Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Piruetas

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Piruetas by Tillie Walden

81 reviews

juliethere's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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dacha's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

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books_and_fairy_lights's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.25

Amazing, as always with Tillie Walden. The art is gorgeous and the story is really nice. It feels relatable even though it's nowhere close to what you might have experienced. It leaves you feeling a kind of sad but soft melancholy for the past, with hope that the future might be bright. It's about the struggle of finding and accepting yourself, having to exist under the gaze of others and trying not to drown, acknowledging the little things that make everything else more bearable. Maybe if we keep putting one foot after the other, day by day, we'll reach peace eventually.

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

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emmi_lee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

3.5

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rachel_here's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

4.0

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mariacandet's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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knkoch's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

I was surprised by this darker and often grim graphic memoir. My library copy indicates it’s aimed at a teen audience, and with its bright pastel cover, I was not expecting what it held. I’d describe this more as a memoir from the author’s teen years (12-17) and their struggle with mental health, coming of age, and trauma as it coincided with their competitive skating career. It’s not light at all, though it’s not as if teen-level books should avoid grappling with very serious topics.

It was beautifully illustrated and written, just very sad. It reminded me of The Discomfort of Evening in the family dynamics and parental treatment of a rather unloved child. I was a little dismayed not to see some sort of epilogue; I guess I was just hoping the author was doing better now, or had found help in dealing with what she went through. I know that’s not required, but she’d done such a good job with getting me to care deeply about herself as the protagonist in this narrative that I wanted that.

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wonderlandbooks's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.5

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thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

2.5

it's always weird giving a rating to someone's life story, and tillie walden's in spinning is no exception.

w/ the summary talking abt figure skating and coming out, i was quite excited to read this, and the end product is by no means bad, but simply different, more melancholic, toned down, and reflective than i thought.

the book offers an insider look into the world of competitive figure skating, w/ the dynamics, unspoken rules, tense and oft toxic environment that nevertheless contains a sense of camaraderie. it's also interesting to see how skating intersects w/ other aspects of walden's life and inner identity. the art, while simple, gets the story across and i like the use of orange in certain important scenes/panels, though w/ a story that contains a lot of physical movement such as this, it can look a lil stiff.

as mentioned in the author's note, this graphic novel examines how walden's life outside of skating affects her sport. my issue - and thus rating - is perhaps said happenings are not too interesting, as the author's life is one of monotony and routine, thus rendering the narrative dull at times, w/ the same things looping repeatedly. this is compounded by the fact that, as the author mentions herself, it's not character-driven but rather compelled by outside forces outside of her control. in short: she doesnt make things happen; things happen to her. and there's no right or wrong way to go abt this, but it happens to not rly benefit the story all the same.

regardless, i recommend this to anyone looking for a slow-paced, reflective coming-of-age read thats centered on sports.

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