“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.” ― David Mitchell
Rating: 9/10“My face is 50 shades of hot pink, which I’m not embarrassed to know is Emerson’s favorite color.” "Do I look like I have time to read a book as long as Oksana Chusovitina's career?" "Moving into an over-split as naturally as most normal humans breathe." "She's satring at the window, watching raindrops drop down. I used to pretend they were in a race when I was a kid." "If you have to do math, you might as well do it while ogling surfers." "History only repeats itself if people don't change." "I'm bananas proud of her." "I work on shoving my feelings down because avoidance beats actually dealing with real life, am I right?" | Yay for sports books! While I am not and have never been an elite gymnast, I loved getting an inside look into their world. And I might not know what it's like to train for 40 hours a week but Lauren Hopkins still made Amalia relatable to the average reader. Her anxieties, her social problems, her life was something every teenage girl goes through regardless of whether or not she's an Olympic-level athlete or not. Hopkins also didn't bring in all the old cliches about the sport either. There weren't eat disorder issues or sexual harassment complaints and for that I was grateful. Gymnastics doesn't need another poorly portrayed story. Overall, I thought the storyline was great! It hooked me from the start even if it did take a bit of time to get going. I also really love Jack as a supporting character for Amalia. It's so important there to have been someone non-gymnastics-involved in her life that he added a nice little break from that hectic world. Hoopkins did a great job explaining gymnastics terms and skills as well. I understand the elite system and even some of the skills and can't wait to learn more about that world! It's obviously Hopkins is knowledgable about the subject and other subjects too as she did a great job referencing things from all over the place to keep things interesting. Referencing things readers might know or have heard of just adds to the relatability factor that I enjoyed so much. If there's anything I would say about the story that could be improved, it might be the language. While I am certain this is how real teenagers talk, there were a bit too many likes and other slang for me. It was kind of distracting but overall it wasn't bad. Maybe just a few less in books two and three (which I am SO excited to read, by the way!). Each character has so much depth, that you begin to pull for their success. I almost cried when Ruby won the national title and even felt bad for bratty Emerson when she faltered during her beam routine. Great first novel from Hopkins! "Ruby squeals and claps. I projectile vomit." "The only D I chase is my difficulty score." "I wouldn't be me if I wasn't worried." |