Seen at Scott Reads It 
 Rating: 1.5 Stars 
 Dance of Shadows is one of the latest paranormal books on the market. There has been a lot of buzz and hype surrounding the book ever since the book's description hit the Internet. Since then the old description has been replaced with a less interesting and not so enticing blurb. 
 Dance of Shadows tries to be one of the most unique paranormal books out there. It introduces a plot line that involves the fine art of ballet, a missing sibling, and a creepy choreographer. The problem is that anything noteworthy is drowned out by generic paranormal aspects. We have a bland protagonist who isn't too special yet everyone practically worships the ground she wakes on even when she royally screws up. Vanessa seemed to lack any common sense at all and all she cared about was the "mysterious" stalker (Zep). 
 Vanessa has two guys fighting over her and I really had no idea why they liked her. The love triangle between Vanessa, Zep, and Justin was extremely irritating and cheesy. The second Vanessa meets Zep she's practically drooling over him and she's completely infatuated with him. "Vanessa felt silly for being so captivated by Zep's looks. She didn't even know him! And she didn't really care about a pretty face...But Zep was beautiful..." Insta-love strikes again! Zep wasn't interesting at all in my opinion, he was just your average "mysterious stalker" love interest. Justin was your typical YA jerk and I couldn't stand him. The characters in this book are just so average and plain! All of Vanessa's friends were so undeveloped that I don't even remember any of their names. One of Vanessa's friends is the most stereotypical gay male character I have ever read about and I think his character was overdone and extremely unrealistic. I have seen all of these characters done billions of times before and by now it's overkill. 
 It's kind of awkward but the main selling point of this book isn't in the final description. Demons are the only reason why I picked up this book and they come into play way too late. A majority of this book is Vanessa rehearsing The Firebird ballet and just obsessing over Zep. Barely anything seems to occur in this book for 70% of this book and it's not until the ending of the book that things start to get mildly interesting. I don't understand if the whole point of Vanessa going to the NY Ballet Academy was to find her sister, then why does she seem to put zero effort into finding her sister for weeks and weeks. Vanessa was a horrible sister and she only seemed to care about herself and her infatuation with Zep. 
 For a majority of the book Vanessa is trying to figure out what is going on at NYBA but the answer was so obvious. I knew what was going on at NYBA because it was so obvious and it's mind-boggling that it look Vanessa to figure out the "mystery". The answer was staring at Vanessa all long and that girl really needs to gain some common sense. When one of Vanessa's friends goes missing, she doesn't seem to think anything is wrong because of her Facebook page. "I think she's just in a bad place right now. I mean, she hasn't even updated her Facebook page since she left. She's probably going through a hard time." 
 Besides the fact that the sentence structure is extremely repetitive, I don't understand Vanessa's logic (nor do I want to). Dance of Shadows is extremely predictable and it's no wonder it was created by the people who made Lauren Kate's Fallen. 
 The ending of the book is the only redeeming quality of this book (it's why I rated this book 1.5 stars as opposed to 1 stars). I was extremely bored with Dance Of Shadows for almost entire novel. The ending was pretty predictable but it was the only part of the story that I could stomach. The final chapters were semi-interesting to read and were packed with action. The problem for me was that even though these chapters were the only interesting part of the book, I lacked the motivation to read more. I was so fed up with the major of the novel that I had to force myself to continue the last few chapters. The final chapters were pretty good but they came way too late for me to actually care. I know for sure that I'm not going to be reading the sequel because I don't want to cause myself anymore pain. 
 Dance of Shadows had such a fabulous premise but it fell extremely flat. The characters were ridiculous and undeveloped to the point where I felt like cringing. The romance and love triangle is so unbelievably badly written and cheesy. The only redeeming thing about this book is the ending but the action came way too late for me to actually give a damn. You couldn't pay me to read the next book!