Bruised

This book cracked my heart open in the best way possible. Everything was handled with so much care, and it's so obvious how much the author loves these characters that you just can't help loving them too. I might have shed a few tears reading it, happy or sad, I couldn't tell you, I don't know myself. But the exploration of grief, self-harm and self-discovery was beautiful, as was Daya slowly opening herself up to people.

Minus 1 star because I had a hard time getting into this book at the beginning and for the sentences “This is why I don't hang out with chicks. So damn sensitive.” which really threw me out of it. Like wow, I thought Daya was grieving, not rude and sexist!

This is a young adult novel about a young woman (the character is still in high school but she's 18) who joins a roller derby league while dealing with unresolved personal trauma.

Like a lot of other reviews, I was surprised how severe the self-harm content was, and how often it came up in the book. Daya is also extremely obnoxious for the first half of the novel as a self-defence mechanism. It's understandable but it does make parts of the book a slog to get through. The romance was fine but a little underwhelming. Daya obviously benefited but the love interest kind of felt like a prop. The storyline with Kat dragged on way too long and never really felt resolved.

I did like the parts about the derby itself and all its events. Daya's friend Fee and most of her derby friends were fun characters. I think it's valuable as well to show a character who is still struggling with trauma despite a supportive environment, and I loved how kind and understanding Daya's aunt and uncle were about her sexuality since you don't usually see that in novels about immigrant families.

The second half of the book was wonderful, but I'm rating it a bit lower for the rough first half. I would not recommend this book to anyone with a history of self-harm because the narrative dwells on it for so long but I would recommend it to anyone else.

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens felt like a hug. It was anxiety inducing, but lovingly so! Bruised felt like the loving callout on shitty coping skills. I had to pause a few times to have emotions (and to screech when my girls FINALLY got to kiss, oh my god). I'm glad I learned of Boteju when her first book came out so I was already prepared to get this one as soon as it hit the shelves.