The last time I watched The Nutcracker I was a little girl in love with everything ballet. Therefore, it was a bit of fun comparing the bits I remembered to Winterspell. Brought back some memories. It was definately a fair bit different to the original Nutcracker story. 
 I did have one small concern. With themes such as prostitution, drugs, sex and sexual themes it seemed a bit too adult for a Young Adult book. The themes were often subtle though which helped.