The moment I found out about The Turning Pointe I knew I had to read it. It takes place in Minneapolis on the very streets that I grew up on and includes the very same people that I grew up around. To say this book feels like being transported back to my childhood is an understatement. I’ve read many books that have settings in places that I’ve been to, but there is nothing quite like this book. Nothing that talks about the city of my heart in such a way. It’s an entirely different experience to read, as an adult, about the city you grew up in. Especially when it is set in the time that you fell in love with the city. (Okay, to be fair, I didn’t grow up in the 80s! But Minneapolis held this beautiful energy for many years later)

As the daughter of a tyrant ballet Master, Rosa is destined to be the star dancer of her studio but even though Rosa was born to dance, she’s not sure it was meant to be ballet. When her father announces auditions for a concert with Prince, Rosa is determined to succeed and show the world how she can dance free of her pointe shoes. When Nikki, a cross-dressing, funky boy, jumps into her life and shows her a life of dance away from the studio, Rosa is stuck at a crossroads of what she wants in her life.

Minneapolis is the city of my heart. I’ve been in love with Minneapolis since I realized how special it was as a child. To say that this book means the world to me is an understatement. Torres captures Minneapolis’s essence so beautifully that it was impossible for me to look away. Admittedly I didn’t grow up in the 1980s but that essence of Minneapolis lived on through my childhood. That energy, the love, the art, it was all alive and well as I fell in love with the city. It’s so clear to me that Torres loves the city too and I’m so honored that she wrote it so beautifully.

Though the city and setting are so important to me, even more important to me is Nikki. Our queer, cross-dressing, funky boy that works at a dance shop. He is unapologetically himself and he is all the more beautiful for knowing who he is. It’s stunning and impactful. He doesn’t explain who he is, he just is who he is. Minneapolis is one of the gayest cities in the US but it often gets overshadowed by New York or San Francisco so no one talks about it. The events that happen in this book, particularly at the Gay 90s (real bar, by the way! A mildly legendary one!) were happening in Minneapolis just like they were in San Francisco. They still do. It’s not something we talk about quite as much. Minneapolis, the beautiful city I grew up in, deserves this stunning book and more.

It’s impossible for me to not feel immersed in this story. It takes place in Minneapolis, the city of my heart, and is told by someone who so clearly loves the city as much as I do. The Turning Pointe captured my heart and has not let go. It is wonderful.