Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

BookBrowse Reviews The Turnout by Megan Abbott

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Turnout by Megan Abbott

The Turnout

by Megan Abbott
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Aug 3, 2021, 352 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2022, 368 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


A slow-burn thriller with neck-breaking twists and turns, Megan Abbott's The Turnout swirls complicated questions of family, loyalty and how far you would go to protect your own — or yourself.

"We grew up together," Dara finally repeated.
But Marie only looked at her and said quietly, "Did we? Grow up?"

The Turnout, Megan Abbott's tenth novel, swirls complicated questions of family, loyalty and how far you would go to protect your own — or yourself. Like so many of Abbott's stories, it also revolves around female-dominated spaces — as she describes it, "the misty pink hothouse of ballet" — and the feelings of impossible joy, rage, lust and wonder they generate. Focusing on twin sisters Dara and Marie Durant and the ballet school (Durant School of Dance) that they run with Dara's husband Charlie after inheriting it from their mother, The Turnout is a slow-burn thriller with neck-breaking twists and turns throughout.

With Abbott making the allusion herself several times, it's easy to see the Durant School and the lives the sisters lead at the beginning of the novel as Edenic. They grew up sheltered, homeschooled by their ballerina mother so that they could devote as much time as possible to shaping their bodies and minds into those of perfect dancers. It becomes readily apparent throughout the course of the book, however, that evil has always lurked under the leaves in the garden, even before a snake slithers into their midst. Abbott's descriptions of their falling-apart suburban town — with special attention paid to the Durants' childhood home — mirror the plot of a once tight-knit family coming apart at the seams. The strange and dark relationships between the twins, their parents and Charlie are finally flung into sharp focus when a mysterious accident occurs at the school and brings a newcomer into their world, forcing them to recall trauma and abuse throughout their shared childhoods. The Turnout showcases how the most beautiful things can hide the darkest ones within the shadows, and how, sometimes, we must go through horrific ordeals to reach the light.

As in Give Me Your Hand, Abbott's 2018 novel about the grueling world of scientific research through the eyes of two high-school friends forever bound by a shocking secret, every line of prose in The Turnout sings with the author's unique, poetic voice. One of my favorite lines is her description of the young male ballet dancers in the Durant School — she paints a picture of "…their chests like ship prows yet waists so dainty, like prim bows." The would-be rhyme of "prows" and "bows" is a microcosmic example highlighting Abbott's character, plot and world building skill: Whatever you expect her to write will give out on you like a snapping pointe shoe. I also loved a turn of phrase in Dara's memory of Marie and another character, as she remembers her "neck thick and ringed red, his hands on her shoulders, wringing them red." The "ring/wring" parallel here is simply beautiful. I don't know how Abbott's poetic writing translates to TV (she is also a television writer, and The Turnout is slated to become a television series) but her ability to turn language in on itself is a major factor in her novels becoming hits.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Turnout to those looking for their next page-turning, murderous thriller, fans of suburban gothic and dark themes, and anyone with even a passing interest in dance. This novel will make you strap your spiritual pointe shoes on — or maybe tuck them under the bed with the monsters you fear.

Reviewed by Maria Katsulos

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in October 2021, and has been updated for the June 2022 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  The Nutcracker

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Turnout, try these:

  • The Dance of the Dolls jacket

    The Dance of the Dolls

    by Lucy Ashe

    Published 2024

    About This book

    A novel about obsessive love featuring two ballet dancers—identical twin sisters Olivia and Clara Marionetta—with a terrifying climax set in the world of ballet in pre-war London.

  • I'm the Girl jacket

    I'm the Girl

    by Courtney Summers

    Published 2024

    About This book

    More by this author

    The next searing and groundbreaking queer young adult novel from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Courtney Summers.

We have 7 read-alikes for The Turnout, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Megan Abbott
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

The less we know, the longer our explanations.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.