Audiobook Review: The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk

Author: Mariko Turk
Edition: audiobook
Narrator: Allison Hiroto
Publisher:  Little, Brown Young Readers (May 11, 2021)
Genre: YA Contemporary

Synopsis

My review of The Other Side of Perfect

I received a free digital ALC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

The Other Side of Perfect is a joyful and heartbreaking story about art, passion and loving something that might not love you back. It also features theatre (namely high school musical productions), friends and wholesome romance.

Trigger Warnings: racism, sexism, depression.

Ballet, Theatre and a Book You’ll Read in One Sitting

As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. I mean, ballet and theatre? That’s a book with my name written all over it! I relate so much to the yearning and ache of dance (even though I just do ballet for fun and started too late and am nowhere near good enough to make it a career.) My experience in theatre and the pain of having been unable to dance during the pandemic honestly made me relate to Alina a lot!

Describing dance is incredibly hard (there’s a reason why dance notation is often primarily visual instead of purely using words). So one of the biggest challenges in any story about dance is conveying how a movement feels in the character’s body. Mariko Turk masters this perfectly! I could feel Alina’s joy and pain and in the scenes when she is dancing I felt myself in her body, imagining every movement. Listening to the audiobook, it sometimes felt like I was dancing myself!

I flew through The Other Side of Perfect because I just had to know how the story would develop. Mariko Turk really takes you by the hand and guides you through this world of pain and beauty and friendship. As always, with the stories I love: I would have loved to stay longer. But I also have to agree that the ground that this book covers felt like the perfect amount of time to join Alina on her journey, even though I might be sad to let her go. If you are looking for a book to read in one go, this is it!

Grief, Loss and Racism

The Other Side of Perfect is also in many ways a story about grief and loss. Alina has lost her chance at becoming a professional ballerina, the one thing she has spent her life working towards. But as she gains some distance, she starts to realise all the ways in which ballet is less than perfect. So not only is she grieving her career, but she is also grieving the image of ballet that she had and loved. It’s heartbreaking to realise that something you love with all your soul does not love you back.

I was so glad that this story interrogates the issues of classical ballet, namely its systemic racism! It’s such an important issue and not talked about enough. It’s nuanced and complex, just like Alina’s feelings about it. It is one of the central elements of the story, but if you’re expecting a single, big “oh, ballet is really toxic and racist” scene, you won’t find it here.

Instead, we join Alina in reflecting and realising (and sometimes denying) her own experiences. From always being cast for the “Chinese Tea” dance in the Nutcracker because she’s Asian to never being afforded the same attention and opportunities as white dancers.

It’s a slow process for Alina to come to terms with her experiences and what that means for her love of ballet. Can you love something that’s broken? The answer that Alina finds is yes. Yes, you can love ballet. But you can also make it better.

Characters You’ll Love

I fell in love with Alina on page one. She felt real and complex and her anger and grief over losing her career were justified and not suddenly solved with the first cute boy she meets. I love books that let their female protagonists be angry and mean, too often girls and women are expected to be purely silent and dainty and polite.

Do you know the kind of fictional characters you want to be friends with? The Other Side of Perfect had a full cast of them! There is something magical about the musical friend group Mariko Turk created in this book and I’m sure you’ll love them as much as I did.

A particular favourite was Jude. I love male characters that defy the stereotypes of toxic masculinity! Jude is unapologetically soft and weird and not ashamed of liking the things he does. I really found myself rooting for him and Alina, which rarely happens to me with fictional romances!

I also felt that every single one of the side characters served a purpose in the story but wasn’t reduced to a narrative function. Seriously, this high school world of high school bullies and friends felt as real as it would if a friend told you about their life!

Allison Hiroto is wonderful at bringing out every characters unique voice, but she particularly brings Alina to life. Her narration made me feel all of Alina’s rage and jealousy and pain, what a fantastic performance! This is the reason why I love audiobooks, talented narrators add a whole other level to my reading experience and immersion in a story. So if you are even the tiniest bit of an audiobook person, I highly recommend you listen to The Other Side of Perfect!

Overall…

Overall, The Other Side of Perfect is the kind of book I need someone to give younger me whenever we invent time travel. It’s both an important discussion and exploration of the problematic parts of ballet and an ode to it. And even if you are not interested in ballet, it’s a bittersweet coming of age story with friendship, love and finding your place in the world.

It also made me miss dancing and theatre so so much. Reading about moments I’ve both experienced and dreamed about was heartbreaking and inspiring in the way only great art can be. The Other Side of Perfect has definitely earned its place among my favourites.

This book is for you if…

…you are a dance or theatre kid looking for a book that tells you “You are seen. I understand you.”
…you enjoy books with complex characters, including girls who get to be angry
…you are looking for a heartbreaking but ultimately sweet story of high school friend groups, musicals and art.

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You might also enjoy: My review of Radio Silence by Alice Oseman