Member Review

I always have a hard time giving a negative review to a memoir - I know how incredibly brave it is to share one's story. I greatly appreciated Legler's honesty and willingness to share painful memories that don't always present her in the best light. However, this book was extremely difficult to get through (despite it being short in length). Legler's writing is hard to follow and doesn't always have appropriate punctuation to help guide the reader. I felt like I was stumbling over sentences and trying to grasp her meaning throughout every page. Legler does have a unique perspective: living in France and the US, struggling with what would later be diagnosed as Asperger's, becoming an Olympic athlete. The bummer is that she spends very little time talking about any of these things - the book is mainly a muddled account of her drug and alcohol abuse and hookups with a different person on nearly every page. There's certainly no judgment here - I would have just loved to learn more about how her experiences shaped her instead of just getting details of the events and an abrupt ending while she's still in the midst of her addiction. I was even more disappointed when I read the author's note; it seems the most captivating parts of her life were not described at all (competing in the Olympics, being one of the first women to model men's clothing, graduating from college despite her rocky early adulthood, etc.). This memoir was such a mess, which is a shame since Legler has led such a fascinating life.