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My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When she was 11 years old, Victoria Arlen started to not feel well. Her body was not cooperating. Doctors were unable to diagnose her and labeled her as "attention seeking". They convinced her parents to send her to a rehab facility, that turned out to be a mental hospital, where she endured abuse, physical and mental. Luckily her parents got her out, but not soon enough. She fell into a coma due to constant seizures. It took 3 years to fight her way back to consciousness and then to prove to others that she was awake and aware.
She eventually was able to regain use of her upper body, though her legs remained paralyzed. However, she did not let that stop her dreams of being an Olympic champion. She trained constantly and 2 years after waking up, she broke world records and won gold in the 100 meter freestyle at the 2012 Paralympics. But the IOC questioned her coming out of no where and, despite a mountain of medical and empirical data, declared her not disability qualified to continue to compete.
She turned her anger to determination and, through a help from a special organization, regained the ability to walk and at the age of 23 competed on Dancing with the Stars.
+++++
It is hard to rate this book. Her story is nothing but inspiring. But... the writing of the story felt a bit ... juvenile. I understand that even at 23 she refers to her parents as Mummy and Daddy, but it made it feel like a child telling me the story (I listened to the audiobook) when she said "I looked to see my Mummy there waiting". Or something similar.
I would have liked more details in her struggle to recover. It felt glossed over when she went from waking up, to home, to playing sled hockey or swimming in the span of a couple paragraphs.
I have to agree with other reviews that while she has every right to tell her story her way, I think she would have benefited greatly by working with a professional biographer.
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