Review: A new twist on a classic genre
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2013
As a fan of Wendy Potocki, I was excited to discover her latest novel, Black Adagio. I'm happy to report that once again the lady, who've I've dubbed the Mistress of Mayhem, does not disappoint!Our story begins with our protagonist Missy's arrival at a prestigious ballet academy in the quaint little town of Holybrook run by a legendary ballerina. Missy is a talented dancer with a TON of emotional baggage trying to achieve her dancing dreams. What follows is a series of mysterious and gruesome events that leaves you thinking that our heroine might have been better off taking up another profession!The tone of Black Adagio is a bit of a departure from Ms. Potocki's normal writing style in that it reads more along the lines of a classic detective novel with supernatural overtones as opposed to a normal, in-your-face scarefest. And the gore, though graphic, was kept to a minimum. For me this enhanced the story's overall effectiveness since you spend half the time trying to answer the questions of "Who did what and why?" and the other half have anxiously waiting to see who's gonna get crunched next! And believe me when I say that you're kept guessing until the very end!I also commend Ms. Potocki on her candid look into the harshly competitive world of ballet. At times I did find the use of so many ballet terms a bit confusing, but this technical accuracy did not detract from the story. It was actually nice to get caught up in the brutality and cattiness among dancers which appears to be a dark staple of the art. Apparently life as a dancer is not as glamorous as it seems. In fact, I found the actions of some of Missy's peers to be nearly as sadistic as those of the...Oops! Almost let a spoiler slip, and I wouldn't want to do that. Guess you'll just have to buy the book to find out what I was going to say, which I recommend you do. You won't be disappointed!