Name: Tumbling
ISBN: 9780451473004

Caela Carter

After sacrificing their childhoods, Grace, Leigh, Camille, Wilhelmina, and Monica are competing in the two days of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, after which their lives will change forever.

Tumbling

Siya S

★☆☆☆☆ 1.5 YOU’RE-NOT-MAKING-IT-TO-THE-OLYMPICS STARS

I mean, at the beginning the book was like:



But the dramas kept on piling up and it was like:



As a gymnastics fan, this book was, regrettably, a disappointment.

Tumbling followed the lives of 5 teenie gymnastic queens on the most significant meet of their lives: the Olympic trial. Everyone had trained hard for the past four years, sacrificing their social lives and their bodies for it. So picture something similar to 
  Battle Royal
 but with teenage girls killing one another with giggles, gossip, secrets and Arabian double half-outs.


  Grace said new words quietly, staring at the ice cup. “I think I might be happier.” 
Now Leigh was the startled one. She sat up and stared at her friend. “If you weren’t a gymnast?” Grace didn’t respond. 
“Then why are you one?” Leigh asked. 
Grace sucked a piece of ice, thinking, until she said, “Because I might be happier, but I wouldn’t be me.” 


Here we have Grace, the manipulative somersault-machine with a problem (hint: eating). Leigh, a confused champion but otherwise had one leg already on the Olympic team, also with a problem (hint: she liked girls). Camille was on the road of redemption, having a comeback after a car accident abruptly robbed her chance off of Olympics 4 years ago, Her problem? Boyfriend and existential crisis. Wilhelmina fought her own way into the trial, but beating the best gymnasts was one thing when what she was actually doing was fighting the system and the unfairness of it all (and that’s her problem). And then, finally, Monica, the underappreciated rookie who was invisible to probably everyone but us readers. Would she succumb to mean gossips and giggles or would she finally get the balls to become the top scorer? 


   “But your vault doesn’t matter. You know that, right?” 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing mattered. Her whole life Monica’s gymnastics had almost—but not quite—mattered. “To me,” she said, trying to sound strong but instead squeaking like a mouse. “It matters to me.” 
Wilhelmina nodded. “Yeah, get ready for it,” she said. “Lots of things will matter to you that don’t matter to anyone else." 


And here we dealt with teenage soap on determination, friendship and dreams. The book tended to deal with real problems like petty mind games, favoritism, eating disorder, and something similar to existential crisis. How girls overwork their bodies just for their dreams to be crushed by the unfairness of the sport and life. Sadly, none of these had been explored deeply. They were mentioned, but there was nothing much else done to confront them. 

So here’s the realproblem; it was extremely difficult to write multi POVs without losing your ways throughout the book. I’m actually in the middle of ASOIAF marathon so it’s quite impossible to impress me right now (GRRM is the king of multi-POVs, period). And such mistake could be seen clearly in Tumbling; halfway through the book all voices started to melt into one. I didn’t even care which voice belonged to whom anymore. All of them sounded like a manipulative, underappreciated, overconfident, confused, reluctant teenager with a serious case of split-personality to me. 


   “We’re best friends,” Leigh blurted. Although she didn’t feel like they were at the moment. She narrowed her eyes at Grace, trying to make them say, What are you doing? Why would you try to destroy me right in the middle of the Olympic trials? 
“Yes,” Grace said. “We’re best friends . . . we’re only friends. Nothing more.” 
Leigh almost choked. It was like being stabbed in the back right in front of her face. 
“Okay . . .” the reporter said slowly. 

What had happened? Only a few minutes ago they were working together to trip up Monica. That whole plot had been Grace’s idea and entirely for Leigh’s benefit. Now, suddenly, Grace was trying to destroy Leigh? 


Grace, for example, one minute she was this jealous, selfish, paranoia competitive little bitch with series of shenanigans up her sleeves, then she claimed it wasn’t who she was and she might or might not or might need her bestfriend, Leigh. Then Leigh was one minute giggling about a wedgie trying to destroy her competitor’s career and the next claimed she had no idea what she’d done and it wasn’t really herself? See what I had to put up with? These girls were just a bunch of kids growing in the gym with no real social life, fine I get it. But do they have to be so unlikeable? It’s a fucking novel, for crying out loud! How could I finish your book if none of your five main characters were likeable, Ms. Carter? 


   “I heard what you said about me earlier,” Monica said. 
“Huh?” Leigh said. 
“What’s wrong with you? You can’t just pretend . . . You’re . . . you and Grace . . . you’re . . . mean.” 
“Oh,” Leigh said. The butt glue. The snickering. Had she really done that? It felt like someone else had said those things and smiled that nasty smile. 


I was put into an all-girl conservative royalist school for 12 years straight (which was pretty much felt like 12 Years A Slave but with Hello Kitty and a lot of curtsies). Maybe I kinda forgot what it's like to be a young girl surrounded by girls, but the dramas were so pointless and annoying. The conversation felt forced and unnatural. I get that they were just a bunch of kids looking for their place in the world, but did they all have to be so one-dimensional? No evidence of any crucial character development or whatsoever. 

This wasn’t a story about friendship, family or sportsmanship. It's more about the ugly truth and the unknown side of this graceful, beloved sports adored by worldwide receivers. I kind of like that, to be honest. I didn't know much about the camps or the homeschooling and all those sacrifices the young ladies have to make in order to become an elite. So that part I'd appreciated the research and information. 

But that's pretty much where the good thing ends. I didn’t even care who the hell got to go to the Olympics. It was a shame, really, this book had so much potential, too bad the execution was a bit of a disappointment. I was really really looking forward to reading this book before. 

Then I turned on the TV, seeing the beloved “Final Five” and wondered if their paths to the Olympics were as stupidly messy, unfair and disgusting like this one. Hopefully not. 

Find out more:
https://thebleedingeyes.wordpress.com/

Emi Gilmore 

I read this book solely as a guilty pleasure read. And though I would love to say that this book surprised me and change my life forever, it didn't. It still is a guilty pleasure read. And I loved every minute of it.

Dorian Avers

3.75 This was in my "High-Interest" shelf/tag. I really enjoyed this book even though it's more of a young YA. I was obsessed with the show "Make It or Break It" years ago and this book was so similar. I loved the set up. We got perspectives from 5 different gymnasts, which all seemed authentic and unique from one another. Each chapter was one rotation of the Olympic Trials , with all five point of views, so you could read a chunk at a time. This was a quick read and it did build anticipation, like when I wasn't reading it I'd find myself thinking about it. I liked that not only were the girls different, with different dreams, strengths, and struggles, but their parents were different from one another too. Some of these parents were living vicariously through their kids, to a point that it is scarily unhealthy, some are too involved and have forgotten how to be a parent independent of gymnastics, some treat their kids like they don't have their own opinions and their feelings don't matter.
 I was amazed that it seemed like the author never did gymnastics in real life, because I thought the story felt so personal and there were random details. Like the bikini waxing and butt glue that seemed intimately personal. I was never a gymnast or anything like that so maybe those details just seem specific. There were some things that I think were obviously unrealistic, like Leigh going to a normal high school, but still being number one or two in the country, also do gymnasts at that level really change their dismounts or routines at the events? Or is that just what the media uses to build suspense because it sounds dangerous?

Tumbling

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