has ballet, drama, diverse characters, and a satisfying resolution to the dramatic ending of TPT. The multi-POV novel gives a look into the struggles and ambitions of the world, competition, and culture of elite ballet, and I love seeing it through the lenses of Gigi, who is black, June, who is Asian, and Bette, who is white. An addicting read–you will tear through this!

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