Instructions for Dancing is a young adult magical realism/romance novel penned by Nicola Yoon and published in 2021. The protagonist, 17-year-old Evie Thomas, is mysteriously bestowed the power to predict the romantic fates of couples via visions she sees when they kiss. As a result of these visions and her parents’ recent divorce—due to her father’s affair—Evie has a jaded perspective when she meets her romantic interest, Xavier “X” Woods, in dance class. Though she tries to deny her attraction to X and his positive perspective, Evie finds herself falling for him. Navigating conflict-filled relationships with her father and his new fiancée, her best friends who start dating, her mother, and X, she learns that love is worth the risk, no matter if she gets hurt. Instructions for Dancing was a Printz Honor Book recipient and won a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award.

This guide is based on the Delacorte Press edition published in 2021.

Content Warning: Instructions for Dancing mentions child death (specifically, that of a teenage character).

Plot Summary

High school senior and romance fan Evie Thomas decides to stop reading novels about love. Ever since she witnessed her father kissing another woman in his office about six months ago, which caused her parents’ divorce, Evie no longer believes in true love. Though her mother Grace warns her not to, she packs up her romance novels and rides off on her bike to donate them.

Evie finds a Little Free Book Library, but when she puts her books in the case, a mysterious woman appears and asks why she’s getting rid of the well-loved books. Evie explains she isn’t interested in them anymore, but the woman insists she leave a book and take a book. Evie grabs Instructions for Dancing, the only other book, which details dance steps. She bikes away, but when she looks back, the woman has vanished.

After meeting the woman, Evie experiences visions of couples’ romances. She sees the beginning, middle, and end of these romances—starting with her sister Danica kissing her latest boyfriend. She knows Danica and her boyfriend will break up on the beach because she’ll catch him cheating. Danica confirms this about a week later, which concerns Evie and confirms her visions’ accuracy.

Evie vents about her visions to one of her closest friends, Martin, who believes her and develops theories about her new power. He asks her to test her power, and Evie looks around the school cafeteria, citing multiple couples’ journeys, which Martin confirms by asking couples how they met. He tells Evie to follow her only clue, the Instructions for Dancing book. The book has a sticker that reads it belongs to La Brea Dance Studio, so she heads there after school.

Fifi, the studio’s main instructor, mistakenly thinks Evie wants to dance, and the latter eventually agrees. Evie takes her first free bachata class with Fifi, which is more fun than expected. Fifi says she shows promise and should enter the amateur dance competition called LA Danceball in the spring. Evie thinks about it.

When Evie goes to grab her bike, she meets Xavier “X” Woods, whose grandparents own the dance studio. He’s caught riding her bike; he apologizes for borrowing it, and they have instant chemistry that Evie denies.

Evie decides to try dance classes and agrees to compete since she suspects it may break her vision curse. Fifi introduces Evie to her partner, X. Evie is shocked that the tall, attractive boy wants to dance too, but they fall into rhythm, learning bachata, salsa, tango, and more dances over the next few weeks. Fifi says they need chemistry, that they’re stiff, so she insists they spend time together outside of class.

Over multiple hangouts that Evie refuses to call dates, she and X develop a close bond. She slowly becomes vulnerable, talking about her relationship with her father and how she caught him cheating. X understands why she’s cautious and cynical about love. He reveals that he’s a musician in a band, hoping to earn stardom in LA, but his friend and bandmate, Clay, was killed by a car almost a year ago. Due to Clay’s death, X tells Evie that all time with loved ones matters. Evie considers his encouragement to work through her conflict with her father. She encourages him to finish high school, since he dropped out to follow his dream, and then become a rock star.

One day at school, Evie and Martin catch their two friends, Sophie and Cassidy, kissing. Due to her vision about them, Evie knows the relationship will ruin the four’s friendship, destroying their summer road trip before college. Evie avoids the girls until they confront her, and she admits she can’t pretend to be happy about them dating when they’ll eventually break up. Sophie and Cassidy want her to accept their love, but Evie can’t bring herself to tell them about her vision.

On their next date, X can’t believe Evie abandoned Sophie and Cassidy, but she can’t stand the pain. X insists that she should live in the now, so Evie meets with the girls and cites her parents’ divorce as her reasoning for her cynicism. Sophie and Cassidy embrace her again. Soon after, Evie’s father announces he’s going to marry Shirley, the woman he chose over her mother, Grace. Though Danica doesn’t know about the affair, Evie is still upset at their father. She refuses to go to his wedding, and continues to avoid his calls and texts. Evie’s mother starts dating a man named Bob, which frustrates Evie, since she knows all love ends and wonders why her mother is trying again.

Evie and X make progress at the studio, where Fifi sees they’ve developed a strong connection. The former still can’t relax when dancing the tango, can’t give herself to X like Fifi demands, because she’s scared of being hurt. Still, Evie and X dance their hearts out at the Danceball competition, which her family and friends attend. She finally lets herself be free and dances the tango with love for X. When the song ends, they confess their love for each other—but when they kiss, Evie has a vision. She sees their entire relationship: X dies in about 10 months, and Evie can’t cope with the loss. Evie runs out of the dance competition and breaks up with X over text; however, she can’t tell him about her vision.

Evie returns to the Little Free Book Library, where the mysterious woman appears and tells her that the visions weren’t meant to be a curse but a gift—that she didn’t give Evie the power to see heartache, but to see love. Evie races away crying.

After the mysterious woman’s explanation and encouragement from family and friends, Evie decides to attend her father’s wedding, which thrills him. At her father’s wedding, Evie witnesses the true love he shares with Shirley. She accepts that her parents’ ending was her father and Shirley’s beginning. She closes her eyes when they kiss to pretend they have forever, finally seeing that all that matters is the love people share in the moment.

Evie runs to X’s house to apologize. She explains that she was so afraid to lose him that she thought it’d be easier to avoid him. He finally accepts her apology and agrees to dance with her at the wedding reception. While they dance at her father’s wedding, Evie basks in knowing they still have months to go before X’s death, and that any time with her true love is worth pursuing.