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A review by sassyykassie
Turning by Joy L. Smith
4.0
Turning follows Genie, an up and coming ballet dancer who just made her first magazine cover her junior year before a sudden accident, making her a paraplegic no longer able to walk let alone dance. With a controlling ex-boyfriend who won't leave her alone and trying to figure out how to not be so angry with the world and everyone in it, Genie doesn't know where to go from here. Turning follows Genie finding her magic again, even as it looks different from where she found it before the accident.
Genie is an angry character. Adding on the YA angst with the anger of grief for her life lost, I found Genie's POV hard to read at times. She lashes out suddenly at everyone around her from her mom, her best friend, and her new friend Kyle she meets at physical therapy. Without having my own knowledge of living through anything like this though, it felt so real that this anger would be pushing out for someone going through this along with other parts of her life that are spoilers (CW are at the end of this review).
I also ... enjoyed isn't the right word .. but felt that the way the controlling/abusive relationship was portrayed also felt very real and definitely hard to read at times. On goodreads you can see that I have 25 highlights throughout this book and almost all of them are me angrily "wtf"-ing the situations and things that come out of this boy's mouth, which unfortunately can be all too real.
I also absolutely loved the aspect of dance woven through the story. I was never focused on ballet but I did dance in high school - not nearly as well as the characters in this story. It always lifts my heart to see the love dancers have for their craft whether it's on the written page or on screen. It's so special and I love getting to reminisce about my own love for it when taking in stories like this one.
CW (and light spoilers):
-abortion
-physical abuse
-alcoholism
-discussion of coercion of sexual encounters
-physical assault
-racism
*Thank you to Netgalley for approving this e-ARC*
Genie is an angry character. Adding on the YA angst with the anger of grief for her life lost, I found Genie's POV hard to read at times. She lashes out suddenly at everyone around her from her mom, her best friend, and her new friend Kyle she meets at physical therapy. Without having my own knowledge of living through anything like this though, it felt so real that this anger would be pushing out for someone going through this along with other parts of her life that are spoilers (CW are at the end of this review).
I also ... enjoyed isn't the right word .. but felt that the way the controlling/abusive relationship was portrayed also felt very real and definitely hard to read at times. On goodreads you can see that I have 25 highlights throughout this book and almost all of them are me angrily "wtf"-ing the situations and things that come out of this boy's mouth, which unfortunately can be all too real.
I also absolutely loved the aspect of dance woven through the story. I was never focused on ballet but I did dance in high school - not nearly as well as the characters in this story. It always lifts my heart to see the love dancers have for their craft whether it's on the written page or on screen. It's so special and I love getting to reminisce about my own love for it when taking in stories like this one.
CW (and light spoilers):
-abortion
-physical abuse
-alcoholism
-discussion of coercion of sexual encounters
-physical assault
-racism
*Thank you to Netgalley for approving this e-ARC*