Tillie Walden

A powerful coming-of-age graphic memoir about coming-of-age, coming out, and competitive figure skating,

Spinning

Nora 

Tillie Walden has delivered an achingly beautiful coming-of-age story. Using the unique backdrop of competitive ice skating, she tells an autobiographical story of a her teenage years. While my knowledge of competitive skating barely extends beyond Michelle Kwan and Nancy and Tonya, her experiences – from her relationship with her parents, to understanding her sexuality – come across so strongly and are so relatable within this captivating setting that even a complete skating neophyte will feel right at home. It made me ache for teenage Tillie, remembering those moments of fighting with everyone’s expectations to figure out the life that is ours. The use of the skating microcosm and her poetic way with words make this 400 page book finish all too quickly.

Ignatz Award winner Tillie Walden’s powerful graphic memoir Spinning captures what it’s like to come of age, come out, and come to terms with leaving behind everything you used to know. It was the same every morning. Wake up, grab the ice skates, and head to the rink while the world was still dark. Weekends were spent in glitter and tights at competitions. Perform. Smile. And do it again. She was good. She won. And she hated it. For ten years, figure skating was Tillie Walden’s life. She woke before dawn for morning lessons, went straight to group practice after school, and spent weekends competing at ice rinks across the state. Skating was a central piece of her identity, her safe haven from the stress of school, bullies, and family. But as she switched schools, got into art, and fell in love with her first girlfriend, she began to question how the close-minded world of figure skating fit in with the rest of her life, and whether all the work was worth it given the reality: that she, and her friends on the team, were nowhere close to Olympic hopefuls. The more Tillie thought about it, the more Tillie realized she’d outgrown her passion—and she finally needed to find her own voice. This title has Common Core connections. A New York City Public Library Notable Best Book for Teens A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2017 A 2018 YALSA Great Graphic Novel

Krystyna 

I'm happy that this story is out there and that Tillie shared her story with the world. This is Tillie's coming-of-age story; she embraces who she is and what she wants in life. This includes so many topics, including a lot of heavy ones, that so many teens could relate to. This story wasn't bad, I just had some issues with it. Mainly, the pacing left me confused at times. Sometimes, the story seemed slow and then at other times it seemed kind of jumbled to me. There were times when I had to flip back or make sure that I didn't accidentally turn more than one page. If you enjoy graphic novels, especially graphic memoirs, then give this a try.

Izza

Maggie Gordon

Spinning is a beautifully produced book. Walden's sense of paneling is great, and the pages help intensify the complicated feelings of melancholy and angst that she's trying to get across. However, I don't know if a memoir was a great idea for Walden to tackle when she's still so close to the events in question. Instead of really digging into her past, she skims over the surface. There's a lot of interesting ideas being brought up in this volume about her teenage years. But nothing really gets proper attention. It's hard to write heavy memoirs such as this given the fact that everyone she is talking about is still alive. Had she been able to be less cautious and more reflective, I think the book would have been much better.

Naga

trigger warning: bullying, sexual assault

for a graphic book, tillie walden's works are always hard to finish. partly because the art is too beautiful, and the other part is because the story makes me have to take a pause. i'm sure when she made this one it was a lot of hardwork, i'm sure it wasn't easy to put stories of your past, especially the one that includes a very bad experience or memory, into something you'd share with the world. and i salute her bravery for that. thank you for making this, tillie walden.

Wes Michaud

I love this book with all my heart it's one of the first if not the first book i read with LGBTQ+ rep I first read it in 7th grade when I first realized I'm a lesbian it made me feel seen and it's still one of my favorites to this day

EmmaLee Babcock

Quick and easy to read, and parts of it touched me. I might have rated it lower but I’m not sure it deserves less. It’s missing something, like details and feeling, which is kind of weird considering it’s a nearly 400 page graphic. It was sort of just factual. Enjoyable enough, I’ll probably look for more by the author later on. Trigger warnings: Homophobia, sexual abuse and harassment, depression.

mia ¿

i really really liked this!!! i don't know why but i was worried that i would be bored by this book, maybe because i keep having deja vu and thinking that i've read a similar story about realizing you're tired of a sport and quitting it (even tho i have not read another story like this). i think i liked this book because i related to it a lot, being a dancer since the age of four and only ending my time with dance in senior year. thankfully i was not in competitive dance, because if i was i imagine i would have quit a lot sooner. i only had to put on makeup and the fancy costumes one time a year, which was a lot more bearable than once a month. i also really related to the feeling of wasting your time in such an intense extracurricular when you did not actually want to continue with it once you graduated from high school. sometimes you start a sport when you're really young and you just continue with it because you're used to it and then it becomes really hard to get yourself to quit. i thought all of these feelings were beautifully portrayed in this book. and the art was amazing! reading "spinning" made me very excited to read all of tillie walden's other books.

petit-chocobo

3.5, rounded up.

This was obviously a passion project and very personal to the author, which I really appreciated. In her author's note, she says she didn't want to write about specific things, but about feelings, and that definitely came through. The artwork is also very good.

It didn't quite resonate with me aside from a few parts though, mostly because it does jump around quite a lot. Lots of scenes "cut to black" so to speak, and I found some of the side characters hard to keep track of. However, it is a very real and raw book, which I definitely admire.

Jane The Bookaholic

⭐️ 3 Stars ⭐️

Memoirs aren’t really my fave thing to read, but I think a graphic novel is a great way to show a life story. The story was nice. 
I mostly enjoyed from the illustrations. I loved the color theme, and the contrast between the navy and yellow was really amazing.

Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)[bullying, homomisia, sexual assault (hide spoiler)]

While this didn't hit me the way Walden's fictional graphic novels have in the past, there is something personal about the way this memoir is told. While ice-skating is at the core of this story, there is so much more than just the sport. The book is written in a way that feels like Walden is telling you about her childhood, as a friend. The reader is a confidant as Walden shares memories, both enjoyable and painful. 

If you enjoy a more hard-hitting contemporary style of graphic novel, this is a great way to dive into Walden's publications.


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Happy reading! ❤

Katy B

Midway through this book I would have guessed I'd give this a 4 star rating. I like this book, a lot. It's entertaining and a fast read that I finished in one sitting. But, at times the book felt rushed. Each time I wanted to see what happened with a certain part of her life, boom, next part of the story. I wanted to know more about specific things that seemed like big topics, but then they were glossed over. 

One big question I had for most of the book and I never got an answer to, why skating? Tillie doesn't seem particularly fond of it. Her mom, who we don't see much at all, later makes a comment how skating is so expensive. Tillie's dad will wake up at 4 am to take her to the skating rink, but he doesn't enjoy it. I never got the idea Tillie's parents were behind her skating. Tillie doesn't seem to enjoy the skating that much, frequently wants to quit, and even tells us she hates the femininity of it. So...why skating? Whose idea was it? Why did this person choose skating over a different sport or an instrument or something else?

An entertaining and well written story, but I wanted "more" in certain parts of the book.

Spinning

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