Instructions for Dancing

 “Books don’t work their magic on me anymore. It used to be that if I was in a funk or in the barren hinterland between sad and mad, I could just pluck any random one from my favorites shelf and settle into my fuzzy pink chair for a good read. By chapter three—chapter four at the very latest—I’d be feeling better. These days, though, the books are nothing but letters arranged into correctly spelled words, arranged into grammatically correct sentences and well-structured paragraphs and thematically cohesive chapters. […] My favorite of all time is Cupcakes and Kisses. I pull it down from my shelf and flip through it, giving it one last shot to be magical.”

Instructions for Dancing’s first page opens with Evie voicing the change in her love of literature, which is also subversive since the novel itself is a romance novel. Evie is literally discussing her favorite romance novel, but is also the protagonist of such a novel. Her internal conflict about romance is also shown, which foreshadows later conflicts with her father and X.

“I wish I were as unaffected by the divorce as she and Danica are. I wish I could bake with them, carefree. I wish I could go back to being the girl who thought her parents, especially her dad, could do no wrong. To being the girl who hoped to have a love just like theirs when she grew up. I used to believe in happily-ever-afters because they had one. I want to go back and unknow all the things I know now. I can’t unknow that Dad cheated on Mom. I can’t unknow that he left us all for another woman. Mom misses the version of me that used to love those books. I miss her too.”

One of the novel’s conflicts, Evie’s drastic shift in character and belief system due to her father’s affair, is established at the end of the first chapter. Evie’s wish to go back in time shows self-awareness, and sets up major themes.

“He [X] raises a single eyebrow and I almost laugh. For a second, I feel like I’m a character in one of my old romance novels. Raising a single eyebrow is such a Classic Romance Guy Characteristic. I grab my bike and head out and tell myself I’m not in a romance novel.”

Evie’s instant attraction to X and framing of him as a romantic male lead show she’s not over her obsession with the romance genre. She denies and suppresses her feelings for X, which becomes a pattern, by stating she’s not in a romance novel, that she doesn’t believe in love anymore.