I loved the artwork in this graphic novel. I also really liked the story. It did take me some time to get into it, but when it got me I pressed on.
I think the book has some topics that might be very recognizable for people, so that's very nice.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Total Suplex of the Heart is a semi-autobiographical graphic novel following Georgie, a young woman with a burgeoning career in freelance journalism who decides to go undercover in the world of local amateur hardcore wrestling circuit to investigate the ins-and-outs of this at time sordid and certainly alluring scene. As she gets her start acting as a valet (someone--usually a woman--who accompanies another wrestler--usually a man--into the ring to excite the crowd or interfere in the match, as needed), she quickly finds herself ingriated with the locals, making friends, enemies, and then some as she dives deeper and deeper into the wrestling world unfolding before her.

First thing's first: this art is GORGEOUS. The characters look amazing; the character design is sleek and gorgeous while not sacrificing a certain realism to the designs, and it perfectly fits the story it is depicting. The colors are appropriately moody, and it really adds to the sense of atmosphere that the story is trying to invoke.

All of the characters depicted feel very *real,* in a "these people are SO messy" sort of a way, which made the narrative feel more grounded and compelling to me (a serial lover of messy, complicated people). This messy realness could, in all fairness, also make it very hard to root for anyone presented in this graphic novel, but that's the thing with people: nobody is usually 100% good or 100% bad, and that very much comes through in the writing of these characters, who may be loosely or firmly based upon actual people in the author's life.

Even the author's own expy is not immune to being a complete wreck who makes some severely bad choices, but that's what makes her Real--she struggles severely with her childhood trauma which, in turn, spirals into her making rash sexual and interpersonal decisions and dealing with an eating disorder as she tries to lay claim to her own life and choices. This part, at least, is entirely too relatable to me.

These messy characters, alongside the depiction of abuse in relationships and the realities of the very-often misogynistic, homophobic, racist, etc. world of hardcore wrestling, can be something of a heavy, bitter pill, but it makes for a story that feels deeply authentic and fascinating for me. It is best summarized as being a hot mess of a story about a bunch of hot messes, and I wouldn't change that, even if some readers might not find that to be to their tastes.

The ending is a little abrupt, but given that this is based on the author's real life, I can understand why it left off as it did, and there are pacing issues--often, we fly through any semblance of characters bonding or relationships unraveling, and months will pass by from one panel to the next without mention particularly in the latter half of the novel, which can be a bit difficult to follow at times.

Overall, I enjoyed this graphic novel. It's not perfect, but nobody is, right?
3.5 out of 5, rounded up.

Content Warnings: Eating disorders, bullying, OCD, child/familial abuse, domestic abuse/violence, sexual harrassment and assault, infidelity.

Total Suplex of the Heart by Joanne Starer and Ornella Greco is a semi autographical graphic novel about Georgie who is a journalist that becomes a wrestler, and her journey. It is a graphic novel that deals with messy people and quite a lot of heavy subjects like domestic abuse, misogyny and eating disorders, so it can be pretty hard to read at times. When I went into the book, I hadn’t expected it to be as heavy as it was. The art is nice and feels natural, but the pacing of the story is quite fast. For me personally, the book didn’t fully hit the spot. I think it would be a better fit for someone who has more of an interest in wrestling, and is aware of the tough subjects and is comfortable with them being dealt with fairly heavy handedly. I was quite uncomfortable with how some things were barely or not dealt with at all, which impacted my overall experience reading the book.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I can't say I got what I have read. For most of the book, I was totally confused about what was happening. BUT, I loved this book, on the one hand. The characters were nice, the plot was beautifully written. I really liked the drawings and colors. 3,5-4 ⭐

This book is a mess. I expected to read a story about a woman getting involved in the wrestling scene and while that was definitely there, it was surrounded by a scattered mess of other storylines about domestic abuse, mental health, eating disorders, etc, none of which are mentioned in the blurb or on a notes page. As a reader, it was extremely jarring. I also feel that the text would have benefited from a developmental edit by someone experienced with graphic novel memoirs. There were a lot of time jumps and context jumps between panels that made it extremely confusing at times (and I wondered if I had skipped a page). Adding in chapter breaks or headings with references to time passing or even creating a series of 'short story vignettes' would have greatly helped this story.

Frustrated, Georgie decides on a whim to check out a wrestiling show to write about for her writing job, a pop culture website. Her mom is not a fan, but, as readers will find out her mom has a lot of opinions. Thus begins Georgie's foray into wrestling, finding men who are not good for her, and a tale of self discovery that leads to her finally finding her friends and herself. This graphic novel shows the underside of wrestling as well as a person who has to finally face her mental health and insecurities head on in order to move on. I really enjoyed Georgie's story while also not sure where this story was going. The fact that it's based on the author's own life adds a new layer to the story and to the struggles Georgie works through. Hand to fans of wrestling, readers who need help navigating toxic relationships and abuse, or just a good glow up.

A fun but Adult level coming of age graphic novel that covers heavy topics like eating disorders and abuse from parents and sexual partners all in the backdrop of local wrestling teams. Great for fans of the show GLOW! The illustrations are fun and lively, really bringing the story to life with movement and color. Inspired by the author’s own experiences in the pro-wrestling world it gives hope for being able to find yourself after heartbreak and loss.

I liked the concept of this graphic novel a lot; and i liked the focus on wrestling. My biggest struggle however was the pacing; it felt very choppy and there was no flow in time jumps which took me out of the story a few a times.

I really, really wanted to like this. Sadly, there wasn't much to like. There were stakes with no resolution, and plenty of weird moments that made me dislike the characters I was supposed to like. Honestly, it feels like half of the book is missing.
The art is lovely though.

I think wrestling as a community and an art of performance is super interesting and overlooked especially when it comes to women. "Total Suplex of the Heart" is based on Starer's experience in the early 2000s. It's harsh and vulgar, at points I felt super uncomfortable and I think that's the point. The main character's own personal struggles with body image was super relatable, I don't see it alot in fiction dispite this thinking being very common. She's not a perfect person by any means and hard to cheer on but neither are we.

I do think the story suffered from pacing, months would pass in 2 panels and there wouldn't be a mention of it. People go from meeting to being best friends with no development. I just wish the story had been longer and spread out or maybe segmented into chapters. When I was reading it it was super frustrating and I had to put it down to let myself breathe. Also I think a content warning to the beginning would be nice.

Brilliant art gives this original story the perfect vehicle to take off and reach its audience. But even though this graphic novel is based on a true story, it still needed to have better story beats. This felt like two different stories, and I did not have enough information to make the leap from the first story to the second at the halfway point. And on top of that, there wasn’t much of a resolution at the end. I don’[t regret picking up this book, but I do wish it had more to it.

Definitely not a cute feel-good wholesome story that one could assume it is from the cover and description.
It should have specified trigger warnings for eating disorders, family and partner abuse, toxic relationships and more. The plot jumped around too much, and there were moments where I wish things were further expanded upon. The art was very nice but the humor fell flat.

Definitely not a cute feel-good wholesome story that one could assume it is from the cover and description. It should have specified trigger warnings for eating disorders, family and partner abuse, toxic relationships and more. It is biographical in nature, speaking of hardships that the author went through in her own life.

The story is a very slice-of-life one, with time jumps between different parts, and it talks mainly about the wrestling business (and its darker sides), difficulties of women in that business, navigating life with trauma, then it turns its focus to toxic relationships. The art was really nice, the panels easy to read through. The characters felt a bit flat to me, I couldn't really connect to them, and we didn't see any growth in them. Well, I know it do be like that sometimes in life, but it would be nice to know in advance that this book is not an uplifting read that I was expecting. The way it was done made me feel quite uncomfortable in fact, I felt down after I finished reading it, since I think the heavy themes weren't tackled properly.

I got an ARC of this book.

It wasn't the best book out there, but I mostly enjoyed reading it. It was really just a messy slice of life with a minor league wrestling theme. I didn't feel like I knew any of the characters by the end or understood any motivations. There didn't really seem to be any, but lots of abs.

I did like the women of wrestling aspects. There was talk about the way that women are treated in wrestling and then a huge focus on starting up women shows (and how men can co-opt that). I just didn't really care about the romance or the characters. I think that if it were multiple volumes some of my issues would have worked themselves out, but it would have felt even more slow to read.

I wanted to love it, but I just didn't! I thought that the plot jumped around too much, and there were moments where I wish things were further expanded upon. The art was very nice, but none of the characters were likable, and the humor fell flat.

The art was gorgeous, but that's about as far as I would go. None of the characters were likeable and the ones that could have been fell flat. This was different and I am always game for a graphic novel that pushes my tastes. I would avoid buying this one for your collection.

This sem-autobiographical graphic novel revolves around wrestling, especially the lives of female wrestlers or females in the wrestling scene. The beginning of the book covers a lot of the toxicity, abusive behaviour and the ugliness of the whole scene which really demotivated me to read this further. It takes a while for you to process all of these incidents or topics and even if you don’t want to read it further, you realise why it is important for someone to talk about these things.

The lead character’s friendships, relationships, and the way she looks at herself are explored in depth in the book, in larger glimpses in the second half. Her struggle with her own image and her struggle with choosing a partner who seemed perfect for her but was not is explored with clarity and also in an unbiased manner.

My problem with this book arises when you start off reading the book as a journalist’s perspective on the wrestling scene but there is absolutely no mention of journalism or any sort of investigative thought put in by the character.

The art was definitely a big element of the book which I liked. I would recommend this book if you are ready to read something funny which deals with heavier topics.

Thanks to NetGalley and Humanoids Inc for the ARC for an honest review!

Recommended: sure
for wrestling fans, for a story of overcoming yourself as your own worst enemy, for characters who make bad choices or fail but just keep trying despite the setbacks

Thoughts:
This was pretty tough to read in a few ways. First up is that it's about the wrestling scene in the early 2000s, which is a pretty toxic and terrible place really. Especially for women. So seeing the way she was treated made me feel kind of sick especially since I'm sure it's all quite accurate. Secondly was seeing the pain and struggles she faced, and how sometimes she made it worse for herself despite how much she was trying to change. She was often too close to the problem, couldn't see the forest for the trees kind of thing. The ending was really well done, and I think it could be dependent on each person's read of it whether it's "happy" or not, you know? Arguments could be made for a few different ways which I appreciate. There's lots of room for discussion.

The art is so perfect for the story. It had a lot of emotion that it could carry in the way people moved and the expressions, the coloring, all of it. I think it suited the story really well and emphasized the emotions in certain scenes to really bring me along with it. Subtleties were rare in this book because of the way the characters are as people, but the art helped fill and soften some of their forthrightness.

Getting a little glimpse inside wrestling life at that time was engaging if mildly sickening (not that I wasn't expecting it). If you're unfamiliar with wrestling, just know that the stuff in here is not exaggerated and the quip about having to do bra-and-panties matches her whole career is 100% accurate and that was a thing wayyyyyy longer than it ever should have been. :l

Thanks to Humanoids Inc and NetGalley for a free copy of this book. This is my honest review.

I really enjoyed the plot line of this graphic novel and I the art was really cute. The formatting was a little hard to follow, but I think that was just because I was trying to read it on my phone.

Thank you Net Galley for this e arc. Total Suplex of the Heart is an adorable ode to wrestling and the female wrestling scene. The humor in the book is definitely a strong point for the book. I also love the art style. The story isn't the most compelling but it sure is fun.