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Book Summary and Reviews of Various Positions by Martha Schabas

Various Positions by Martha Schabas

Various Positions

by Martha Schabas

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  • Published:
  • Feb 2012, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Trapped between the hormone-driven world of her friends and the discontent of her dysfunctional family, fourteen-year-old Georgia is only completely at ease when she's dancing. When she is accepted into Canada's preeminent ballet school, Georgia thinks it is the perfect escape. Artistic Director Roderick Allen singles her out as a star, subjecting her to increasingly intensive training, and Georgia obsesses about becoming the perfect, disciplined student. But as she spends more and more time with Roderick, it's not so clear exactly what their relationship means. Is he her teacher and mentor, or is there something more? These blurred lines will threaten both Roderick's future at the academy and Georgia's ambitions as a ballerina.

Ages 14+

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. A robust first-person narrative voice, multidimensional supporting characters, and a suspenseful plot add up to a strong debut." - Publishers Weekly

"Presenting a richly nuanced portrait of a young woman struggling to make meaning of the mixed messages and complexities of the world surrounding her, Various Positions is a cross between a modern day Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret? by Judy Blume and Jerzy Kosinski's Being There." - VOYA

"[A] read-in-one-gulp debut." - The Toronto Star

"A thought-provoking look at femininity and sex, made all the more confusing by that ultimate contact sport - ballet." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about Various Positions was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Martha Schabas

Martha Schabas trained in classical ballet as a child. She holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she received the David Higham Literary Award. She lives in Toronto, Canada. Various Positions is her first novel.

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