The Turnout: 'Impossible to put down, creepy and claustrophobic' (Stephen King) - the New York Times bestseller

Ballet has always been the world of sisters Dara and Marie. Their glamourous mother, a former ballet soloist, had kept them close and after the parents’ death, they have taken over the Durant School of Dance together with Dara’s husband Charlie who had become a family member as a boy. When a fire destroys one of their studios amidst the preparations of their biggest annual event, the performance of “The Nutcracker”, they hire Derek, a seemingly highly skilled contractor, to have everything restored as quickly as possible. Yet, they do not have the least idea of whom they let into their studio and lives. The fire was just the beginning of a series of dreadful events which will change their lives forever.“No one wanted to face the truth. That every family was a hothouse, a swamp. Its own atmosphere, its own rules. Its own laws and gods. There would never be any understanding from the outside. There couldn’t be.”Megan Abbott is a master of foreshadowing and again has created unique characters who reveal their full potential slowly throughout the novel. The title – “The Turnout” – is quite ambiguous but perfectly fits in several respects. A turnout is a demanding move in ballet and that’s what the sisters expects from their élèves. Secondly, it is also the moment where you are confronted with different directions and have to decide for one. Thirdly, it is a clearing out, an act of cleaning what has been spoilt. All three can be found in the novel. The preparation for the ballet performance is at the centre when the sisters get into a deep conflict in which they decide for different roads and, in the end, the initial state is restored and all disruptive factors are cleared. At least they might think so.The novel moves at a rather slow pace but this adds the creepy atmosphere which makes the plot quite authentic. The threat does not come in in an obvious way, it is sneaking into their lives with a friendly and smiling face like a predator who observes his prey, gets closer and tenaciously waits for the perfect moment to attack.It is also a novel about family structures and sisterly bonds. Quite obviously, their mother’s way of keeping the girls away from other children, of treating them in a special – or rather: strange – way to form them according to her own ideals cannot be healthy. Dara and Marie become like two sides of one coin, an inseparable unit which even cannot be divided by Charlie who integrates into their union. No wonder, at a certain point in life, such a bond is threatened and the lack of experience with people makes them even more vulnerable than others might have been.From a psychological point of view, an outstanding novel which is also full of spine-chilling suspense.

3,5 StarsTwo sisters, Dara and Marie, run their mother’s ballet school together with Dara’s husband Charlie since their parents died in a car accident. Their mother was the dominant character in their family and their whole live circles around ballet. They do nothing else. Their mother homeschooled them and also taught them everything about ballet. Every year they do the Nutcracker and they are starting to rehearse it with their classes. The three also used to live together in their parents old house but a few months ago Marie moved out and lives now in the attic of the ballet school. One night she has an accident and a fire breaks out and leaving behind some damage. So they have to hire a constructer to fix their school while they are rehearsing. Dara finds this guy menacing. She thinks he is watching and listening and he seems to have an odd interest in their family house. But Marie, she is drawn to this much older and brute man.This is a dreamy story, almost like a dark fairytale. I never read a book by Megan Abbot or about the subgenre of ballet. I loved the movie “Black Swan” and this book is a bit like it. I find it hard to tell exactly what is going on in this story because there is so much going on. There is the dancing and all the pain it brings on the dancers and especially their feet. Dara, Marie and Charlie are in their thirties, but you can easily think they are in their teens. Especially Marie. She has not grown up at all. She is not able to live a life outside their ballet school and when she moves out of their shared house she just goes into the attic of the ballet school. For some hard to understand reasons she falls for this constructor. He is much older, not attractive and devious. Which brings me to the main topic in this book: sex. Everything is about sex. Sometimes it really is but most of the time it is on the surface about something else but the writing is so multilayered that it could also be just about sex as well. Megan Abbot can make sound everything so sensual, so sexy.This was my first book by this author so I can’t compare her writing to her previous books. I am not sure if I liked it but it is the main thing that kept me reading. The story is weird and you have to have a thing for ballet to enjoy it. There is a dark and ominous atmosphere here. You know right from the beginning that something bad is going to happen. That already something bad happened in the past. Nothing is explained exactly but there are so many hidden hints, so many things casually mentioned but telling so much between the lines. I was mesmerized by this writing although, as I said, I am not sure I liked it. For me it was an unusual read. Fascinating but at the same time it made me sometimes feel uncomfortable, even tainted.I think I will try another book from this author. I am not sure how to rate this book. It intrigued me, but it was so strange and weird and slow and dark. It was an unusual reading experience for me, which I always appreciate. So I settle for 3,5 Stars.