Not enough roller derby... and the roller derby that is portrayed is nothing like what I have experienced in my roller derby league.

I want my review to stop there, but the truth is that I was underwhelmed by many things in this book including the fact that Day's therapist did not address her self-harm.

Characterization felt a little shallow and the story felt a little weak. The self-harm and self-injury behavior is not really addressed.

Bruised was such a fun read. I felt like I was getting to experience everything alongside of Daya. She’s reeling from the loss of her parents, believing it’s her fault. She feels things in an unhealthy way, through giving herself bruises. Through her seeking out bruises she stumbles along the sport of roller derby.

In the world of roller derby Daya thinks it will be just her latest way to gain some bruises and not have to deal with the real pain she and her therapist deep down knows she needs to. She finds a world of friendship and found family that she never knew existed and even love.

The relationships in this book were honestly such a key part to how much I ended up adoring this book.

TW: Self-harm, death of parents

This book is a powerhouse of raw, feminine energy. I knew it was going to be tough for me to dislike a book about roller derby. Bruised does NOT disappoint. Daya, the main character and narrator, is so unlikable, but so complex that you can’t help but love her. This story went deep into an aspect of self harm I had never considered and really appreciated the deft hand in writing. I absolutely adored this story and found it equal parts character and plot driven.

This is a diverse and hard-hitting look at roller derby by an author that obviously loves the sport. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the care that was put into creating a believable world. However, something about the plot just started to drag for me about halfway through and it took me quite a while to finish this book. I definitely recommend it and I think teen will really enjoy it, though.

Queer roller derby. What more could you ask for? This book was a bit theme heavy, but otherwise was a fun read.

I was really impressed by "Bruised." It touches on some heavy topics, but it does that well and is such a beautifully written story. Between the talented writing and interesting characters, I really liked this book!

I loved Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens so when I saw that Tanya Boteju had a new novel out, I had to read it. Bruised did not disappoint. I enjoyed the diversity in this book and appreciated that it felt natural, like a real community, not like the author was ticking boxes trying to include every character. I also really liked the roller derby scenes. I didn’t know much about the sport but I felt like I understood it after Boteju’s descriptions and I loved the sense of community I got from it.

I liked how realistic much of Diya’s internal dialogue seemed, how the reader could see her trying to change even when she was apprehensive about it. The possible downside of this is that many of the descriptions of the emotional states leading to self-harm also seemed realistic. I did not notice if this book had a trigger warning at the beginning but it really ought to. Self-harm was more prevalent in the story than I had initially expected.

My one critique was that I didn’t really like the romance or feel that it was necessary. Daya kept pushing Shanti away but she kept eagerly coming back saying she recognized many of Daya’s behaviors from her sister. But just because Shanti is used to abusive behavior doesn’t mean she should so readily forgive it in a potential romantic partner. I wish they had just become good friends, that Daya had found her place on the team and with her family and the will to work on her mental health without also finding a girlfriend.

Daya Wijesinghe uses bruises to feel in control of emotions she’d rather keep tampered down. After her parents death in a car accident she survived, Daya isn’t sure how to be in the world. Skateboarding provides an outlet, and the bruises is produces feel good. When a friend introduces her to the world of Roller Derby, she’s convinced that these bruises will be much bigger, and as a full contact sport, she’ll be able to knock some people around, too. But the sport has rules, and team is at the center of every practice, interaction, and bout. Daya’s been a loner, but she’ll find community she didn’t know she needed and maybe, she’ll find more healthy ways of coping than hurting herself, too.

I devoured this one in just over a day and really enjoyed this book. It was billed as Whip It! meets We Are Okay, and between roller derby, brown girls, and queer folks, I was SOLD. I love the characterization and exploration of trauma and physical pain as an outlet and tool of control. It’s often explored via cutting, but the bruising Daya craves is another way that the trauma manifests itself. I love Daya’s friends, and even though I didn’t like Kat, jammer of Daya’s team all the time, I really appreciated her layers, backstory, and journey to healing as well. She and her sister, Shanti, play big roles in Daya’s life during this coming of age and healing from trauma stage, and they are opposite sides of the same coin, a full representation of the different ways people are strong and how they deal with their emotions.

It’s a deep book, and it’s heavy, too, but it’s full of friendship, roller derby, and heart. I highly recommend it if you’re into queer YA that isn’t quite so white-washed.

I loved the roller derby aspect of this book, as its a more obscure sport that I haven't read a lot about.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book due to personal triggers in the content. The book was highly emotional, the characters were destructive, and many important topics are covered. However the book just wasn't doing positive things for my mental health, so I had to put it down. I'm going to rate this book 4 stars, as I'm required to leave a rating and I don't want to leave a low one just because of my experience. I feel 4 stars can objectively summarize my reading experience thus far into the book.

Thank you so much for providing this advanced copy to me, and I'm very sorry I couldn't fulfill a proper review.

I love to see obscure sports, like roller derby, in novels. Especially when said sports come with a whole subculture. Of course, in this book derby is primarily a device for addressing emotional issues. Primarily grief - the death of parents and the abandonment associated with abuse. These are broken characters dealing with their loss in very negative ways. They are in destruction relationships and causing harm to the handful of good things they have. It makes it an uncomfortable read, but important to address.

I feel empty. That might not be my best review opening ever, but it’s really all I can say. Where I expected to leave this book crying because I’d read such a heart-breaking yet heart-mending story, I literally feel nothing. No pain, no love, no empowerment…no anything. And that must be one of the biggest disappointments of the year so far.

Though I can’t exactly pinpoint where it went wrong for me, I can say this: it all felt very surface-level. I really hoped we could delve into Daya’s brain and world, but it was more like watching a stranger, which made it really hard to connect with her even though her problems are relatable. At first I thought this was all because Daya has so many walls around her, but even in the end I still felt this way.

The writing was easy to read and not bad at all, but I don’t think it was right for this book. This story really asked for a writing style that’s very descriptive and makes you live through the things that are happening along with the characters. This deals with heavy topics like self-harm and the aftermath of a deadly car-accident, but I didn’t think it portrayed the deep emotions that well. Especially the self-harm representation made me feel very hmm, this doesn’t feel right…

The diversity in this book is amazing though. I loved seeing such a diverse cast of characters and it truly made me happy! We have lots of different backgrounds, different sexualities, a non-binary character, a deaf character and possibly other things I forgot to mention.

About the characters though…not only Daya felt so distant for me. Everyone was, despite their diversity, not memorable or in-depth. I think I can describe every single character with two adjectives or less, like Daya’s love-interest was sweet…and supportive? Also, the romance was pretty mediocre. I didn’t really feel any chemistry and, again, I couldn’t feel a thing.

So as you might notice, I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this book. It’s not one of those books that infuriates me or anything, but it was pretty mediocre and just forgettable. I’ve seen other people loving it, but for me Bruised turned out to be a disappointing read that had a lot more potential, so I can’t give it anything except for two very empty-feeling stars.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review! This did not affect my opinions in any way.

3.5 Stars. This was a highly emotional read and I must admit that there were hilarious moments in it but there was a lot of angst and drama to get through as well. I was drawn to this story because I didn't know anything about roller derby and I was definitely curious and what made this story even more appealing to me was the fact that there were queer, young-adult people of color in this story.

My heart really went out to Daya because she has lost her parents in a car accident and she turned to self-harm as a way of coping with their untimely demise. However, I felt as though self-harm was being glorified a lot because most of the story portrayed Daya's intense joy whenever she was being physically hurt by her own actions and by others. There is definitely a powerful message within this story because Daya eventually learned to deal with her grief and she also learned that there are different kinds of strength and she even falls for a wonderful girl named Shanti (I think she has the biggest heart ever!) I was thoroughly entertained by the side characters on the Killa Honeys roller derby team and I have so much love for Fee and Caihong, Daya's friends from the skateboard park. I also loved the way Daya found her new "chosen family" in the company of the Killa Honeys roller derby team, especially when she least expected it.

Without a doubt, this is a poignant young-adult novel, however, I couldn't get into the story and fully connect with Daya as I would have liked to. I really wished the author had focused more on Daya's healing and her coming to terms with her parents' death because most of the story was focused on Daya's anger, frustration and self-harm.

Tanya Boteju delivers in her newest realistic fiction novel, Bruised! Bruised tells the story of Daya Wijesinghe, a high school senior, who is a master of avoidance. She avoids opening up to her therapist, forming friendships, bonding with her aunt and uncle, and coping with the tragic & recent death of her parents. When Daya's only friend Fee introduces her to roller derby, Daya can't avoid the sport's lure. She wants to play. She has to play. She needs to fall, hit, and feel. Through Daya's increasing involvement in the sport, she must decide whether she will give up avoidance for roller derby and the potential to heal and love again.

Full disclosure to start: I’ve been quad skating since for about a year and a half now, so I went into this with an extra level of intrigue and excitement.

In this novel, our main character Daya is dealing with (by aggressively *not* dealing with) the death of her parents. She has taken to bruising herself and skateboarding to try and distract herself from feeling any sort of way about her life. Then, she stumbles upon the world of roller derby which she hopes will provide a better outlet for injuring herself. With her teammates and an unexpected crush, Daya gets more than she bargained for than just a new way to get hurt.

Tanya Boteju has crafted an incredibly thoughtful and powerful story about not only grief, but the way our brains warp and distort memories of those who we’ve lost. There are a lot of flashbacks where Daya remembers things her parents said to her, the ways her parents acted towards her, and how all of that informs how she chooses to live her life now. It gets dark, as expected, but it never feels hopeless. Boteju is able to thread this needle so well and draws you in to root for Daya while also wanting her to just communicate with those in her life.

Where I felt this book stumble a little was that there was not enough skating or derby as I had been expecting. I wanted to see even more of Daya learning how to be on a team while skating, not just in outside events. I fully acknowledge that this is probably because I skate, but between the cover and the premise, I expected more. Reading about Daya learning to skate with her teammates and the other rookies would have added so much to her journey. I just needed more skating and more of her team. Filling out the rest of the team even a little bit more would have helped the story feel more lived-in.

This book was a beautiful look at dealing with grief and finding healthy and unhealthy coping methods.

4.5 stars rounded down

4.25 Stars. This was a good read. I have wanted a queer roller derby book for a couple of years now. I’ve always been fascinated by the sport and thought the fast paced feel and excitement would translate well into a book. When I heard about Bruised, I knew it was a must read 2021 book for me. I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed and this was the enjoyable book I was hoping for.

The title of this book Bruised, actually comes from the main character, Daya, self-harming. She can’t deal with her grief, and has no outlet for her pain, so she pushes it down almost to the point of being in a zombie like state to just get through her day. She has to stay strong and when the pain and grief inside becomes too much, she hurts herself doing sporting activities. When Daya sees just how tough roller derby women are, and the kind of bruises she could get playing, Daya desperately wants to make the team. But Daya does not count on falling for a girl who is sweet and kind named Shanti. Can Shanti show Daya that there are other ways to be strong?

One of my goals for 2021 is to read more YA and this is the kind of YA that I like. I like YA books that have all the feels. I like stories that will get me smiling one minute, and tearing up the next and that’s what this book did. This book does cover some tough subjects like self-harm, emotional abuse, and grief, and I definitely went through a few tissues at one point, but overall the book didn’t feel too heavy or depressing. The mix of roller derby and a sweet romance really balanced everything out well and you really care about Daya’s journey.

I thought the romance was very sweet and done well. It was a bit more angsty than I expected, but with everything Daya was going through it made sense. While this book is YA, most of the characters are in their early 20’s. Daya is 18, but only still in high school since she lost too much time and had to make up some of her studies. This book almost felt a little bit more verging on NA territory, but I’m not a good judge about that. The romance was mostly PG, but it is a teeny, tiny bit more explicit than some of the other YA’s I’ve been reading lately.

The derby aspects were fun to read about and done well. I think it was clear that Boteju did her homework. I could easily picture the bouts in my mind. I’m a huge sports fan and I really like roller derby, but I think even non-sports fans or people who have never seen derby before would have no problems reading this book. If anything, my one slight complaint is that I could have used a little more skating. I could have used at least one more exciting bout, but I always want more sports in my books.

Overall, this was a read I really enjoyed and I would easily recommend it. I would especially recommend it to people who don’t mind book about grief, like sweet romances, and a little sports action in their books. This book was wonderfully diverse and perfectly queer, and I hope Boteju will write more books like this.

TW: Self-harm, emotional abuse, parental death, grief

Ever since her parents' deaths in a horrifying car accident, Daya has pushed the world away. She's repressed her feelings, choosing physical pain over grief, using bruises to push down her underlying guilt. Until she's introduced to the world of roller derby, and discovers that there are different ways to be strong, and different ways to express your hurt. And that sometimes, it's okay to go a different way.

This was fabulous. Highly, highly recommend.

I was underwhelmed by Kings, Queens and In-Betweens, mainly because I found the characters to be one-dimensional and the love interest a bland manic gothic nightmare girl, so I tiptoed into this one (convinced to smash that request button by the awesome blurb and the promise of queer roller derby), and I really, really connected with each and every single character in this one.

She needs to learn to stand her ground. To not let anyone get to her, Sunita. Fighting in the ring will teach her that. You know we have to work twice as hard. Be twice as strong.

Whew. Where do I even start with this review? Especially since it's been almost a month since I finished the book, and all of my reviews have piled up because I just don't know how to talk about this in any coherent way. And yet, since of leaving the review on read and just skipping along to my day, there was some about this that really, really hit hard with me.

Daya is first generation Sri Lankan-Canadian, and her father had to work his ass off in order to support his family (and his brother) in order to get a toehold in the Vancouver area. Because of this, her dad was determined to ensure Daya was strong as fuck, but strong in his own way. And Daya's dad's strength was deceptively strong, the strong where you build walls, suppress your emotions, become physically tough and distant and keep everything else out so you don't get hurt. Mild spoiler, there is some heavy emotional abuse in this relationship, and the way Daya's father pushes her is not healthy. His projections of his own fears and desires and anger onto her twists her own emotional growth, until she views everything not like him as weak, and herself as weak because she can't keep up with his idealized version of himself. Okay, going to stop there because I'm reading farrrr to much into this.

Anywho. When her parents die in car wreck, Daya feels incredibly guilty because she was there and she survived (not going to spoil it completely but the twist isn't a huge twist—you see it coming a mile away and it still will break your heart into a million, billion pieces because it wasn't her fault at all, and yet you can still see how she's rationalized it in her head thanks to the years of well, everything).

And how to do you make yourself feel kinda better, or assuage some of the guilt, particularly when you're brought up in to literally beat the shit out of someone with your fists?

You harm yourself.

Physical pain=the simultaneous expression/repression of grief.

Because if you fuck yourself up enough physically, then emotionally it makes some small part feel just a little bit better, because you deserved to be hurt.
Roller derby is so much more than the sport; it is a community that strives to empower and revolutionize the way we see women.

I loved how Daya is initially drawn into roller derby—it's chaotic, wild, and literally there are hips and elbows flying everywhere without any seeming rules or structure.

When she gets more involved with it, she begins to realize what it means to be part of a team. Previously, she'd been incredibly athletic and talented at boxing, but boxing is an individual sport and she was kept mostly isolated by her dad and his training regiment. So she's got to learn how to roller blade, learn the rules of roller derby, and learn teamwork in order to get on (and stay on) the team.

But what makes it truly unique is that it is a full contact sport that has been created, developed, promoted, operated and led by women.

I really, really loved the supporting characters (well, all but one) in this book.

Daya has some truly fantastic friends and family. There are her aunt and uncle, who are grief-struck as well by the deaths and bewildered over becoming the guardians of a rebellious, checked-out teenager who just wants to skateboard and be by herself. I loved her aunt and uncle (note it's been a month so I don't remember any names), who are musical and theatre fanatics and are just so bubbly and delightful, and yet that bubbliness and overwhelming cheer is their coping mechanism.

I also loved Dee's friends before she meets the roller derby girls. Pretty much that person is Fee, who is nonbinary and amazing (as is their mom), and Fee's girlfriend (who is deaf!!! Deaf rep y'all!!!). And Fee and their girlfriend are brown, which is just so fantastic (pretty much everyone in this book is a person of color and/or queer, and I was so in love).

I also loved the OG Roller Derby Fanatics. Again, I can't remember names, but these are the older adults who basically created roller derby and continue to champion it and support it and boost and welcome new players and fans. I so, so loved how supportive they were of Daya, and how they seemed to recognize (it's very much Daya's POV so you don't really see what other people are thinking) that Daya was lost and grieving and that she needed something, and that that something was connection, family and healing.

I also loved Shanti, Daya's love interest. Shanti is strong, too, but she's not truly a roller derby girl. Her older sister, Kat, is the captain of the roller derby team Daya wants to join (The Killa Honeys), and it's Kat Daya most looks up to, because Kat is everything Daya wants to be: tough as nails, a little bit cruel, a strong leader, and 100% confident (although what Daya doesn't see is that Kat is Daya if she doesn't get herself together). I did not like how Kat treated Shanti, and how Kat looked down on Shanti's empathy and emotional intelligence like that was something weak and to be toughened up (I um, I was Kat, and still am Kat, which is why I don't like Kat—I see myself in her and I do not like that part of myself).

Anywho, this is a really long review #sorrynotsorry

Bottom line up front (BLUF in military terms): this is a book about grieving and coping strategies and friendship and complicated family relationships. It's about picking yourself up (and letting people help you up), and moving forward after a fuck-up. And it's a little bit about roller derby, too.

This was definitely the book for me, although I so, so wish I had had it when I was a teenager.

Last thought: if anything I wrote here touched a nerve, this might be the book for you, too.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

Weirdly convenient timing — they go to one game, the tryouts are the next week, and then it’s the season opener?

These characters are oddly flat. And Daya fully ditched her BFF with no mention...

In Bruised, by Tanya Botejy, Daya is living with her aunt and uncle after living through the car crash that killed her parents. Searching for a way to acquire more bruises that help distract her from their loss and her guilt, she stumbles upon roller derby and is soon swept up in a world of roller skates, puns, and rockabilly badass women.

The good: Bruised describes roller derby in such a vibrant, exciting way that everyone reading it will surely want to lace up their skates and hit the rink.

The bad: The characters, though delightfully diverse in race, gender, and orientation, are oddly flat, full of backstory and reasons for their behavior, but oddly devoid of internal life.

The ugly: This book handles some intense, tough topics, including parent death and self-harm. Daya's emotional journey throughout the book feels a little rushed, but these topics are handed, for the most part, with a fair amount of care.

This was an overall somewhat disappointing read, but fans of roller derby will surely be happy to see their sport so lovingly depicted on the page.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

Content warning: self-harm, parental death, car accident, parental abandonment

I'm always here for friendship focused stories - especially one that highlights female friendships, and that was why I was initially drawn to Bruised, But the deep emotional journey is what hooked me and drew me through the story. There is a large cast of characters to love, while made turning to this story very enjoyable for me, who tends to gravitate to character driven stories

After surviving a car accident that killed her parents, Daya has spent every moment seeking pain as a way to feel something other than emptiness. Whether it's throwing herself into skateboarding or bashing her hand into her headboard, she uses her bruises as a way to feel alive but soon she finds that's not enough. When she discovers roller derby, Daya believes she's finally found something to keep her emotional turmoil at bay. Not the most social person, Daya is at first hesitant at the thought of being on a team, but the allure of all the hard-hitting contact is too great an opportunity to pass up. The more time she spends with the rest of the girls, not to mention a budding romance with the soft-spoken shy team manager, the more Daya starts to open up to a whole new world of emotions. The road to healing will be a long one, but for the first time, it's one that Daya is looking forward to skating down.

I didn't know much about this going into it, and while I can appreciate the topics it dealt with, this just wasn't for me. Daya was taught her whole life to be tough and that any sign of being emotional was to be taken as a weakness. This leads her to be very abrasive and hard-headed which made her came across as being very mean. I understand that she went through a lot and that she feels as if these cement walls she placed around herself are the only way to deal with her issues, but her actions made her feel unlikable. Everyone around her tries to help her and she just completely shuts them all out and instead turns to really unhealthy means of letting out her aggression. I did like watching her inevitably grow by the end, but I just wish it happened sooner. There were some bits I liked, namely all the representation throughout and the actual roller derby aspect. I don't know much about the sport besides the movie Whip It, so it was fun and exciting to learn more. Overall, this is a story about grief and healing from loss, and despite it not working for me, I still think it'd be an impactful read for someone else.