I read On Top of Glass last summer and loved it. I find rating memoirs hard because you are judging someone’s actual life events. So, with memoirs, it’s more about the fl of the story and how the story is written. On Top of Glass was an easy-to-read memoir about Karina Manta’s life as a figure skater for the USA team. She also speaks a lot about being queer in the figure skating world, which is not that uncommon in men figure skaters but frowned upon in women’s figure skating.
I started figure skating at a young age and took a hiatus after I turned twenty-one. I was still able to connect to Karina’s story. Growing up, I always felt like the black sheep in the figure skating world. I wore heavy metal T-shirts and listened to heavy rock. I was never a perfect ballerina figure skater who was skinny, elegant, and balanced. Karina and I had two different figure skating journeys, but I still really connected with her story of being different in such a strict sport. I gave her book 5 out of 5 stars.
Goodreads excerpt:
An insightful memoir from a figure skating champion about her life as a bisexual professional athlete, perfect for readers of Fierce by Aly Raisman and Forward by Abby Wambach.
Karina Manta has had a busy few Not only did she capture the hearts of many with her fan-favorite performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she also became the first female figure skater on Team USA to come out as queer. Her Modern Love essay “I Can’t Hate My Body if I Love Hers” was published in the New York Times , and then she joined the circus–Cirque du Soleil’s on-ice show, AXEL.
Karina’s memoir covers these experiences and much more. Attending a high school with 4,000 students, you’d expect to know more than two openly gay students, but Karina didn’t meet an out-lesbian until she was nearly seventeen–let alone any other kind of queer woman. But this isn’t just a story about her queerness. It’s also a story about her struggle with body image in a sport that prizes delicate femininity. It’s a story about panic attacks, and first crushes, and all the crushes that followed, and it’s a story about growing up, feeling different than everybody around her and then realizing that everyone else felt different too.
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