Review: Nova in New York

An advance reading copy of the book was

provided to me by Orca Book

Publishers & NetGalley in exchange

for an honest review.

(This review was originally intended to be posted before the publishing date of this book, and I'd like to apologize to my readers as well as the amazing people at Orca Book Publishers for the delay.)

Have I mentioned before how much I love books about dancers?💃 Or how about how much I love books that are set in New York City?🏦🏩🏢 Well, this title has both, and a super pretty cover!

Not only that, but this novel has a Canadian author, a Canadian publisher, and a Canadian protagonist! I've started off my newest year of reading in the right directions - those directions being 1) Canadian🍁 and 2) Awesome 😎

Apologies for the emoji overkill - now on to the actual review!

Nova is a Canadian teenager who has been studying ballet for 10 years and has been accepted to a prestigious summer dance program in NYC. It's her first time out on her own in a big city and her first time living farther than a few steps from her dad and farther than a bike ride from her aunt Ivy. Along with the anxieties that come with being in a big, unfamiliar city and being on her own for the first time, Nova also has to work hard in her program's classes under the unrelenting scrutiny of the instructors, all of whom have high expectations for these students who have earned a spot in this professional and highly competitive program. She struggles during the lessons and can't help but compare herself and her skills to the other dancers, and Nova even begins to question whether or not she wants to dance professionally at all.

One thing I need to mention right away is that this book is intended for a younger age group than other books I typically read, with this novel being less than 130 pages and directed towards readers ages 9-12. While this is still definitely a teen/YA read, the novel's pacing is directed by its size and the story may seem rushed for those who are used to reading larger to average-sized books. Even though this will be a quick read for avid bookworms, it is still highly enjoyable; this novel has a way of reminding its readers of their own dreams and passions, and it gets them thinking about what exactly caused them to fall in love with those dreams in the first place.

What is considered a super-quick read for regular readers is also an example of a perfect gateway book for someone who doesn't read very often but would like to start without being overwhelmed by a long series of novels or a thick book with 400+ pages. I believe this is an example of what is called hi-low reading, which admittedly I had to Google in order to know exactly what it means: hi-low is a shortened version of High Interest/Low Reading Level. This term mostly applies to children who are growing out of picture books and into chapter books; they are curious about reading but are still working on developing their reading skills, so they don't want to be deterred from reading anything that is too difficult for them to process without an adult's help. These types of books are also ones that grab a person's attention right away with its synopsis and get readers excited to dive into the story, hence the descriptor of "high interest" by the publishers of these titles.

Just because this book is directed towards a slightly younger audience doesn't mean that an adult won't find anything of remote interest between its pages. This novel also deals with the topics of bravery, new experiences, and most interestingly, an illness in the family/the death of a loved one. Nova's aunt Ivy has cystic fibrosis, which is why she lives vicariously through and encourages Nova's dancing, since Ivy wasn't able to become a professional ballerina herself. The deteriorating condition of her aunt's health is one of the things causing Nova to feel stressed about being so far away from home, despite her aunt and her father insisting that she not throw away this amazing opportunity to be in this program and to experience a whole new city during the summer.


Now we'll be needing to enter into a SPOILER ZONE for a portion of this review:

As much as I loved this story, there was one thing that really got under my skin once I had finished reading; the ending. Or, rather, the lack of an ending, or at least a clear and conclusive ending. The final chapter takes place at a hospital in Ontario (I only know that Nova and her family are from Ontario because I decided to look up a specific location in Nova's home town that is mentioned in the novel; the novel is a little vague in telling the reader much about where Nova is from), where Nova's aunt Ivy has contracted a pneumonia that is hitting her body rather hard because she has CF. While the brief conversation Nova has with a nurse leaves the reader feeling hopeful, that her aunt Ivy will recover and be able to hear all about Nova's dance classes in NYC and about her recent audition, but in the final pages we find Nova and her father sitting at Ivy's bedside, whispering to her that they love her every few minutes, and they are described as feeling "powerless." The novel concludes with Nova getting a call from Beth telling her that they both earned apprenticeships with Joffrey Ballet School for the upcoming season. Nova accepts the apprenticeship, determined to spend her life as a dancer, both for herself and her aunt.

And that's the end. No, seriously, that's the ending. When I first realised that I had reached the end of the novel, I felt immediately frustrated. This was for a few reasons: First, I had become emotionally invested in these characters throughout the book, and I of course wanted to know whether or not Ivy would be able to recover. This is probably a common complain about many books, where the reader wants more of the story to learn the fate of these characters, so this is a minor issue. Second, the conclusion just feels inconclusive overall; it doesn't feel like the novel should end there, not because it takes place during a sad and potentially tragic moment but because there are still loose ends, and this book's ending leaves those ends hanging and untied. If this book marked the beginning of a series and this ending was created for the purposes of a cliffhanger, then I would have less of a problem with it, but there's no sign of Nova in New York being the first book in a series, not to mention the entire novel certainly has the feel of a stand-alone book. If there had been one final chapter or an epilogue after Ivy had gotten out of the hospital (whether she had recovered or if she had passed away), the story would most likely feel more finished than it currently does.

Finally, there's a moment right before the final words on the final page that gave me pause. During the phone call where Beth is sharing the news that both she and Nova have earned the apprenticeships they auditioned for, Beth explains that Nova doesn't have to make up her mind about whether or not she wants to take the apprenticeship for another week, and that Issac, their instructor, didn't want Nova to worry about it right away, and that she should instead focus on her family. Nova only pauses for a brief moment while she reflects on what an incredible dancer her aunt would have been if not for her diagnosis, then she tells her friend to pass along her acceptance.

Maybe it's simply because Nova is a teenager, and she is distraught in this moment regarding her aunt (and possibly faced with grieving) and her brain isn't properly processing this new information, but it seemed wrong that she would immediately decide on her acceptance right in that moment. For a large portion of the novel, Nova is questioning whether or not she even wants to dance professionally, even though she got started with dancing and continues to dance primarily because her aunt Ivy is unable to dance. So then why would Nova immediately decide, "I will dance beneath the stage lights for her. This would be for both of us"? Perhaps if the reader had been given confirmation that Ivy had, in fact, just died in that hospital bed in front of Nova, or if the reader had been given the information that while she's still alive now, her death is certain and it's only a matter of waiting, then Nova might be put in a better place to make an uninformed and rash decision about her future. But why not give it a few days, or even the full week, to make that sort of big decision? As the reader is left uncertain about Ivy's fate, it can be extrapolated that Nova and her father are just as uncertain. This quick decision and internal declaration make it seem like her aunt has passed on and that Nova will dance in her memory from that moment on, but that is never confirmed as being the case.

Okay, SPOILERS OVER.

The versatility of this novel makes it easy for me to recommend Nova in New York to pretty much anybody, including parents with children in that 9-12 age range. It seems fitting that the first book I've read in 2019 is one that would be a great gift for that friend who doesn't read for pleasure and doesn't fully understand the joy that overcomes you every time you visit a bookstore or library. The story is easy to digest for the multi-tasking reader or the type of reader that sets a book down and takes a while before picking it up again, because there is no need to go back and re-read to be reminded of where they left off. This is a fantastic gateway read, so you should pick it up for yourself and then pass it on to a present or future bookworm 😁

That's all for this review! I hope all of you are keeping up with your 2019 reading goals so far, be they modest or massive. Let me know in the comments what you're currently reading, and of course if you have any recommendations for me I'd love to hear from you! Bye guys, I'll be sure to keep you posted!