Ooookay. That was interesting? 
 It was another case of me thinking this book was one genre and really, it's a mix of two. Don't be fooled - This is a mystery, yes, but it's also paranormal and I don't even care if that's a spoiler because I think you need to be prepared for that twist. If I had know that, I may not have read it or it could have entirely changed my opinion of this book. 
 That aside.... Vanessa was okay, but naive (she is fifteen, afterall). I always hated Zep. Justin kind of weirded me out? I don't know. The plot threw me, I wasn't a fan of the characters... It really just didn't come together for me. 
 Full review originally posted on The Book Addict's Guide: I first started Dance of Shadows and it SO reminded me of Center Stage. Seriously still love that movie despite how cheesy it may have been, so I was constantly making comparisons to the movie and in a good way! Once we started to see the darker side of the book, it felt a little more like Black Swan (or how I imagine Black Swan would be considering I didn't see it) and I was still digging the first half of the book. I was confused on why so many people were giving it bad reviews. Then I started to turn. 
 Zep was my turning point. I did not like him the whole book. He always seemed really shady and once he started showing Vanessa a fair amount of attention, I was getting more and more annoyed. I just didn't trust him. My problem was, I didn't understand if I was supposed to or not. Was I supposed to trust Zep? We were already led to not trust Justin, but you know there's more of a story there. Anyway, when the focus turned away from Vanessa being independent and then started fawning all over Zep, I was totally turned off. 
 Before I started DANCE OF SHADOWS, I knew that there were many, many mixed reviews on this book. After reading it, I think I figured out why. I read the summary, said "Hm. That seems like it'd be interesting!" and had an idea of what I was getting myself into. I didn't. I was thinking mystery... thriller... suspense... and what happened in the end was quite a surprise. The twist at the end was just too much for me and I didn't like the direction the book headed after that. 
 I was disappointed in the twist, about halfway thought the characters just totally fell flat, and I just ended up pretty disappointed. If I wasn't so pleased and hopeful with the first half of the book, I might have given it a higher rating. I was also pretty disappointed that it's a trilogy. I think it could have been easily wrapped up in one book.