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The Turnout cover art

The Turnout

Written by: Megan Abbott
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
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Publisher's Summary

Best Book of the Year

NPR • Wall Street Journal • Boston Globe • Library Journal • CrimeReads • LitReactor • Air Mail

Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott's exquisite and disquieting new novel, “dark and juicy and tinged with horror” (The New York Times Books Review), set against the hothouse of a family-run ballet studio.

With their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Growing up, they were homeschooled and trained by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents' death in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters began running the school together, along with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student.

Marie, warm and soft, teaches the younger students; Dara, with her precision, trains the older ones; and Charlie, sidelined from dancing after years of injuries, rules over the back office. Circling around one another, the three have perfected a dance, six days a week, that keeps the studio thriving. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker—a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration—an interloper arrives and threatens the sisters' delicate balance.

Taut and unnerving, The Turnout is Megan Abbott at the height of her game. With uncanny insight and hypnotic writing, it is a sharp and strange dissection of family ties and sexuality, femininity and power, and a tale that is both alarming and irresistible.

©2021 Megan Abbott (P)2021 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

A finalist for:

International Thriller Writers Award

Housatonic Book Award

Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

One of:

TIME’s 36 News Books You Need to Read This Summer

Entertainment Weekly’s Best Books of August

Washington Post’s Eight Thrillers and Mysteries to Read this Summer

The Boston Globe's Summer Reading 2021 Picks

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Great New Books to Read in August

Wall Street Journal’s 11 Books to Read: The Best Reviews of August

Oprah Daily’s 33 Best Thrillers That’ll Keep You Turning the Page

Vogue’s Best Books to Read This Summer

Real Simple’s Up-All-Night Thrillers

Harper’s Bazaar’s 46 Books You Need to Read in 2021

Refinery29’s 38 Books You’ll Want to Read This Summer

The A.V. Club’s Four Hard-Hitting Crime Novels to Get You Through the End of Summer

CNN's 20 Most Anticipated New Books to Read This August

New York Post’s 30 Best Books on Our Summer Reading List in 2021

Seattle Times’ Most Anticipated Books of 2021

Insider's 10 Best New Books to Read in August

Apartment Therapy’s Must-read Book of the Month

Adore Magazine’s New Releases to Enjoy this Season

Inside Hook’s 10 Books You Should Be Reading This August

Glitter Guide’s 8 Books To Add To Your Reading List This August

The Millions's Most Anticipated Books of 2021

"Abbott's novels are often described as crime fiction, and, while indeed she works with mystery and suspense and draws on noir and Gothic tropes, her goal seems less to construct intricate, double-crossing plot problems than to explore the dark side of femininity....In other words, Megan Abbott is a mood."The New York Times Book Review

“Abbott is a legend for good reason. No one combines the style of classic noir with the psyches of sophisticated men and women who are willing to do anything—anything—to succeed better than Abbott. Her latest is a dizzyingly fascinating story of a family-owned dance studio and the weight of unrequited ambition. An instant classic.”Washington Post

“Compelling…Abbott leaves her audience riveted with each twist and turn, leading to a dramatic denouement. It’s a fantastic work in every way.”–Manhattan Book Review

What listeners say about The Turnout

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Just so so.

I started listening to this audible a month or so ago and stopped halfway through from boredom. I picked it up again recently to finish it up. The ending was surprising, but it was too bad that it took so long to get to the good part.
The narration was slow and I had to speed it up just to get to a good pace.

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