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emilyjmasters's review
3.5
2. If I’m Glad My Mom Died resonated with you but you wished it was more queer, this is for you
3. Aggressive TW for sports injury and graphic medical/surgical depictions
4. TW and CW for emotional abuse and disordered eating (tho that may have been apparent from the comparison to IGMMD)
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
tackysapphic's review
good! some parts were really hard to listen to, but that’s the nature of memoirs and autobiographies I suppose
Graphic: Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Vomit, Homophobia, Grief, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic
abbyp96's review
5.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Eating disorder
book_fish's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Body shaming
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Medical content
Minor: Religious bigotry
alexg52's review
4.75
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Emotional abuse
Minor: Eating disorder and Homophobia
queerandweird's review
5.0
All bodies are welcome and can succeed in roller derby, unlike most other sports. We truly are unlike most other sports culturally, and I celebrate that.
Spark/Gabe writes beautifully about her past and how it fueled her future as a roller skating athlete. Ugh, her injury and recovery were brutal to relive, I'm sure Arch has improved their incident practices and rates of CPR-trained coaches since her spiral fracture - but holy gods that was a dumpster fire of an injury response and let it be a lesson to ALWAYS call 911 with a broken leg.
Rant ahead: Broken legs are WAY too big a longterm and LIFE risk to leave a skater alone for 20+min as you wait for an EMT-trained friend to tape up the break with a f*cking pizza box, for a ride in the back of a bumpy car without pain killers. nonono. My horror. Please ensure your leagues have skaters at every practice who are CPR-certified and informed in injury protocol, omg have injury protocols - esp. for concussions. Loving rant concluded <3
Fortunately, Spark is a beast as so many of us derby athletes are! I remember my spiral fracture tib fib recovery distinctly as well, the joy of walking again in pools - just feeling the weight on my injured leg when I had been so fragile, literally broken, was a lesson in growth, finding my resolve to heal from the mental & physical trauma of split bones. Her book depicted that brutal injury so often faced by athletes on rollerskates honestly and I loved all of the grit in recovery.
What she didn't talk about was the downside of overtraining, that's often why new athletes are injured or folks not balancing their intense derby training & cross-training with mobility, massage, and other active rest practices. It's great, and necessary, to have drive in our sport - it's also necessary to take time for muscles & connective tissue to heal throughout the training week.
Ending with marriage was so sweet! Kelly and Gabe's relationship was heart-warming and familiar <3 Gabe, I hope you've continued to address your eating disorder and improve your relationship with food, ; it can take a lifetime and know to lean on (and be honest with) your community.
The book has conflicting info for where the couple ended up, one says St. Louis and the other says Denton, TX - which, yuck y'all please you don't want to be in Denton, teaching probably isn't worth it and the derby is nooot the best.
Though, I hear through the derby grapevine that they're living in St. Louis as of Spring '23, where Gabe has been performing drag!! So exciting if this is true, wishing the best for your love and happiness.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Medical content, Vomit, Bullying, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Lesbophobia
orchidd's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Child abuse, and Body shaming
Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing
theblandfalafel's review
4.5
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Homophobia
tayberryjelly's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Medical content, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, and Medical trauma
Minor: Gaslighting and Homophobia
abigailkokitus's review
4.0
Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, and Body shaming