Various Positions
A Novel
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4.7 • 7 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Trapped between the hormone-driven world of her friends and the discontent of her dysfunctional family, fourteen-year-old Georgia is only completely at ease when she's dancing. When she is accepted into Canada's preeminent ballet school, Georgia thinks it is the perfect escape. Artistic Director Roderick Allen singles her out as a star, subjecting her to increasingly intensive training, and Georgia obsesses about becoming the perfect, disciplined student. But as she spends more and more time with Roderick, it's not so clear exactly what their relationship means. Is he her teacher and mentor, or is there something more? These blurred lines will threaten both Roderick's future at the academy and Georgia's ambitions as a ballerina.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schabas skillfully weaves themes of power, communication, trust, intimacy, and betrayal through this character-driven tale, as 14-year-old ballet dancer Georgia struggles to find a place where she belongs and people she can trust. Uncomfortable with her party-going classmates and caught between a domineering father and an emotional mother, Georgia hopes to find refuge in Toronto's premier ballet academy. However, her acceptance there introduces her to variations on problems she is already dealing with: cruel peers, prohibitively high standards, and another male authority figure whose approval she craves. As Georgia constructs her own narrative about her relationship with her teacher, she realizes that the stories she's been told about her own family contain perplexing inconsistencies; the closer she looks, the more she uncovers omissions, lies, and willful misinterpretations. Na vet and precociousness wrestle within Georgia: unaware of potential health consequences, she innocently coaches a heavier classmate in self-starvation, while, hoping to captivate her teacher, she studies porn for guidance. A robust first-person narrative voice, multidimensional supporting characters, and a suspenseful plot add up to a strong debut. Ages 14 up.
