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Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You
Through the braided narratives of three spirited characters, this novel bears witness to the infamous “American” crime that metastasized uber-civilized Montreal.
Everyone wants a Marin at her party. Bohemian and beautiful, this engineering student is as passionate about constructing sets for theater and opera as she is about Trey, the one man she can finally trust. Deirdre is a first year engineering major, earnest and perceptive, but too naïve to know that frat boys can be dangerous. Montreal columnist Jenean is feisty and urbane, a feminist who longs for peace between the sexes even as she ponders splitting from her live-in partner. In the face of startling and heartbreaking tragedy, we witness fierce love and bonding. This is not your everyday love story.
The Montreal Massacre is lodged in Canadian memory: on December 6, 1989, fourteen female engineering students were murdered in their classroom. Set in that tragic historical moment, on two college campuses fraught with gendered antagonisms, this novel follows the imagined lives of women as they happen headlong into the December 6 tragedy. Were In Cold Blood to marry The Poisonwood Bible, this novel would be their progeny: a story disarmingly accurate and bountifully probing that explores the profundity of deepest love and unimaginable loss.
Everyone wants a Marin at her party. Bohemian and beautiful, this engineering student is as passionate about constructing sets for theater and opera as she is about Trey, the one man she can finally trust. Deirdre is a first year engineering major, earnest and perceptive, but too naïve to know that frat boys can be dangerous. Montreal columnist Jenean is feisty and urbane, a feminist who longs for peace between the sexes even as she ponders splitting from her live-in partner. In the face of startling and heartbreaking tragedy, we witness fierce love and bonding. This is not your everyday love story.
The Montreal Massacre is lodged in Canadian memory: on December 6, 1989, fourteen female engineering students were murdered in their classroom. Set in that tragic historical moment, on two college campuses fraught with gendered antagonisms, this novel follows the imagined lives of women as they happen headlong into the December 6 tragedy. Were In Cold Blood to marry The Poisonwood Bible, this novel would be their progeny: a story disarmingly accurate and bountifully probing that explores the profundity of deepest love and unimaginable loss.
250 pages, Paperback
First published April 20, 2015
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115 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 30, 2015
Decker's telling of the harrowing story of 14 female engineering students murdered at École Polytechnique gives new meaning to the date December 6, 1989. A day which may bear no significance now marked as the day that shows social inequality--sexism and misogyny are alive today and not too far from home.
A rude awakening for Quebec and all of Canada showing that its people are not without struggle and its neighbor to the south is not the only nation rife with problems.
Decker illustrates fictionalized storylines backed by very real first-hand accounts. This story is not about the killer. This story is about those 14 women whose story was never told. I am grateful that Dancing In Red Shoes Will Kill You can teach both women and men like myself that the problem is not men, themselves, but a societal and systemic prejudice against women that still lives today.
A rude awakening for Quebec and all of Canada showing that its people are not without struggle and its neighbor to the south is not the only nation rife with problems.
Decker illustrates fictionalized storylines backed by very real first-hand accounts. This story is not about the killer. This story is about those 14 women whose story was never told. I am grateful that Dancing In Red Shoes Will Kill You can teach both women and men like myself that the problem is not men, themselves, but a societal and systemic prejudice against women that still lives today.
September 30, 2015
Dancing in Red Shoes is a compelling and important story. The historical events the novel is based on were illuminating to me. I was particularly shocked to learn about the push back to the "no means no" campaign, a concept which now feels pervasive and accepted. However, this perspective forced me to think about contemporary conceptions of rape and violence, e.g. debates over "yes means yes." Decker's feminist characters question the myth of achieved gender equality, and the narrative forces its readers to do the same. Why is there pushback? Debate? Defensiveness? Why, almost thirty years after the timeframe of this novel, is "feminist" still a dirty word? Decker gives loud voices and complex personalities to feminists, a perspective that rarely takes such strong and center stage in fiction.
July 30, 2015
I tore through this book - it is beautifully written and it is an important book for everyone to read. Drawn on extensive research, the book seeks to honor women who are killed by men simply for the sin of being a woman. There are characters who are unforgettable in this book and whole scenes that gripped my imagination. The book serves as a clarion call for society to wake up and act against misogyny in all its forms.
May 24, 2016
Half of this book was an absolute masterpiece, and the other half was a bit like reading Facebook comments summarizing Feminism 101. That being said, I think both halves were equally important. The masterpiece: Decker's incredible ability to humanize so many different women who were impacted by the Montreal Massacre in very different ways. Their stories and perspectives are an invaluable addition to the events of December 6, 1989 that are not explored often enough, and reading about these women's lives was equally beautiful and heartbreaking.
Personally, I was not a big fan of the second "half" of this book (not broken up chronologically, for clarification). Many segments dragged on a little too long about the major talking points of 90s-era white feminism. While I think this was a very important addition to the story for contextual reasons, I do wish Decker had spent a little more time taking the major talking points even further. Present-day feminists are more aware of the many problems of 90s white feminism, and it would have been really powerful if Decker had found a way to incorporate those critiques into her book. But again, these are just my personal thoughts. The main point of the book (to eulogize the victims of the Montreal Massacre) shines brightly enough, and I can't fault Decker for using the story as an opportunity to teach others about basic feminism.
Personally, I was not a big fan of the second "half" of this book (not broken up chronologically, for clarification). Many segments dragged on a little too long about the major talking points of 90s-era white feminism. While I think this was a very important addition to the story for contextual reasons, I do wish Decker had spent a little more time taking the major talking points even further. Present-day feminists are more aware of the many problems of 90s white feminism, and it would have been really powerful if Decker had found a way to incorporate those critiques into her book. But again, these are just my personal thoughts. The main point of the book (to eulogize the victims of the Montreal Massacre) shines brightly enough, and I can't fault Decker for using the story as an opportunity to teach others about basic feminism.
July 12, 2015
Donna Decker's DANCING IN RED SHOES WILL KILL YOU is a moving tribute to the fourteen female engineering students who were shot and killed in the 1989 Montreal Massacre. Decker's account is written as fiction, but it is meticulously researched and full of detail. The novel brings to life a time and place that many would rather forget as too painful, too monstrous. The second half of the book is especially powerful, as Decker shows the devastation that followed the shootings.
With carefully drawn characters, Decker imagines the possible lives and loves of these women -- what they hoped for, what they feared. In the process, she illustrates how misogyny can poison the lives of both men and women in ways that are sometimes subtle and sometimes catastrophic. Her book is an act of reverence and respect for the lives of the women who died on December 6, 1989. She ensures they will not be forgotten.
With carefully drawn characters, Decker imagines the possible lives and loves of these women -- what they hoped for, what they feared. In the process, she illustrates how misogyny can poison the lives of both men and women in ways that are sometimes subtle and sometimes catastrophic. Her book is an act of reverence and respect for the lives of the women who died on December 6, 1989. She ensures they will not be forgotten.
April 25, 2017
Records the 1989 massacre of women engineering students who were murdered simply because of their sex. The first book since Marley and Me that I had to simply put down multiple times because of how much it made me hurt for the world and society that I live in.
I picked this book up in Montreal in November and suggest it to anyone who wants to gain some insight into the violence that can stem from heteronormative masculinity being questioned. A reminder of how far women have progressed in equality while still reminding readers that this is not all in our past.
I picked this book up in Montreal in November and suggest it to anyone who wants to gain some insight into the violence that can stem from heteronormative masculinity being questioned. A reminder of how far women have progressed in equality while still reminding readers that this is not all in our past.
January 23, 2017
A fictional retelling of the murders of female engineering students in Canada in the late 1980s. Women were targeted and gunned down precisely because they were female, in a discipline that had been traditionally male dominated. Decker created characters who could have been those women, and their friends and family in order to tell the story and give it a relatable face. Disturbing, touching, and shocking in the anti-female attitudes of the killer and others.
September 2, 2018
Almost 30 years later, and the attitudes, anger, and violence described in the book remains. I wish it felt like I was reading historical fiction. It didn't. It felt like current events. Emotional and political, Dancing in Red Shoes is an important read.
April 21, 2023
People who are/were shocked by the Montreal Massacre don’t know women’s history. Men have been killing us for centuries. Simply because we’re women. They kill each other too, but in that case, it’s mostly because of their target’s sexual orientation, tribal affiliation, or skin color. They kill us because of our sex.
Is it more horrible because of that? Perhaps not. Yes, 51% of the world’s people are female, whereas only 10% are homosexual, but the target group based on tribal affiliations might be larger than 51% (especially when nations go after each other), and target groups based on skin color are most certainly larger than that (assuming it’s ‘white’ people killing non-‘white’ people).
Perhaps the horror is that we have been, willingly for the most part, sleeping with the enemy. For centuries.
Donna Decker’s Dancing in Red Shoes Can Kill You is a must-read. Especially for those too young to have been aware of the Montreal Massacre in 1989.
“There were men … who hated the idea of women’s equality so much, they were willing to kill in cold blood. In Canada.” (p213)
To be clear, whether we’re engineers or prostitutes, whether we’re under ten or over sixty, whether we’re heterosexual or lesbian, whether we’re white or black, whether we’re feminist or not—none of that matters. All that matters is that we’re female. (Which in itself should make us all feminist.) If ever there was a call to arms—
(And yet, before you pick up that gun—yes, even the one that’s fallen onto the floor out of the man’s hand—know that at least when ‘partners’ are involved, women who kill men spend an average of fifteen years in prison, whereas men who kill women spend about four years in prison.)
“She had [simply] written down [in her column] everything the guy in the coffee shop had said that morning … how he was furious with his feminist girlfriend and all feminists. She had embellished nothing. But they had refused to publish it.” (p321) They had called it anti-male. Note that. Pay attention to that. Simply exposing male hatred of women is anti-male. How do you figure that? Speaking the truth about men is anti-male? That means that reality is anti-male. Hm. What are you going to do with that?
And men? If this book doesn’t make you sick, and then determined to fix your brothers, you should, like Marc Lepine, put a bullet in your own head. (Thank you.)
Is it more horrible because of that? Perhaps not. Yes, 51% of the world’s people are female, whereas only 10% are homosexual, but the target group based on tribal affiliations might be larger than 51% (especially when nations go after each other), and target groups based on skin color are most certainly larger than that (assuming it’s ‘white’ people killing non-‘white’ people).
Perhaps the horror is that we have been, willingly for the most part, sleeping with the enemy. For centuries.
Donna Decker’s Dancing in Red Shoes Can Kill You is a must-read. Especially for those too young to have been aware of the Montreal Massacre in 1989.
“There were men … who hated the idea of women’s equality so much, they were willing to kill in cold blood. In Canada.” (p213)
To be clear, whether we’re engineers or prostitutes, whether we’re under ten or over sixty, whether we’re heterosexual or lesbian, whether we’re white or black, whether we’re feminist or not—none of that matters. All that matters is that we’re female. (Which in itself should make us all feminist.) If ever there was a call to arms—
(And yet, before you pick up that gun—yes, even the one that’s fallen onto the floor out of the man’s hand—know that at least when ‘partners’ are involved, women who kill men spend an average of fifteen years in prison, whereas men who kill women spend about four years in prison.)
“She had [simply] written down [in her column] everything the guy in the coffee shop had said that morning … how he was furious with his feminist girlfriend and all feminists. She had embellished nothing. But they had refused to publish it.” (p321) They had called it anti-male. Note that. Pay attention to that. Simply exposing male hatred of women is anti-male. How do you figure that? Speaking the truth about men is anti-male? That means that reality is anti-male. Hm. What are you going to do with that?
And men? If this book doesn’t make you sick, and then determined to fix your brothers, you should, like Marc Lepine, put a bullet in your own head. (Thank you.)
July 27, 2022
Trigger Warning – Campus shooting, Rape
Meet Marin, Deirdre, and Jenean, three different women, in three different places, all effected by the state of the world by which they are surrounded. The year is 1989 in Canada, and men do not like women moving in on their jobs and women wanting to be equal to men. We follow these women’s lives in univerity and at work up until December 6, 1989 when the Montreal Massacre occurs, resulting in their lives being forever changed.
The Montreal Massacre is real. On December 6, 1989, a lone gunmen went to a univerity and killed 14 women because he hated feminists, before he killed himself. I thought this book was going to be a historical fiction book around the lives of these three women and the aftermath of the massacre. And it was to an extent. I thought the focus would be the massacre and the aftermath, but the first half of this book really hones in on the atmosphere of the time, the feminist movement, and how men reacted to this movement. Personally, I thought there was too much of “before” for me.
The second half of the book was absolutely gut wrenching. While the girls were fictional, the event wasn’t. The author lets us know afterward that she spoke with family members of those that were murdered, and I could just imagine the pain and sadness they felt. On top of that, there were still men who didn’t get it. One of the things I think the author handled beautifully was that she had a male reporter write an article standing with the women, and everything that was written in this article was heartwarming in a way. It shows women that some men are on their side.
There was a bunch of comments made within the novel about it being a time of mourning and not a time to talk about why the massacre happened. I don’t know if this REALLY happened or not, but it certainly happens today. This book was written in 2015, after some very deadly massacres in the U.S., and even today, in 2022, after a massacre, people scream “This isn’t the time to talk about…” insert topic.
While the book was a bit boring for me in the beginning, I overall thought it was a good book.
Meet Marin, Deirdre, and Jenean, three different women, in three different places, all effected by the state of the world by which they are surrounded. The year is 1989 in Canada, and men do not like women moving in on their jobs and women wanting to be equal to men. We follow these women’s lives in univerity and at work up until December 6, 1989 when the Montreal Massacre occurs, resulting in their lives being forever changed.
The Montreal Massacre is real. On December 6, 1989, a lone gunmen went to a univerity and killed 14 women because he hated feminists, before he killed himself. I thought this book was going to be a historical fiction book around the lives of these three women and the aftermath of the massacre. And it was to an extent. I thought the focus would be the massacre and the aftermath, but the first half of this book really hones in on the atmosphere of the time, the feminist movement, and how men reacted to this movement. Personally, I thought there was too much of “before” for me.
The second half of the book was absolutely gut wrenching. While the girls were fictional, the event wasn’t. The author lets us know afterward that she spoke with family members of those that were murdered, and I could just imagine the pain and sadness they felt. On top of that, there were still men who didn’t get it. One of the things I think the author handled beautifully was that she had a male reporter write an article standing with the women, and everything that was written in this article was heartwarming in a way. It shows women that some men are on their side.
There was a bunch of comments made within the novel about it being a time of mourning and not a time to talk about why the massacre happened. I don’t know if this REALLY happened or not, but it certainly happens today. This book was written in 2015, after some very deadly massacres in the U.S., and even today, in 2022, after a massacre, people scream “This isn’t the time to talk about…” insert topic.
While the book was a bit boring for me in the beginning, I overall thought it was a good book.
August 4, 2021
This book takes a real world tragedy and exploits the memories of several people murdered unjustly to force their lives through the author's attempted messages about misogyny, dissolving any other aspect or struggle to reduce the characters merely to women in a world out to get them, and ignoring every other aspect of their being and of the oppression they face. It's clear to me that the author wants to hone in on the aspects of oppression she faces as a white woman while ignoring anything other women may face. It's a hamfisted narrative and while the ideas behind it are not necessarily wrong they are poorly executed and read as a second wave feminist manifesto, outdated even by the standards of 2015.
Also shocking to me is the inclusion of an entirely poorly done rape fantasy, sprung seemingly from the author's own mind, which is handled with the grace and elegance of a rhino.
Don't read this book, the feminist messages here have all been said before with more detail and understanding from better authors, and the tragedy from which this story springs has been covered as well by better authors. If you enjoy wasting your time or this is your first exposure to any feminist ideology, I'm sure you'll love it.
Also shocking to me is the inclusion of an entirely poorly done rape fantasy, sprung seemingly from the author's own mind, which is handled with the grace and elegance of a rhino.
Don't read this book, the feminist messages here have all been said before with more detail and understanding from better authors, and the tragedy from which this story springs has been covered as well by better authors. If you enjoy wasting your time or this is your first exposure to any feminist ideology, I'm sure you'll love it.
March 14, 2023
This book will stay with me forever. As tough as the subject matter is (this is a novel based upon the victims of the Montreal Massacre in 1989. It is incredibly well written and serves to shed light on the people who deserve that light: the victims and their families, rather than on the murderer. It is an important work and is sadly very relevant today.
July 28, 2019
Never realized that this happened ten years before Columbine. It is a fictional account but certainly brings to light the issues that early feminists had to deal with!
November 6, 2020
Infuriating, heart-breaking story of Montreal Massacre's senseless violence with so many promising lives lost. Compelling and well-written.
June 28, 2015
I read this for the #paperbacksummer challenge.
To an American woman who's grown up imagining Canada (and especially Montreal) as some sort of egalitarian utopia, the story of the Montreal Massacre is shocking and sobering. (In 1989, a man opened fire in an Ecole Polytechnique building, claiming to "hate all feminists" and murdering nine engineering students because they were women.) Decker does a good job of humanizing the victims, and making the connection between misogyny and violence against women. (It would be thought-provoking reading for incoming college students.) On the other hand, the fact that it's a novel can be very confusing, since it's hard for a U.S. reader to know what's fictionalized and what's not (especially given the believable voice Decker has). This is incredibly harrowing and heartrending reading.
To an American woman who's grown up imagining Canada (and especially Montreal) as some sort of egalitarian utopia, the story of the Montreal Massacre is shocking and sobering. (In 1989, a man opened fire in an Ecole Polytechnique building, claiming to "hate all feminists" and murdering nine engineering students because they were women.) Decker does a good job of humanizing the victims, and making the connection between misogyny and violence against women. (It would be thought-provoking reading for incoming college students.) On the other hand, the fact that it's a novel can be very confusing, since it's hard for a U.S. reader to know what's fictionalized and what's not (especially given the believable voice Decker has). This is incredibly harrowing and heartrending reading.
August 24, 2015
I still don't understand why it's titled the way it is--maybe the point is that the killer chose his victims arbitrarily, based solely on being women? I never knew about this massacre so I was glad to learn about it through Decker's stories. It's a really sad read, this one.
January 23, 2017
I liked it in general but with some parts I was getting angry and felt like giving up on the book. I felt like it was sometimes one-sided, generalising and even bit naive. But the overall story was well written, provoking, deeply sad and haunting so I would still recommend it to anyone.
August 24, 2016
Well written feminist perspective on the 1989 Montreal Massacre.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews