| Gifted | NA retelling |
I went into the novel knowing it was retelling of a Slavic folk tale most known as the French ballet Giselle, and thus it is a tragic-romantic tale of a ballerina and a nobleman. Gisela has a fierce passion for dance, and the stage is the only place where her body and soul feel complete and free. I enjoyed the authors description of her feelings combined with her love for dance, which are full of magic and grace, and in our minds we can visualize her dancing in moments of pure sublime beauty, almost unaware to boundaries of space and time.
She is involved in a love triangle, one of my guilty-pleasure tropes, between a man who she considers only a friend, and a disguised nobleman that shows up to her village during the time of her preparation for her big dance performance.
Both men are presented in unique manner; one noble, handsome and futile, aspiring to learn about life outside his palace; and the other peasant poor and ignorant, who only attends to his needs and feelings. The characters deeply believe in legends of dragons and ghosts, which makes the story filled with these magical moments.
The drama unravels itself throughout the story, as the romance between the ballerina and the nobleman Vincent blooms in parallel to the envious peasant Hilarion. By trying to prove her talent to her family and people from the village it shows a good representation of the woman’s way of life in previous times; always destined only for family and nothing else. This ballerina tale is a beautiful and tragic retelling that brought me to a world of fantasy, love, magic and drama
You can check out more about the book and the author here.
tata.lifepages 