Trigger warnings: cheating, discussions of rape, statutory rape
Synopsis: Theo is better now.
She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.
Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.
Review: Pointe is Brandy Colbert’s first novel, and it is so good. The main character is a girl named Theo who is an incredible ballet dancer. Her life gets thrown upside down when her old best friend, Donovan, comes back after being kidnapped years earlier. Brandy does a great job of showing how moments can affect other areas of a person’s life. We see how Donovan’s disappearance, and the complexities with that, dismantled Theo and she abused how she treated food. This gets brought up again when Donovan returns and Theo reflects on that time of her life. I loved being in Theo’s head and seeing how she processes information regarding Donovan’s disappearance and reappearance. I loved Theo’s friend group too. I understand some of the things going on in Theo’s head, and how she felt the need to keep things to herself, but her friends were always there for her. Even if they didn’t agree with her actions, they still loved and supported her.
The only negative thing I have to say is that I wish a bit more time was spent discussing rape. Theo has to deal with a lot in this book, but one thing she wrestles with is the definition of rape. I wish time was taken out to describe what people generally think of as rape versus statutory rape, and how both of those are valid concerns. Still, seeing Theo grow from the events regarding Donovan, and more recent life challenges was nice. Theo does try to sneak around with someone who is dating another woman. Cheating, and the variations of it, is definitely a tricky thing to put in books. I appreciate that we do have Theo’s perspective as she realizes, “This isn’t something I should do, but I love this guy, so I’m going to try it.” Then she sees how harmful that mindset is. For her, for the guy she’s seeing, and for the guy’s girlfriend. If cheating is a hard no for a reader, then I wouldn’t suggest picking Pointe up. Otherwise, I greatly enjoyed this book.
Heartbreaking book that hits a lot of different parts of life.
4 howls
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