We’re dancing into fall with a major craving for unsettling stories. Choreographing a TBR that can send chills down your spine is an art, and Catherine Yu’s new young adult thriller is exactly what we’ve been looking for. A cutthroat boarding school setting is home to a mystery that puts everyone involved in danger in The Devil’s in the Dancers.
Getting into Harvard is Mars Chang’s ultimate goal. And it seems like achieving her dreams is all about knowing the right people. As a scholarship student at the Allegra Academy summer intensive, Mars knows that befriending Alex Bechler, daughter of the big pharma family that owns and runs the intensive, is a step toward achieving her goals. Luckily, they’re roommates. The plan is to befriend Alex, get the lead role in the summer recital, and leverage it all into a Harvard acceptance letter.
It’s simple. Until the headmistress of Allegra Academy offers Mars admission to the school if she swaps Alex’s supplements with a new Bechler product, but Alex isn’t exactly the Bechler golden child—and she doesn’t even love ballet. Knowing that Alex doesn’t need the competitive edge the product will give her, Mars decides to give it to another student. At first, the girl thrives, but things quickly take a turn for the worse, and Mars is left to deal with the side effects of her choices and the danger they might pose to her roommate and her own future.
We went behind the scenes of this Black Swan meets Heathers dance drama with Catherine Yu. Check out our full interview below.
Showstopper Magazine Online: What inspired The Devil’s in the Dancers?
Catherine Yu: I wanted there to be some realism in depicting the more grueling side of dance, but take that up a notch or two, given the genre, which definitely skews darker! Suspiria in particular guided this one, especially in regard to the social horror elements.
SMO: What’s your relationship with dance?
Catherine: I grew up doing ballet! Getting my pointe shoes around 12 felt like a wonderful milestone. I’ll honestly never forget the feeling (or the calluses). I can safely say that my personal experience with ballet is very different from the events that unfold at Allegra Academy though, haha.
SMO: Protagonists in ballet books are often dedicated dancers. What made you decide to write Mars as a character with a more complicated relationship with dance?
Catherine: I think, given the dark mysteries that circle Allegra Academy, it makes the most sense for Mars to have a more complicated relationship to dance. Otherwise, she might have not been able to see the harrowing situation for what it was.
SMO: On Instagram, you shared that Sailor Mars was part of your inspiration for Mars Chang. We have to know more about this!
Catherine: I loved the idea of a really fiery ballerina! I grew up watching a lot of anime, including Sailor Moon, and was particularly interested in the way Sailor Mars butted heads with Sailor Moon. My character, Marianne Chang, has something of a hot temper, too, but she veils it a lot more. Like Sailor Mars, she’s loyal to her friends and ambitious with her goals.
SMO: The Devil’s in the Dancers is described as Heathers meets Black Swan, and you’ve compared it to Mean Girls and Suspiria as well. Can you explore these comparisons?
Catherine: Social cliques show up pretty prominently in coming-of-age movies like Heathers and Mean Girls. That’s definitely the case with this book, except here I’m swapping gym class and homecoming for practice rooms and recitals. Black Swan and Suspiria both explore the darker side of ballet stories, so I thought they were really fitting comps for The Devil’s in the Dancers as well.
SMO: What made you choose the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice for Bechler Academy’s summer recital?
Catherine: The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is famously a tragedy, so I was interested in leveraging that within this story to create a fairly different effect!
SMO: Do you have a favorite dancer at Allegra Academy?
Catherine: Team Hannah. Her straightforward approach and dedication to ballet is a very admirable trait to me. If she was in a very different kind of ballet book, I think she’d really thrive.
SMO: No spoilers, but what were your goals for the twist at the end of the book?
Catherine: I hope that it’s both shocking and rewarding for readers. 🙂
SMO: How do you think The Devil’s in the Dancers follows your previous work?
Catherine: A common thread between all of my works is messy girls navigating messy worlds, and the theme of toxic perfectionism tends to show up, whether that’s in a spooky vampire church, or a futuristic lab, or a very strange ballet academy. This one is definitely the most contemporary of the bunch, though!
SMO: The Devil’s in the Dancers is all about choices, balancing personal goals with selfless acts. What do you hope readers take from this book as we dance into back-to-school season?
Catherine: Like any sport or art, dance can be extremely competitive. I think enjoying the process of working towards certain goals—whether that’s getting on pointe for the first time, getting a better role in an upcoming performance, or just showing up, time and time again—can be satisfying in itself, regardless of what the outcome is. I think it’s so helpful to find supportive peers and be one to others; it makes navigating various challenges much easier if you can lean on each other. The memories you make with dance friends can truly last a lifetime.
