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Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters by Joan Ryan
3 reviews
mommytaco's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
4.25
CW: if you have an eating disorder or are not absolutely rock solid in your recovery, proceed with extreme caution.
The fact that 20 years later this culture of abusive coaching is still the norm is absolutely horrifying. The fact that the abuse in this book was just the tip of the iceberg is even more horrifying.
I do think that the layout of the book needed some tweaking and the figure skating portions needed more fleshing out, but overall no book this year had me screaming at adults through my phone as much as this one. She does a great job of capturing the desperation and fear of these athletes and reminding us over and over that they are CHILDREN. We're willing to sacrifice the lives of children for what? "Being an Olympian is forever".... So is PTSD, osteoporosis, chronic pain, and suicide.
My daughter did gymnastics for a few years. She has a lot of talent and is naturally tiny, but like most kids she wanted to quit when it stopped being fun for her. We vascillated between pushing her to continue or letting her quit and finally realized that sports SHOULD be fun for kids. I've never been so happy to be raising a quitter!
The fact that 20 years later this culture of abusive coaching is still the norm is absolutely horrifying. The fact that the abuse in this book was just the tip of the iceberg is even more horrifying.
I do think that the layout of the book needed some tweaking and the figure skating portions needed more fleshing out, but overall no book this year had me screaming at adults through my phone as much as this one. She does a great job of capturing the desperation and fear of these athletes and reminding us over and over that they are CHILDREN. We're willing to sacrifice the lives of children for what? "Being an Olympian is forever".... So is PTSD, osteoporosis, chronic pain, and suicide.
My daughter did gymnastics for a few years. She has a lot of talent and is naturally tiny, but like most kids she wanted to quit when it stopped being fun for her. We vascillated between pushing her to continue or letting her quit and finally realized that sports SHOULD be fun for kids. I've never been so happy to be raising a quitter!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
elizabethsoto's review
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Suicide
bparkinson31's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
Moderate: Death and Medical content
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