Review: Dancergirl by Carol M. Tanzman

From Goodreads: A friend posted a video of me dancing online and now I'm now longer Alicia Ruffino. I'm dancergirl - and suddenly it's like me against the world - everyone's got opinions. My admirers want more, the haters hate, my best friend Jacy - even he's acting weird. And some stranger isn't content to just watch anymore. Ali, dancergirl. Whatever you know me as, however you've seen me online, I've trained my whole life to be the best dancer I can be. But if someone watching has their way, I could lose more than just my love of dancing. I could lose my life.

My Rating: 3 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Based on the tone of the novel, the characters’ actions and the important message of being careful of what you post online, Dancergirl by Carol M. Tanzman is a book that I think is better suited to teens on the younger side. As Ali, the main character, can attest, anything that gets put online becomes open to public opinion. Tanzman however chooses to forego dwelling on cyber-bullying, and instead gives Ali a mysterious stalker as the biggest consequence of having a friend post an online video of her dancing.

While the ending felt rushed and things were resolved a little too easily for my liking, the identity of the stalker kept me guessing and left me surprised in the end. Tanzman did a really good job of showing how increasingly terrified and suspicious Ali became as the situation escalated, and I’m sure I would have reacted exactly the same if I was in her position.

The biggest reason why I didn’t like Dancergirl more though was because of the characters. Besides the fact that a lot of them felt one-dimensional, I found it really hard to care about Ali and her friends. It didn’t help that they were prone to being occasionally immature (e.g. refusing to tell a parent that you’re being stalked because you’re worried about being grounded) and that I didn’t understand a lot of the technical dance terms.

Dancergirl was released by Harlequin Teen in November 2011. 

Comments About the Cover: I think it would have better if it wasn’t just a facial shot but a girl dancing blurrily. This would show that there’s quite a bit of dance in the book and also kind of represent the video of Ali dancing. 

In exchange for an honest review, this ARC was received from the publisher (Harlequin Teen) for free via NetGalley.