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Notes: I received an early uncorrected copy of this book and as such some changes may have been made prior to publication.

If there was one book that I would emphatically and enthusiastically implore anyone to read this year, it would be Livia J. Elliot’s Dance With Me. You’re probably already thinking ‘This review is going to be glowing�.

Well, get your shades on, because it’s about to go super nova.

But before I explain why this story is so thoroughly deserving of its five-star rating, let’s just talk a little about the themes and concepts within.

Dance With Me tells the story of Lyra, a ceramic ballerina brought to life by enchantment and follows her aesthetically beautiful but often repetitive daily life as she gently, tentatively explores the magical shelf on which she lives and meets the other magically infused denizens of this (and other) cupboards. All the while performing her primary function, which is to dance for those who created her. Through Lyra’s eyes, we explore the themes of self-purpose, fear, inner conflict, self-discovery and the processing of trauma, both physical and emotional.

The thing that impressed me most about this story is the incredible skill with which Livia J. Elliot’s writing is permeated with an almost physical emotional energy. Sometimes muted and restrained, sometimes wild and chaotic � this wasn’t just a book that I read, it was one that I could feel. Yet the emotional chord was always perfectly struck.

This is a story full of conflict, turmoil, pain � and somehow Elliot takes all these big, loud, noisy emotions and makes them soft, quiet and delicate, until the story itself becomes like a glass hammer. It is all at once sad and sorrowful, enraged and defiant, powerful and fragile.

Lyra, curious, naïve, forlorn, trapped in a cycle of dance, in her claustrophobic world, is a powerful representation of the characteristics that so many of us can relate to. The fear of imperfection, the weight of self-imposed expectation, the desperate need to be loved and the belief that we are utterly undeserving of it. Rarely have I come across an author who can approach these emotions with such control and temperance and yet make them feel so heart wrenchingly jagged and raw.

Now, here’s the biggest reason I implore people to pick up this story. There are some books that people want to read. I suspect, that for many, Dance With Me is a book they need to read. Because we all know a Lyra. Some of us have been a Lyra ourselves. And alongside the sad and sorrowful, this story has a sweetness and catharsis to it. As Lyra’s story progresses, and she comes to know the enchanted world around her, and more importantly, allow herself to become part of it, the sadness becomes slowly and gently diffused with hope and self-acceptance.

I know the author is running a Kickstarter with the aim of creating a special edition physical copy of this book, that I for one will be backing without hesitation. If you’re reading this review before the Kickstarter ends, and I’ve persuaded you to give Dance With Me a try, please consider becoming a backer. If you’re reading this after the Kickstarter, please pick up a copy.

Because honestly, this is one author who deserves to have people throwing fistfuls of money at them so they can go on creating work as intelligent, poignant and worthy of admiration as this.