Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli

Break the Fall tells an important story about survival, solidarity, support and mental health in the shadows of a sexual assault scandal within the US gymnastics team. But unfortunately, the characters were a bit underdeveloped and the unnecessary instalove romance made this book less gripping and powerful than I’d hoped for.

The story follows the young gymnast Audrey Lee who’s made it to the United States’ gymnastics team and is on her way to the Tokyo Olympics, when the horrifying news comes that one of Audrey’s teammates has accused the coach of sexual assault. Audrey is desperate to advocate for her teammate who has been hurt by the one person they trusted the most, but not all the gymnasts are as supportive and the various responses from the team and social media is ripping the team apart.

Even though the abuse naturally is a major part for the story, the book doesn’t focus on the actual abuse, but its aftermath. I really appreciated how it raised awareness about mental health and the harm in not being believed and supported by others when sharing your darkest secret. It also had such an important message about standing together against injustice and not letting the girls be victimized but showing them as strong and capable Olympians even though the trauma they’d been through. But sadly, this book could have been so much better executed. The romance part fell flat for me and almost turned this important story into something close to a cheesy romance. This instalove part was completely unnecessary for the story, and there was almost no build-up or chemistry between Audrey and Leo to make you root for them as a couple. I also felt that the gymnastics parts with all the detailed descriptions of the routines were too drawn out and repetitive. (But that might be because I know almost nothing about gymnastics. If you do, you might find these parts more enjoyable.)

All in all, it was a decent read that told an important story of abuse and manipulation that helps destigmatize mental health conversations in sports. I just wish that the characters had been more fleshed out and that a bigger part of the story had been spent on their character development, so that we could have felt how they were affected by this major trauma rather than being told about it.

Rating:
​3 stars

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​Author info:
Jennifer Iacopelli