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A review by chronicallybookish
Braced by Alyson Gerber
4.0
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 9+
Over All: 4.25 stars
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5 (MC is 5/5, everyone else is like 3.5/5)
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Disability Rep: 5/5
This book was a quick but very meaningful read. There is so much heart in this book.
Rachel was a relatable, realistic narrator. I honestly don’t know how Alison Gerber managed to capture the voice of a 12 year old so precisely. Reading Rachel’s narration genuinely felt like jumping into my own pre-teen head as I learned to come to terms with my own disabilities. There were multiple points where I got teary-eyed. I might not have scoliosis, but the isolating aspects of being disabled at that age are universal, and it was so healing to my inner child to read about someone else feeling those feelings.
Unlike Rachel, my mom has always been my ultimate supporter. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t stand reading the interactions between the two of them. Her mom just came off as too flat and emotionless. It didn’t make sense to me. I felt like I needed to see more of her motivation—especially as we are eventually supposed to forgive and empathize with her.
Even when we did get that moment of opening up and explanations… it just didn’t ring true. I still couldn’t understand how she had so clearly missed everything that her daughter was feeling? Her apathy before that moment was far too extreme compared to her reasonings, and the abrupt shift in personality and actions (albeit for the better) after that moment gave me whiplash and also felt unrealistic.
There was so much emphasis in that point of the book on Rachel explaining herself better. On “talking things out”, as if she hadn’t already been doing that. From my perception, the issue was never Rachel not explaining herself. It was that no one listened to her.
Like, when Rachel has that talk with her mom, her mom is like “I didn’t know,” and the emphasis is on Rachel finally explaining herself… as if she hadn’t already been actively saying all of these things before. She was actively saying, I hate this thing, it hurts, it makes me look weird, kids stare at me, etc. Like those sentiments were made via dialogue, plus she was indirectly communicating with tears and fighting and slammed doors… It was all so blatantly obvious, and yet the blame ended up put on her for not communicating. That was infuriating. And that messaging, that its all on the disabled kids’ shoulders to be super well articulated about these incredibly hard, confusing things doesn’t sit right with me.
However, all of the representation outside of that was phenomenal, and I think this book would do amazingly at helping disabled tweens—especially those with scoliosis—feel less alone, and I think the good aspects do well outweigh the negative. I defintiely do recommend this book, however I also think that when you read it, you should keep in mind that making it the literal child’s responsibility to communicate in a way that the adult finds acceptable in order to be taken seriously. Disability is an incredibly emotionally volatile experience, and to say that our needs and feelings should only be taken seriously when we are able to say them precisely and calmly is incredibly problematic. While I doubt that was the author’s intended message, it does come off that way, and it’s something you should be mindful of while reading.
Age Rating: 9+
Over All: 4.25 stars
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5 (MC is 5/5, everyone else is like 3.5/5)
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Disability Rep: 5/5
This book was a quick but very meaningful read. There is so much heart in this book.
Rachel was a relatable, realistic narrator. I honestly don’t know how Alison Gerber managed to capture the voice of a 12 year old so precisely. Reading Rachel’s narration genuinely felt like jumping into my own pre-teen head as I learned to come to terms with my own disabilities. There were multiple points where I got teary-eyed. I might not have scoliosis, but the isolating aspects of being disabled at that age are universal, and it was so healing to my inner child to read about someone else feeling those feelings.
Unlike Rachel, my mom has always been my ultimate supporter. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t stand reading the interactions between the two of them. Her mom just came off as too flat and emotionless. It didn’t make sense to me. I felt like I needed to see more of her motivation—especially as we are eventually supposed to forgive and empathize with her.
Even when we did get that moment of opening up and explanations… it just didn’t ring true. I still couldn’t understand how she had so clearly missed everything that her daughter was feeling? Her apathy before that moment was far too extreme compared to her reasonings, and the abrupt shift in personality and actions (albeit for the better) after that moment gave me whiplash and also felt unrealistic.
There was so much emphasis in that point of the book on Rachel explaining herself better. On “talking things out”, as if she hadn’t already been doing that. From my perception, the issue was never Rachel not explaining herself. It was that no one listened to her.
Like, when Rachel has that talk with her mom, her mom is like “I didn’t know,” and the emphasis is on Rachel finally explaining herself… as if she hadn’t already been actively saying all of these things before. She was actively saying, I hate this thing, it hurts, it makes me look weird, kids stare at me, etc. Like those sentiments were made via dialogue, plus she was indirectly communicating with tears and fighting and slammed doors… It was all so blatantly obvious, and yet the blame ended up put on her for not communicating. That was infuriating. And that messaging, that its all on the disabled kids’ shoulders to be super well articulated about these incredibly hard, confusing things doesn’t sit right with me.
However, all of the representation outside of that was phenomenal, and I think this book would do amazingly at helping disabled tweens—especially those with scoliosis—feel less alone, and I think the good aspects do well outweigh the negative. I defintiely do recommend this book, however I also think that when you read it, you should keep in mind that making it the literal child’s responsibility to communicate in a way that the adult finds acceptable in order to be taken seriously. Disability is an incredibly emotionally volatile experience, and to say that our needs and feelings should only be taken seriously when we are able to say them precisely and calmly is incredibly problematic. While I doubt that was the author’s intended message, it does come off that way, and it’s something you should be mindful of while reading.