Review Detail

TURNING is a really powerful YA contemporary read about abuse, healing, grief, friendship, and family. Genie had built her life around ballet, and she seemed destined to be the prima in an international company. That is, until she fell from a building roof and was paralyzed from the waist down. It seems impossible that she should be struggling through physical therapy and confined to a wheelchair, unable to tell when she needs to use the bathroom or what is happening below the waist.

Genie is angry and embarrassed and trying to define herself in this new life that she never wanted. Her best friend and mother are trying to reach out, but Genie does not know how to do anything but push them away like the former life she led. Her ex-boyfriend is also persistent, seeming to forget the ex part of their relationship.

Things may be turning around for Genie after an encounter with a boy who has PT at the same time. Kyle is objectively attractive but also dealing with the aftermath of his own injury. Still, their friendship may be the first straw Genie needs to grasp to find her own path towards a future redefined by her new life, coming to terms with the past, and discovering herself.

What I loved: This was such an emotional and compelling read - I cried at the end. Genie is a character that pulls you into her story right from the start. She is carrying around a lot of emotions, ones that most of us could imagine after such an injury. Her ferocity and passion comes across through each page and interaction, and she felt like such a genuine and real character. Her road to healing is a bumpy one, sometimes literally, and coming to terms with her new limitations and the past she has left behind is certainly not easy. It was really beautiful how many people were in her corner, and I loved the ways these characters came into play, even when she was not her best self. We should all be so lucky as to have friends and family like her, and though Genie makes mistakes, I also appreciated how she worked to make amends as well.

Other themes in the story around abuse and generational trauma make this a much more powerful read than I expected. Of course, her path to healing, understanding her new limitations, and forging a new path for herself are really strong and potent story, but combined, they are really forceful. Genie's mother has her own story, and this story is one that Genie herself is working on coming to terms with. Then, there is her own. The story with the ex-boyfriend slowly unfolds to show the insidiousness of abuse and the emotional tactics used by such. This is certainly a heavy and thought-provoking read that would be interesting to unpack in a book group.

Smaller themes around discrimination, discrimination in ballet, challenges faced by individuals with disabilities in terms of accessibility and reactions, the importance of representation, teenage pregnancy, secrets/lies, and drug/alcohol abuse as well as driving under the influence add to the gravity of the story and really make this a deep and unflinching read. This book will pull readers in to the story and keep them invested all the way to the emotional end.

Final verdict: A beautiful and powerful story of trauma and healing, TURNING is an emotional and unflinching examination of abuse, disability, and identity. Highly recommend picking up this YA contemporary.