While I found parts of this novel engrossing, descriptive, and beautifully written, for me, it was much too long. I think the book was trying to do too much all at once which led it to being scattered with no through-line. I believe the author’s intent was to bring the reader into the world of ballet, but descriptions of dance, performances, music, and practices felt repetitive. I really enjoyed that the story took a rare look into Russian ballet, but there was no anchor in the story that kept me interested in Natasha’s journey. Was this about Sasha and Natasha? Was it about the intensity of ballet? Was it about ballet dancers’ roles in Russian politics? It felt like a lot of individual components thrown together and they never came together in one seamless story. There were some gems— like when Natasha is sitting with Pavel and learning about her father. Or when she and Nina are reunited. But ultimately I wish this book had an editor to remove the parts that lagged, that were too repetitive and descriptive so that only the best parts of the novel were included.

I was a huge fan of Beasts of a Little Land, so I had to pick this book up. It seems that Juhea Kim is drawn to write about things very important to her - I know from following her on Instagram that she loves ballet. I happened to have been a dancer growing up, so I wasn't too upset by this dramatically different type of book. However, I think this book really is a love letter to ballet and an examination of the art and what it can do to its most successful. If you don't know anything about ballet, some things might confuse you, and you likely will lose interest. Not a lot happened here, and I did get a bit bored. It doesn't help that I didn't like the main character (though she wasn't written to be likeable, so that was likely intended). While I enjoyed this, I will not be recommending it quite as frequently or as fervently as I do Beasts.

Thank you to Ecco and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Juhea Kim’s debut novel was an epic tale of 20th century Korea. Her sophomore effort, “City of Night Birds,” a Reese’s Book Club pick for December, takes a fresh direction, focusing on the world of contemporary Russian ballet. When the novel opens, Natalia Leonova, a renowned celebrity who is instantly recognized by the flight attendant and the hotel manager, is returning to Saint Petersburg where we learn she was a famous ballerina. Although an accident derailed her career, and she has not danced in almost two years, “her feet still ache like an old woman’s. . . .” Despite her physical limitations and her various addictions, she is offered the opportunity to dance Giselle at the famed Mariinsky in the fall season.

Raised by a single mother who was a seamstress, Natalia’s talent as a “jumper” is recognized when she is child. Bruised by a father who abandoned the family when she was an infant, Natalia dreamed of “becoming so famous that the only way the ones I left behind could see my face would be in photographs, in newspapers.”

As she trains and considers a return to the stage, Natalia reflects back on the early years when she was one the two girls (along with her life-long friend, Nina Berezina) selected from among five hundred to attend Vaganova, one of the best and oldest ballet schools in Russia. Natalia is the first to arrive at the studio and the last to leave, driven by the desire to be the best and the need to move up quickly to afford food and practice clothes. Kim details the physical pain, the discipline, the disappointments, the triumphs, the pressure and the competitions that line the path to becoming a principal Bolshoi dancer and a Prima ballerina.

Kim, who trained in dance at a young age, writes lush prose that captures the details of competitive ballet — soaking feet in vodka to toughen the skin, the smell of sweat, crushed rosin, and damp wooden floors. Natalia’s story is rife with drama — various love affairs and rivalries and an accident that plunges her into addiction and crippling self-doubt. Thank you Ecco and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this novel that immerses the reader in the world of Russian ballet.

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim was a fascinating read and it kept my attention while reading it. It was well-written and the topic manner was definitely interesting. I found the characters to be a little lacking, though. I didn't find myself caring too much about them and once I finished reading it, I stopped thinking about them.

Natalia was one of the most celebrated dancers in the Russian ballet before an injury put her career on hold for two years. Now, she is returning to the ballet addicted to pills and alcohol to numb her pain. She’s been offered a roll she’s always coveted and she must decide whether she can rise to the challenge, and face her past and the people responsible for her highs and lows.

Why Kirsten likes it
I found the story to be interesting but I didn’t love any of the characters. I respected Natalia’s drive and talent but found her to be cold and distant. Similarly, the two men she is interwoven between felt one-dimensional. That technical side and mental resilience it takes to be a ballerina were wonderful to read, however.

This book is a really beautiful work of literary fiction, heavy on the literary — the character development takes over the majority of the book, but not in a bad way. Natalia (who we call Natasha; I will admit the Russian nomenclature system very much confused me) is a prima ballerina that we get to see grow from a timid teenage dancer to the most famous performer in St. Petersburg. I loved Natasha and though she had unlikable moments, I was constantly rooting for her. The timeline jumps were a bit jarring for me — I tend to prefer chapters that designate a shift in time rather than changing it up multiple times within the same chapter, but it made sense thematically. The descriptions of ballet were beautiful and I can imagine this book being turned into a stunning movie!

This was an absolutely luscious read. The way that Juhea wrote about every aspect of ballet swept me off my feet. I was so drawn into the story and this was a rare case where a story handled multiple timelines flawlessly. I never felt confused or jerked around when we jumped back and forth in time and each segment of the story captivated me. I was a little let down by the discussion of Crimea and Ukraine - basically “I’m a ballerina so I don’t think about politics and its annoying that it got in the way of my career.” Not a perfect book but I think Juhea Kim really found her footing as a writer because her prose was fabulous.

So well written - sharp dialogue, dimensional characters that all feel full of life and unique perspective. The attention to detail to the art form is commendable. It made learning about ballet enjoyable.

I still think about Kim’s novel Beasts of a Little Land even though I read it years ago, so I was surprised to see how different her newest work is from that one. While her prose was still gorgeous, I just didn’t feel as invested in this story or these characters. Perhaps because I’m not overly interested in ballet. I think this book will be a huge hit with readers who appreciate a behind the scenes look at the world of ballet. I loved the cover for Beasts of a Little Land and this cover is just as stunningly gorgeous!

Russian ballet is a favorite thing to read about, and those parts of this book were the most impressive for me. The second half got a little sacchrine and soapy for my taste, but I was flying through the pages! I recommend this for a fast read during the holiday season!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Juhea Kim, and Ecco for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

As someone who grew up dancing, I love any novel to do with dance, especially one spanning years of love and loss. City of Night Birds was a beautiful read about a beautiful art that was just as frustrating as the sport can be in parts. I really enjoyed reading about Russian ballet because I am not very familiar with the ins and outs. I know the broad aspects of the style, but I thought Kim did a fantastic job of really transporting readers to Russia and explaining their acclaimed style. I personally enjoy a novel spanning a large time frame, so I really loved getting to follow Natalia across the majority of her adolescence and young adult hood. It really helped me as a reader get to know her as a character and see how ballet drove her. My biggest complaint would be the structure of this book. It's told kind of in flashbacks between the present where she is returning from an injury and her past leading up to it, but there is not a consistent pattern of how the story is told. There are parts where she is also having hallucinatory dreams that left me confused whether Kim was writing things that were happening or explaining what her dreams were. I also kept thinking the events of this novel were happening much earlier than they did, as it reads very much as a history fiction rather than a contemporary novel. It was a bit long and dense at times, but I personally was invested in the story and characters to where this didn't bother me as much. I would say if you like ballet, complicated characters, and a historical fiction style of storytelling, City of Night Birds can be a beautiful if at times complicated read.

For the week I spent reading this, it felt like a gift to exist.

An exceptional book—one that I’m devastated I let myself finish. I truly could have read this, forever.

A revered ballerina returns to the country, and ballet academy, she started her career in, only to find that all of her ghosts have come along with her.

I found myself hooked from the first to the very last line. There is so much about love, art, and legacy within these pages. I especially appreciated how, because we spend many years with these characters, it feels like a life of my own has passed alongside of them. I knew them as well as myself, by the end.

Gorgeous, through and through.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco books for an advanced copy of City of Night Birds. Juhea Kin delivers a vivid description into the world of ballet and the trials and tribulations ballerinas sometimes face. A well written novel of Natalia Leonova, a once prima ballerina, her toxic relationships., and her dramatic return to the stage.

This is my first novel by Juhea Kim and look forward to future books.

I'm always on the lookout for a great ballet book. This one tells the story of Natalia Leonova, who we first meet when she returns to her native Saint Petersburg after an injury derailed her career as a ballerina in Europe. She's a mess, dependent on alcohol and painkillers to soothe both her body and her mind. Dmitri, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Ballet and someone she clearly has some sort of history with, offers her a chance to return to the stage as the lead in Giselle. As she weighs the prospect of a comeback, we follow her earlier life to see how she got where she is: the daughter of a single mother who worked as a seamstress for the Mariinsky, she was enchanted by her glimpses into that exclusive world and determined to do whatever it took to not just make it in but make it to the top. Along the way, she finds friends, enemies, lovers, and everything in between. Dance becomes her life...making it all too easy to understand why she's in the state she is at the beginning of the book, after it's been taken away from her. It's a slow starter, and I struggled to get hooked into it. In part, I think this was due to the marketing, which lead me to expect a much more straightforward "ballet book" sort of plot, full of backstage rivalries, love triangles, soaring highs and agonizing lows. And it's not that those elements aren't there, but the book isn't really about that. It's about a woman who is both sensitive and reserved becoming an artist, becoming a person, how she tries to balance the compromises made between one and the other, how the struggles change as she ages. Natalia is not always an especially likeable character, but her perspective is an interesting one and she feels fully realized, like an actual person instead of just an idea on the page. Once I started letting the book tell me the story it was trying to tell me instead of waiting for it to become the story I was expecting it to be, I appreciated it much more and read the entire back half in one go when I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night. It's a book that requires reflection to achieve its full effect. If you don't have some baseline familiarity with Russian culture, some things about it will be hard to understand (the way names change depending on levels of formality, for example), but nothing that would impede being able to follow the story. It made me want to pick up the book about the history of the Bolshoi that's been on my shelves for ages now, and make a point to go see a ballet performed in person sometime soon. I wound up very much enjoying this and would recommend it to readers who enjoy both ballet and character-centered stories!

Enchanting and absolutely mesmerizing.

Natalia Leonova - once the only child of a single mom barely making ends meet, now a world-famous prima ballerina - reluctantly returns to her native St. Petersburg in the overture of this stunning novel.

Covering Natalia‘s meteoric rise, potentially career-ending injury, and chance at redemption, „City of Night Birds“ delivers an all-encompassing and completely engrossing look at the career of a professional dancer. It is both a mesmerizing overview of one ballerina‘s life, an intimate portrayal of her private struggles, and a love letter to art itself.

Like any good piece of art, this book completely enveloped me. Due to the novel’s wide scope covering an entire life in ballet, and due to Natalia’s indisputable talent, we are not made privy to every detail concerning Natalia’s training, performances, or even career milestones; rather, we are treated to a bird’s eye view of an exceptionally talented artist’s life in ballet. At the same time, „City of Night Birds“ provides an up close and personal view into Natalia’s relationships and her inner life. Enchanting and mesmerizing!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

„City of Night Birds“ is slated to be released on November 26, 2024.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

City of Night Birds is about a woman born with a rare gift, who refines her art over the years, becoming a ballerina known and revered the world over. Yet her story is often an unhappy one, as she sacrifices nearly everything in pursuit of her art. At the end of her career she has a legacy, but at great personal cost. Still, she would change nothing, because it was all worth it.

Two years after a life changing accident, Natalie Leonova returns to the world of ballet in St. Petersburg. Using pills and alcohol to numb her memories of the past,
she now faces the individuals responsible

Anyone interested in the world of ballet and the cutthroat drama, would love this one. You learn lot about the environment and culture, which I found fascinating. While a slower paced read, there’s an underlying sense of doom that grows and grows. Dual time lines lended a hint of the past each time it went back, but at times I had a hard time remembering where in time I was.

“Indeed, art of any kind isn’t possible with out it’s creator believing that it’s truer than reality. That’s the difference between art and something merely beautiful.”

City of Night Birds comes out 11/26.

I do ballet recreationally and I’m always on the lookout for stellar ballet novels. In City of Night Birds, Juhea Kim shows what a talented writer and true balletomane she is. It’s clear that she’s a dancer with a deep knowledge of ballet history as well as a true love for this art. The novel follows a Russian ballerina, Natalia Leonova, from her youth as an unlikely student at the Vaganova Academy to one of the greatest prima ballerinas of her generation, dancing at the Bolshoi, the Mariinsky and finally as an Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. The settings in St. Petersburg and Paris are so lush and vivid, and Natalia’s complex relationships with her lovers, her family, her fellow dancers and most of all, herself, keep the novel moving forward. 4.5 out of 5 pointe shoes!

Thanks so much to Ecco and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy!

Release date: November 26, 2024 🗓️

More of my favorite ballet novels:
🩰Dances by Nicole Cuffy
🩰They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey
🩰The Crane’s Dance by Meg Howrey
🩰Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
🩰The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
🩰The Turnout by Megan Abbott
🩰The Still Point by Tammy Greenwood
🩰Maya & Natasha by Elyse Durham

I want to read more from Juhea Kim after this. I loved this book so much. The writing was so elegant and I loved her style. I found each character's creation and development was made with such care and I loved reading it.

Juhea Kim's sublime sophomore effort is pure artistry. The characters of Alexander and Dmitri pose an intriguing parallel to Nina and Lily from Darren Aronofsky's film "Black Swan" in terms of the ruthless ambition and friendships developed among dancers. This novel is a nearly perfect literary artifact: something to savor long after the final page has been turned.