Instructions for Dancing Review
By Nic Daniels
Hello, audacious readers!
Summer is getting closer. While things around the country are certainly heating up, we’re here reading and expanding our personal libraries. Last month, we experienced the power of acceptance and reconciliation with Tales of the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This month, we’re discovering the power of love with Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon.
After Evie Thomas’ parents get a divorce and she discovers her father had an affair, she is convinced that love is fairytale she can no longer afford to believe in. As she gives up the last of her favorite romance books to the neighborhood library box, she meets a mysterious old lady who trades her a book and receives a new ability: whenever she sees a couple kiss for the first time, she sees the entire path of their relationship. The blissful beginning, comfortable middle, and the heartbreaking end.
Eager to get rid of the cursed power, Evie goes to the dance studio the book came from. There she gets roped into a ballroom competition as well as a new partner, X, a passionate musician. As her own love story unfolds, Evie constantly battles her feelings. After all the relationship visions she’s seen, she knows how this all ends, inevitably in heartbreak. Yet, as the story unfolds, she discovers that journey may be worth the end.
If I were to describe this book, I’d say that it’s a love story but not a lovey dovey story. There’s a lot of depth that a lot of people don’t really expect from a YA book, but I found myself relating to a lot when I was reading it.
It’s heartbreaking watching Evie distancing herself from her family as she mourns the loss of her former life. In one day, she lost her home and the family she once knew. Not to mention, she’s now seeing breakups everywhere she goes from strangers to best friends, which isn’t helping.
What makes the book better is how all this is juxtaposed against her relationship with X. In that aspect, the story hits more of the traditional romance beats. X helps Evie break out of her shell while she offers him a safe space for his hardships. They relate on music and strained familial relationships without it becoming toxic. In fact, their relationship is so sweet that I was devastated when I found out X was going to die.
Like Evie, I wondered what was even the point. Why be here? Why have these blissful moments with all the potential of a future just for it to be taken away?
But I think that’s the point. are humans really built to handle loss well. We want to hold on as long as possible, but no one gets out of love alive, even in the best of circumstances. Not only that, but there’s so much you lose if you close yourself off.
If Evie never fell in love with X, she may have never mended her relationship with her father. She would have never talked to her mother about the divorce. Maybe she would have learned about letting go or how to take chances, but it would have been a longer and harder road. Mostly, she would have lost the chance to meet someone who genuinely cares for her in a way she never experienced before. More than anything, I think this book is a reminder to be grateful for the love you have a chance to gain over the fear of losing it.
Annnnd that’s where I’m ending my emotional speech, or this review will go on for much longer. What did you think about Instructions for Dancing? Did you find it relatable? What’s the biggest lesson about love that you’ve learned in your life? Let me know all the thoughts and feelings below and don’t forget to join the book club IG live.
Until next time, don’t forget to read audaciously!
