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Starred review from September 15, 2024
Students at an elite dance school in Bucharest confront their identities and futures. Ana Florean and Carina Scarlat have been secretly dating for three years. In Romania, being out can have dangerous consequences, and Carina doesn't want to jeopardize her promising ballet career. Ana understands--mostly--and resigns herself to supporting Carina, stepping in as her practice partner in empty studios. But with Carina busy rehearsing, Ana finds herself wondering whether she even likes dancing anymore. She starts spending more time with her new roommate, Sara Dumitrescu, who's also in the contemporary dance program. As the two become friends, Ana finds someone she can trust with her ambivalent feelings about Carina, and Sara, who thinks she might be gay, too, finds someone who's willing to visit queer spaces with her. As the girls move through the dynamically illustrated panels, they explore their sexuality and what they want from dance. Most of the work features bold, fluid, black linework against a soft pink background, but many dance sequences include bright bursts of color. While the portrayal of the world of pre-professional ballet is sobering, reflecting the struggles of many dancers who present as queer or have bigger bodies, it also shows glimmers of a better future as the girls rediscover the joy of dancing and explore how gender norms can be bent or broken. An ultimately hopeful portrayal of dance, coming of age, and being true to yourself.(Graphic fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 2, 2024
Contemporary dancers Ana Florean and Sara Dumitrescu’s junior year at a Romanian performing arts school turns out to be pivotal and transformative in Popescu’s debut graphic novel. Assigned to share a dorm room, the girls become fast friends. While talented Sara crushes on Marlena, one of her instructors, Ana risks expulsion for frequently skipping classes to be with her girlfriend Carina, an ambitious ballerina who insists on hiding their relationship for fear of derision from her conservative classical ballet cohort. As the school year progresses, Carina’s unwillingness to be open about her relationship with Ana and Sara’s deepening feelings for Marlena threaten to upend the roommates’ professional pursuits and emotional well-being. Sara’s mistaken assumption about Marlena’s feelings for her and Ana’s school suspension prompt the girls to open up to one another about their respective sexualities, cementing their friendship and providing ample support as they each navigate tumultuous situations. Pastel pinks, muted grays, and saturated reds connote the passage of time in this fluidly illustrated work that gracefully captures the ups and downs of first love, ambition, and friendship. Character skin tones are rendered in varying hues that match the palette used. Ages 14–up.

November 1, 2024

Gr 8 Up-Two girls studying at a competitive dance school in Bucharest, Romania, navigate crushes, sexuality, and their relationship to dance. Ana, a student in the contemporary dance program, will drop anything to support her girlfriend of three years, classical dancer Carina. Frequently skipping classes to help Carina rehearse, Ana is frustrated that Carina makes her keep their relationship a secret for fear of the potential impact on her career. Ana is also anxious about her increasing burnout and lack of passion for dance, and is worried about what her future will hold if she quits. Sara, Ana's new roommate and a talented contemporary dancer, is grappling with an intense crush on their teacher, Marlena. Her friendship with Ana helps her explore queer spaces in Bucharest and reflect on her sexuality, and the two support one another when their respective relationships with Marlena and Carina complicate their studies. The artwork is drawn in muted pinks, blues, and grays, with an occasional scene in full color, and the characters have a range of skin tones and body types. Popescu highlights the cutthroat and often toxic environment of the dance school, and thoughtfully explores the tension between the characters' personal needs and their desire to be in relationships. VERDICT A sweet, queer coming-of-age story about listening to one's self and navigating the complex world of friendships and romance. Recommended for purchase.-Emily Yates

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 Newly paired as roommates at their conservative Romanian dance school, contemporary dancers Ana and Sara quickly become close friends sharing the biggest secrets of their lives: Sara harbors a crush on their instructor Marlena, and Ana has been hiding her relationship with ballerina Carina for years. However, Ana is also dealing with burnout, feeling disillusioned with dancing as well as the way she seems to take a back seat to Carina's career goals. With Ana's enrollment and potential career threatened by academic suspension and Sara worried about coming out to family and Marlena, their friendship is severely tested by having only each other to lash out at. The book is an intimate look at the girls' lives, their struggles, and their attempts to support each other through emotional highs and lows. The art backs this up wonderfully, depicting beautifully expressive faces usually in muted shades of gray and pink with the occasional brilliantly colored splash of dynamic dancing. Overall, a touching portrait of girls coming of age and forging their paths to the future.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2025
This coming-of-age graphic novel follows Ana and Sara, roommates and students at an elite high school for dance in Bucharest, Romania. Ana is secretly dating Carina, a passionate but selfish ballerina; as Ana's devotion to Carina intensifies, she jeopardizes her future at the school. But does she even still love dancing? Meanwhile, Sara gradually realizes that her feelings of admiration and gratitude toward her empathetic (and much older) female instructor, Marlena, are actually a crush. As Sara grapples with her sexual identity, she wonders if she should tell Marlena how she feels. Throughout their personal challenges, Ana and Sara support and encourage each other, and although the semester ends in heartbreak for both, it also brings a deeper bond and a sense of possibility. The graphic format is a good match for its visual subject matter: a sense of movement is pervasive throughout, and panels with close-ups of the girls' faces effectively convey their emotions. Most of the digital illustrations are drawn in black against backgrounds of dusky, balletic pink or bluish-gray (to differentiate flashbacks); as a result, the very occasional full-color pages, often depicting dance sequences, have maximum impact. Set against a vivid boarding-school backdrop, this is an emotionally charged story of self-expression, self-discovery, and friendship. Rachel L. Kerns

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)