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Dark Chronicles #1
The Dance
Is there something sinister about Madame Leona’s dance troupe?
When Melanie Clark’s best friend, Pauline, dies in a car crash, the police write it off as an accident, but Melanie isn’t so sure. Pauline was acting strange in the weeks before she died, and Melanie believes Pauline’s dance teacher, Madame Leona, may have had something to do with that.
In order to learn more about the mysterious hold Madame Leona has on her students, Melanie joins the teacher’s prestigious dance group. She’s determined to find out the truth behind Pauline’s death—no matter what it takes.
But as she becomes more involved, Melanie starts to forget why she joined in the first place, falling deeper and deeper under Madame Leona’s spell. Can Melanie escape the woman’s magnetic grip, or has she lost herself forever?
When Melanie Clark’s best friend, Pauline, dies in a car crash, the police write it off as an accident, but Melanie isn’t so sure. Pauline was acting strange in the weeks before she died, and Melanie believes Pauline’s dance teacher, Madame Leona, may have had something to do with that.
In order to learn more about the mysterious hold Madame Leona has on her students, Melanie joins the teacher’s prestigious dance group. She’s determined to find out the truth behind Pauline’s death—no matter what it takes.
But as she becomes more involved, Melanie starts to forget why she joined in the first place, falling deeper and deeper under Madame Leona’s spell. Can Melanie escape the woman’s magnetic grip, or has she lost herself forever?
229 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 3, 2024
A first edition paperback library copy that is still in pretty good condition may be the only physical book I can find for this Dark Chronicles trilogy by the late Barbara Steiner.
I lucked out on this one and find myself fortunate to have it in my collection now because the last two books may be Kindle purchases because there is no way I can not find out if they are all connected because this book was just amazing!
The prologue introduces us to Pauline McMasters, driving home from a nice visit with her grandmother for the weekend.
She needed time to get away and think about the direction her teenage life is going considering recent events. She has always wanted to be a dancer, a ballerina, but it seems that dealing with a woman named Leona Turva has Pauline thinking of what else she can do.
She plans to tell someone named Melanie the truth but Pauline never gets the chance. A weird fog like sulfur and incense fills up her car, the gas pedal and steering wheel of her vehicle take on a mind of their own and end in a car crash, an explosive fatality.
We then turn focus to a girl named Melanie Clark ad her boyfriend, Brian Dorsey. Yep the same Melanie that the late Pauline McMasters wanted to talk to about her trouble with the truth.
Mel and Paulie were best friends since forever, taking ballet classes since they were little together, and Mel was happy with Paulie getting accepted to Leona Turva's dance troupe even though she didn't.
That was until her friend started changing and then ended up dead.
Mel thinks that it has something to do with Madame Leona because it was the only reason, the only explanation, for the change. Her car was brand new and Paulie was a good driver but the police say her speed was almost ninety...maybe she was suicidal because there were no other cars involved.
Melanie has Bryan take her to the antique shop beside the ballet school because she knows that Madame Leona works there. Bryan is clearly very in love with Melanie and they have a warm, flirty relationship so he is only doing this for the girl he loves because she lost her best friend in the whole world.
The shop gives Bryan the creeps with the very old paintings, books, swords on the walls and incense burning dragon statues at the door. Mel pretends they are there to shop for a Christmas present for Bryan's mother when Madame Leona appears after another woman named Frau Voska, the dance master at Leona's school fetches her.
Leona doesn't recognize Melanie at first but then seems very interested in wanting her to join the troupe because she needs another dancer to fill an empty spot. The act of shopping has Madame Leona show them some very expensive, antique and ornate looking jewelry and Melanie recognizes a necklace.
Silver with a red center stone, gargoyles carved in the metal and the head of a panther minted on the back of the charm...it was Pauline's. One gifted to her by Madame Leona when she joined the troupe but now back in the other woman's possession before Pauline was even dead.
This makes Bryan nervous about Melanie being anywhere near the woman if she is indeed responsible for Pauline's death. Even if not, there is something Bryan does not like about the woman. Despite her real motive, Mel can't help but be excited to be given a chance to try out.
We learn that Mel's mother, Katherine, wanted to be a ballerina but gave that all up to get married and have a family. It sounds like a sweet story but now Katherine looks back at the whole thing as herself being young, naive and stupid when the marriage went sour and turned to either divorce or separation.
Katherine wants to live her dreams through Mel and thinks that her daughter shouldn't be spending so much time with Bryan.
At Mel's audition, or second tryout, she meets another girl back in the dressing room while getting ready. Her name is Hannah Brooks but only her mother and Madame Leona call her that...everyone else and her older brothers call her Hank.
The two of them get along instantly. Hank use to go to the same high school as Mel but started going to another school and her friend Laurie got her an audition to be a part of the troupe. Mel knows Laurie and another girl in the class named Jean but doesn't recognize the three other girls.
Melanie gets the spot in the troupe and is given the same medallion from the shop that was Paulie's as all the girls have one, Hank included, yet with different stones and animal craving on each. Mel pretends not to know Paulie so she can get some answers without being suspicious but she thinks Hank is great and wants to make sure that she is to be trusted.
Hank goes along with Mel, Bryan and their mutual friend Seth Rubens out to dinner after the tryout and sparks, witty ones, seem to fly between Hank and Seth. Bryan is not happy to see the necklace from the shop around Mel's neck and is a little distant on the ride to the restaurant for a bit.
They of course are a cozy couple again when they arrive at an Italian restaurant Hank says they should try. The four of them eat and have fun until a tiny slip on Mel's part has them reveal to Hank the theory about Paulie being murdered.
Hank is shocked at first but agrees to help Mel at the school while Bryan and Seth will try to find out anything they can on the outside about everyone at the school.
There is of course a lot of ballet dancing and descriptions of that throughout the book but we learn that the three other girls are named Anne, Nicol and Janelle in the troupe. Hank calls them the three witches like in Macbeth and they aren't very friendly at first until they invite all of the girls to a party at the apartment they share as a get to know each other sort of thing.
Mel breaks off an anniversary date with Bryan to go with Hank and he is clearly a little hurt when she explains that she will mostly be trying to find out anything about Paulie. Bryan, a good sport, says okay and goes to hang out with Seth.
The party is at a very expensive place called The Seaton Arms and it is all the high society party like in the movies with ritzy snacks that really don't constitute as food...a leaf is not a salad, you know what I mean?
Nicol suddenly seems to be interested in Mel and shows her around while Hank decides to do some looking around in the bathroom as her excuse. When the girls meet up as the party is already ending, Hank shows Mel a book she found that is huge, written in a foreign language and smells like something rotten eggs or is it...sulfur?
Still hungry (why wouldn't they be?) they call Seth's to get a hold of him and Bryan so they can talk about what they found out. Mel and her friends go the next day to see Mel's teacher before joining Madame Leona's troupe, Julie Pedigren.
The school use to be ran by a friend of Mel's mother Ilene Greenway but she sold the school to Leona and then left without a word is what Julie tells them and few other bits of information that seem to match information Seth has been able to get through his very connected uncle.
Surprisingly, Nicol calls Mel's house and talks to her mother while she is in the shower, getting ready to go out with Bryan. Katherine says that Nicol invited Mel to join her, Anne and Janelle for a shopping trip and pushes her daughter to go.
Seriously, she gives her the last bit of money she has to pay their heating bill and isn't too thrilled when Mel mentions Bryan's name...wow.
The "three witches" end up whisking Mel to a trip in New York City and hitting all the expensive Upper West Side stores. They all buy Melanie some high fashion clothing and convince her that she needs a man and not a boy like Bryan and well, that doesn't sound suspicious at all.
After that Sunday shopping trip, Mel starts to have strange and frightening dreams out of a medieval nightmare and when she takes off the medallion, it is like a person coming down from being on hard-core drugs. Hank is a witness to this when Mel calls her but once the chain goes back around her neck, Mel gets better but starts to blow off Bryan and even Hank in favor of Nicol.
Hank says she only wears her medallion around Madame Leona and Seth, extremely open-minded, has thousands of theories going through his head. All Bryan knows is that the girl he loves is becoming different before his eyes and that at any moment, Melanie is getting closer to what may be her last dance...
The dynamic between this group of friends is what drives the story for me. Mel and Hank as friends, Seth and Bryan's closeness, the way Hank and Seth hit it off, Bryan's love for Mel and how the boys get to be deserving heroes.
Most women today would say that it is really sexist and not romantic but Mel and Hank aren't exactly shrinking violets until the plot needs it. Even then, it doesn't stop them from being strong and positive female characters who can save themselves.
The reveals and the climax are nothing new to horror fans but it doesn't make it less thrilling or exciting in how it isn't your normal YA novel.
If you get a chance to find The Dance or need something full of thrills on a Suspiria or Devil's Advocate level, this book is for you and it is only just the first one...
I lucked out on this one and find myself fortunate to have it in my collection now because the last two books may be Kindle purchases because there is no way I can not find out if they are all connected because this book was just amazing!
The prologue introduces us to Pauline McMasters, driving home from a nice visit with her grandmother for the weekend.
She needed time to get away and think about the direction her teenage life is going considering recent events. She has always wanted to be a dancer, a ballerina, but it seems that dealing with a woman named Leona Turva has Pauline thinking of what else she can do.
She plans to tell someone named Melanie the truth but Pauline never gets the chance. A weird fog like sulfur and incense fills up her car, the gas pedal and steering wheel of her vehicle take on a mind of their own and end in a car crash, an explosive fatality.
We then turn focus to a girl named Melanie Clark ad her boyfriend, Brian Dorsey. Yep the same Melanie that the late Pauline McMasters wanted to talk to about her trouble with the truth.
Mel and Paulie were best friends since forever, taking ballet classes since they were little together, and Mel was happy with Paulie getting accepted to Leona Turva's dance troupe even though she didn't.
That was until her friend started changing and then ended up dead.
Mel thinks that it has something to do with Madame Leona because it was the only reason, the only explanation, for the change. Her car was brand new and Paulie was a good driver but the police say her speed was almost ninety...maybe she was suicidal because there were no other cars involved.
Melanie has Bryan take her to the antique shop beside the ballet school because she knows that Madame Leona works there. Bryan is clearly very in love with Melanie and they have a warm, flirty relationship so he is only doing this for the girl he loves because she lost her best friend in the whole world.
The shop gives Bryan the creeps with the very old paintings, books, swords on the walls and incense burning dragon statues at the door. Mel pretends they are there to shop for a Christmas present for Bryan's mother when Madame Leona appears after another woman named Frau Voska, the dance master at Leona's school fetches her.
Leona doesn't recognize Melanie at first but then seems very interested in wanting her to join the troupe because she needs another dancer to fill an empty spot. The act of shopping has Madame Leona show them some very expensive, antique and ornate looking jewelry and Melanie recognizes a necklace.
Silver with a red center stone, gargoyles carved in the metal and the head of a panther minted on the back of the charm...it was Pauline's. One gifted to her by Madame Leona when she joined the troupe but now back in the other woman's possession before Pauline was even dead.
This makes Bryan nervous about Melanie being anywhere near the woman if she is indeed responsible for Pauline's death. Even if not, there is something Bryan does not like about the woman. Despite her real motive, Mel can't help but be excited to be given a chance to try out.
We learn that Mel's mother, Katherine, wanted to be a ballerina but gave that all up to get married and have a family. It sounds like a sweet story but now Katherine looks back at the whole thing as herself being young, naive and stupid when the marriage went sour and turned to either divorce or separation.
Katherine wants to live her dreams through Mel and thinks that her daughter shouldn't be spending so much time with Bryan.
At Mel's audition, or second tryout, she meets another girl back in the dressing room while getting ready. Her name is Hannah Brooks but only her mother and Madame Leona call her that...everyone else and her older brothers call her Hank.
The two of them get along instantly. Hank use to go to the same high school as Mel but started going to another school and her friend Laurie got her an audition to be a part of the troupe. Mel knows Laurie and another girl in the class named Jean but doesn't recognize the three other girls.
Melanie gets the spot in the troupe and is given the same medallion from the shop that was Paulie's as all the girls have one, Hank included, yet with different stones and animal craving on each. Mel pretends not to know Paulie so she can get some answers without being suspicious but she thinks Hank is great and wants to make sure that she is to be trusted.
Hank goes along with Mel, Bryan and their mutual friend Seth Rubens out to dinner after the tryout and sparks, witty ones, seem to fly between Hank and Seth. Bryan is not happy to see the necklace from the shop around Mel's neck and is a little distant on the ride to the restaurant for a bit.
They of course are a cozy couple again when they arrive at an Italian restaurant Hank says they should try. The four of them eat and have fun until a tiny slip on Mel's part has them reveal to Hank the theory about Paulie being murdered.
Hank is shocked at first but agrees to help Mel at the school while Bryan and Seth will try to find out anything they can on the outside about everyone at the school.
There is of course a lot of ballet dancing and descriptions of that throughout the book but we learn that the three other girls are named Anne, Nicol and Janelle in the troupe. Hank calls them the three witches like in Macbeth and they aren't very friendly at first until they invite all of the girls to a party at the apartment they share as a get to know each other sort of thing.
Mel breaks off an anniversary date with Bryan to go with Hank and he is clearly a little hurt when she explains that she will mostly be trying to find out anything about Paulie. Bryan, a good sport, says okay and goes to hang out with Seth.
The party is at a very expensive place called The Seaton Arms and it is all the high society party like in the movies with ritzy snacks that really don't constitute as food...a leaf is not a salad, you know what I mean?
Nicol suddenly seems to be interested in Mel and shows her around while Hank decides to do some looking around in the bathroom as her excuse. When the girls meet up as the party is already ending, Hank shows Mel a book she found that is huge, written in a foreign language and smells like something rotten eggs or is it...sulfur?
Still hungry (why wouldn't they be?) they call Seth's to get a hold of him and Bryan so they can talk about what they found out. Mel and her friends go the next day to see Mel's teacher before joining Madame Leona's troupe, Julie Pedigren.
The school use to be ran by a friend of Mel's mother Ilene Greenway but she sold the school to Leona and then left without a word is what Julie tells them and few other bits of information that seem to match information Seth has been able to get through his very connected uncle.
Surprisingly, Nicol calls Mel's house and talks to her mother while she is in the shower, getting ready to go out with Bryan. Katherine says that Nicol invited Mel to join her, Anne and Janelle for a shopping trip and pushes her daughter to go.
Seriously, she gives her the last bit of money she has to pay their heating bill and isn't too thrilled when Mel mentions Bryan's name...wow.
The "three witches" end up whisking Mel to a trip in New York City and hitting all the expensive Upper West Side stores. They all buy Melanie some high fashion clothing and convince her that she needs a man and not a boy like Bryan and well, that doesn't sound suspicious at all.
After that Sunday shopping trip, Mel starts to have strange and frightening dreams out of a medieval nightmare and when she takes off the medallion, it is like a person coming down from being on hard-core drugs. Hank is a witness to this when Mel calls her but once the chain goes back around her neck, Mel gets better but starts to blow off Bryan and even Hank in favor of Nicol.
Hank says she only wears her medallion around Madame Leona and Seth, extremely open-minded, has thousands of theories going through his head. All Bryan knows is that the girl he loves is becoming different before his eyes and that at any moment, Melanie is getting closer to what may be her last dance...
The dynamic between this group of friends is what drives the story for me. Mel and Hank as friends, Seth and Bryan's closeness, the way Hank and Seth hit it off, Bryan's love for Mel and how the boys get to be deserving heroes.
Most women today would say that it is really sexist and not romantic but Mel and Hank aren't exactly shrinking violets until the plot needs it. Even then, it doesn't stop them from being strong and positive female characters who can save themselves.
The reveals and the climax are nothing new to horror fans but it doesn't make it less thrilling or exciting in how it isn't your normal YA novel.
If you get a chance to find The Dance or need something full of thrills on a Suspiria or Devil's Advocate level, this book is for you and it is only just the first one...
November 15, 2020
Melanie joins an elite ballet troupe to try to find out what happened to a friend who died under mysterious circumstances.
I really enjoyed this one! Our protagonist, Mel, was instantly likeable, and her boyfriend and friends were well fleshed out and believable too. Madame Leona, the leader of the dance troupe, was a wonderful antagonist, both alluring and dangerous, and Frau Voska (behind whose back the girls call Frau Vodka) was perfect as the crotchety sidekick. Without giving any spoilers, I liked where the story went and how it ended. Plenty of mystery and suspense with some horror and folklore/dark fairytale elements. And some Suspiria vibes too which is always a good thing!
I really enjoyed this one! Our protagonist, Mel, was instantly likeable, and her boyfriend and friends were well fleshed out and believable too. Madame Leona, the leader of the dance troupe, was a wonderful antagonist, both alluring and dangerous, and Frau Voska (behind whose back the girls call Frau Vodka) was perfect as the crotchety sidekick. Without giving any spoilers, I liked where the story went and how it ended. Plenty of mystery and suspense with some horror and folklore/dark fairytale elements. And some Suspiria vibes too which is always a good thing!
December 14, 2021
Okay so I am ashamed to say that I think I’ve only read one of my grandmas books before this. I picked up this series wanting something quick and fun, and it was both! I was pretty surprised with how much this reminded me of some classic horror books I read when I was young. I guess I’ll get into the rest of her books I have on the shelf!
January 13, 2020
I did enjoy this strange little tale.
April 10, 2016
Really, really dull. The book is mostly characters speculating or the main character being charmed by the dance teacher. There's no action in this book that I just want to skim through this book. However, I find the supernatural aspect to be interesting and wished it was played out more.
Skip this.
Skip this.
October 30, 2016
Just spooky enough for the big chicken that I am!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews