Dancing on the Edge Themes

No family is without its own special brand of dysfunction, but in Dancing on the Edge, the McCloys are a strange group of characters with serious denial problems. They rewrite their family history,...

In Dancing on the Edge, Miracle's entire life is based on a lie. Rather than acknowledge the truth of Sissy's tragic death, her family instead raises her to believe that her birth really was a gran...

It's pretty normal for teens to ask a lot of questions about who they are, where they are going, and where they belong. What's definitely not normal, though, is for them to believe that they don't...

If there's one thing the McCloy family totally rocks at in Dancing on the Edge, it's rewriting history. Think about it: They basically reinvent the entire story of their past so that they don't hav...

You better believe religion is going to play a major role in a story where a teenage girl is basically enslaved to her grandma's black magic. We Shmoopers aren't here to criticize anyone's specific...

Dancing on the Edge might be a bleak story, but take comfort in the fact that it's ultimately a story about change. While accompanying Miracle on her journey is often disturbing, seeing her transf...

In Dancing on the Edge, dance isn't just a casual activity or a hobby for Miracle, it's what really brings meaning to her life. This meaning, though, changes throughout the book. At first, Miracle...

Denial: It ain't just a river in Egypt. It's a skill for avoiding the painful realities of life, and in Dancing on the Edge, the McCloy family is dangerously good at. These people exercise denial t...

Before you start expecting all kinds of mushy, romantic stuff from this theme, we should take a minute to say that Dancing on the Edge isn't about that kind of love. Instead, it focuses on the ways...