‘Instructions for Dancing’: 3 AM BOOK REVIEW

Here’s another review of a book that I finished at 3 am. Nicola Yoon really knows how to pull on my heartstrings!

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Published by Random House Children's Books on June 1, 2021
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Emotions & Feelings, Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / New Experience
Pages: 304

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A charming, wholehearted love story that's sure to make readers swoon."—Entertainment Weekly

"Nicola Yoon writes from the heart in this beautiful love story."—Good Morning America

“It’s like an emotional gut punch—so beautiful and also heart-wrenching."—US Weekly

In this romantic page-turner from the author of Everything, Everything and The Sun is Also a Star, Evie has the power to see other people’s romantic fates—what will happen when she finally sees her own?

Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything--including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he's only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?

I don’t know how else to explain how to feel about this book, other than it was amazing and taught me a lot about love, marriage and divorce.

characters

I loved Evie as a lead character. I could really get into her head about her feelings about her parents’ divorce, her relationship with her sister, mom and especially her dad. She and her father were extremely close, so when he’d cheated on her mom, it devastated her. That’s something both Evie and I have in common. Speaking on a more personal level, I love my father and my family, but there has been a lot of hurt and healing done by both sides, even before I was born. It’s hard as a Divorced Kid to try to piece together a relationship that you only know parts of.

I could also relate to Evie’s cynicism towards love and relationships. Her psychic visions of seeing how relationships start and end was both interesting and left me wanting more. I wanted to know if her powers worked on friendships ending, or families too. Why only romantic relationships?? But other than that, I really liked Evie. I explained in my past review of The Kiss Quotient about my aversion to sex and relationships too.

I also loved Evie’s mom, because she’s Jamaican, and my family’s Jamaican, so that gave me a bit of relatability to read about. Some of Evie’s mom’s cultural references I remembered from being around my family a lot.

Evie’s friends Martin, Sophie and Cassidy were so much fun and added a bit of comedy relief to the story. Martin was the only one of her friends and family who knew about Evie’s powers, which I thought was interesting. I thought it would have helped ease some of Evie’s stress and inner turmoil. Sophie and Cassidy were lesbians, so that was a nice LGBT touch.

just dance

Fifi, X and Evie’s dance teacher, was so funny, trying to discipline them into shape for the competition. The dance school’s owners Archibald and Maggie—who were also X’s grandparents—were so adorable together. I could feel their love pouring through the page.

X and Evie’s romance

I loved X!!!! I thought he added a lot of lighthearted optimism that Evie was trying to run away from. Their trajectory from unexpected dance partners to friends to dating was so adorable, and I’ve never felt more jealous. X’s motto was saying yes to everything, because life is short. He also dealt with his best friend Clay’s sudden death a year or two before, and it was so sad to read/listen to his grieving process. He was also a musician with a disapproving father, which is something I can relate to on so many levels. It’s hard for Gen X-ers and baby boomers to understand why millennials and Gen Z-ers to go to such lengths to make our creative work become longterm. They say we need to finish school, get a job, get married, have some kids, live happily unhappy. But many of us want to go different paths.

narration & writing style

I was already a huge fan of Nicola Yoon’s work from The Sun is Also a Star from my review a few years ago, so I knew I would like this book too. But I did not expect this read to have so much depth, heart and soul. In the author’s note, Nicola was dealing with a lot of her own personal losses, and I could feel her pain throughout the story. Dancing is her best book yet! The only criticism I have is that the chapters were too short for a 60-chapter book. It doesn’t feel long, but it would have been better if the chapters were longer.

I read this book via hardcover and audiobook, and narrator Bahni Turpin was perfect, as usual. I practically bought the audiobook because of her! She’s narrated Tomi Adeyemi’s books, Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance. She’s very good at performing and adding the right emotional depth to the characters. I usually don’t like female narrators doing male characters’ voices because it sounds so cringey, but Bahni did a good job portraying X.

the sun vs. dancing

The Sun is Also a Star scratched the surface on intuition and looking deeper into relationships. But Instructions for Dancing was an excellent take on why relationships are the way they are. Why certain people think they have everything figured out; who they’ll be with in 10, 20, 100 years, how many kids they’ll have, where they’ll live. But not everything turns out that way. For years, I thought there was something wrong with me, on why I never had a boyfriend, my nervousness around guys and unrequited crushes and stuff. I’m a lot more open to at least talking to guys now lol! But I had to change my perspective of “happily ever after” and finding my Prince Charming.

I also loved all of the ballroom dancing references. I used to dance ballet, contemporary, and jazz, when I was younger, so X and Evie practicing brought back a lot of memories.

final thoughts

This book was incredible, and I keep coming back my favorite scenes and emotional moments. I only do that to books I absolutely love! This will stick with me for a long time.

final rating: 4.5 Stars

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