Nick is a math teacher with cerebral palsy who regularly lights up the stage during karaoke night at the local bar. Nick’s life is turned upside down when he meets Hayley; a passionate dancer who just moved into town. But Nick and Hayley’s friendship gets off to a rocky start when Hayley, after seeing Nick’s reaction to her dancing, tries to convince Nick to give dancing a try, only to be embarrassed when she discovers that Nick can only walk with the aid of a walker. Despite having a long-term dancer boyfriend, Hayley is determined to make things right with Nick and the pair eventually form a close friendship. The more time Hayley spends in Nick’s world, the more the boundaries between friends and lovers begin to blur.
How to Dance is an own voices, closed door romance novel featuring the love triangle and “friends to lovers” tropes. The writing reminded me of authors like Gale Foreman, John Green, Jesse Andrews, Jennifer Niven, David Levithan, and Kristina Forest; so, if you like any of these authors, you should definitely check out Jason B Dutton. How to Dance would also probably be a good fit for fans of own voices novels with disability representation like those written by Talia Hibbert, Chloe Liese, and Helen Hoang. Some themes and topics present in How to Dance include disability and accessibility, ableism and stereotypes, communication, self worth and self love, appearance versus reality, music and dance, overcoming fears, family roles, and mental health. A significant quote that I took away from this novel is, “dance with your heart” (both physically and metaphorically). I want to preface this review by saying that How to Dance ended up being fairly different from the spicy new adult romances and fast-paced fantasy novels that I usually read. With that in mind, I found the plot to be comparatively slow and thus, I personally didn’t end up finding the novel to be very engaging. I think that this novel may be better suited for fiction readers who enjoy unique stories and clean romances. I picked up this novel because I love dancing (I have been taking dance lessons all my life) and I was disappointed that there wasn’t a ton of actual dancing in the book; even though the female main character is a dancer, the book focuses more on metaphorical dancing (like the emotional connection between two partners). On the positive side, the book was unique in that I don’t often come across characters who have cerebral palsy; furthermore, I thought that the own voices disability representation in this novel was accurate and informative. My favourite character in this book was Nick’s toddler aged pseudo-niece Rosie because her impromptu singalongs with Uncle Nick were adorable and her character added some welcome playfulness to the plot. Lastly, even though there wasn’t as much dancing as I would have liked, I still appreciated that Dutton incorporated dancing and music into Nick and Hayley’s story, as again, I don’t tend to see that as often in novels. Even though How to Dance wasn’t my favourite, I would still recommend this debut novel to fans of own voices fiction and closed-door romances.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Go to Reviews from:
February 2024
|