This was one of the better "celebrity" memoirs I've read (though I'd argue Moceanu's less a celebrity and just a well-known athlete, at least among people in my generation). Aside from dishing out a lot of personal stuff, Moceanu gives an inside look at the politics of USA Gymnastics. I'd had an idea about some of them, but she goes at it full force in the last couple of chapters, discussing how it's terrible that the entire sport rests upon the decisions of the Karolyis. Gymnastics is the only sport in the country that has this sort of system, and it's modeled after Russian and Romanian gymnastics.

While Moceanu details a lot of what you'd expect in terms of struggling with physical shape, with diet, with eating, and with competition, she was also dealing with a lot of adults who downright abused her. Aside from abusive coaches -- and there is no doubt in my mind that's the best way to describe the Karolyis -- Moceanu's father was pretty wretched as well. That all played out really publicly when she filed for emancipation, but the book details a lot more of her side of the story. I give her huge credit because where she could have sensationalized the story, instead, Moceanu is kind of humble about the entire matter. She forgave her father repeatedly, and she's forthright in saying the media really played the story up to being much more than it was (shocker). I appreciated how throughout the story, there was little anger or resentment toward anything that had happened in her life. Rather, it was her story, and she reacted as necessary. Not once was this one of those "pity me" kind of memoirs. Moceanu knows how neat her path was in terms of being such a young and accomplished athlete. She just shares some of the lesser-known things.

Prior to reading the book, I'd heard about how she (view spoiler)[ discovered she had a sister who'd been given up for adoption and how life-changing it was to reconnect with her. It's sort of mind-blowing how you could go through your entire life and never know you had a sibling. But as strange is it was, I related. I'm pretty sure my little sisters don't know about me and I know my husband's two older brothers don't know about him. Families are complicated things, and I appreciated how Moceanu approached this in her memoir. Again, it's never a call for pity or sympathy. Instead, it's about how complicated things are and you just roll with it. (hide spoiler)]

Fans of good memoirs and fans of Moceanu or gymnastics will certainly appreciate this read. After reading the Sey memoir earlier, I can say I think this one was much more enjoyable in terms of giving a look at how professional gymnastics works today.