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A review by tdhaswell
You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Okay. Wow. A lot to unpack here.
First, this memoir was written really well.
Piper Weiss writes about her teenage-self, attending tennis lessons with her coach Gary Wilensky. Wilensky is later found to be a child-stalker and pedophile after his failed kidnapping of one of his students. Weiss explores the psychology behind how exactly Wilensky was able to befriend and gain the trust of so many children (his students)- and that alone is extremely interesting. She then revisits her connection to Wilensky in order to find out why, 30 years later, she is still so fixated on how the coach she trusted so much could be this dangerous person.
Piper makes it known that although she is shaken by this traumatic discovery and is grateful that she was never a victim of his, she still has this unshakable attachment to him and she wonders why it was not her that he chose to kidnap. For this reason, many people disliked it, but I was fascinated by it for the exact same reason.
It's brutally honest and unpacks her trauma of being an 'almost victim' and how the manipulation by Wilensky affected her ability to see him for what he really was.
First, this memoir was written really well.
Piper Weiss writes about her teenage-self, attending tennis lessons with her coach Gary Wilensky. Wilensky is later found to be a child-stalker and pedophile after his failed kidnapping of one of his students. Weiss explores the psychology behind how exactly Wilensky was able to befriend and gain the trust of so many children (his students)- and that alone is extremely interesting. She then revisits her connection to Wilensky in order to find out why, 30 years later, she is still so fixated on how the coach she trusted so much could be this dangerous person.
Piper makes it known that although she is shaken by this traumatic discovery and is grateful that she was never a victim of his, she still has this unshakable attachment to him and she wonders why it was not her that he chose to kidnap. For this reason, many people disliked it, but I was fascinated by it for the exact same reason.
It's brutally honest and unpacks her trauma of being an 'almost victim' and how the manipulation by Wilensky affected her ability to see him for what he really was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexual harassment