Thank you again for your interest in our book reviews. We read and reviewed your book and liked it very much. Here is a copy of our review:

 

Five stars.

 I enjoyed reading Surya Bonaly: A Tribute by Carol Denise Mitchell. In my view, it is a passionate and emotionally driven celebration of one of figure skating’s most groundbreaking and controversial athletes. Rather than presenting a conventional sports biography, I felt the book functions as both a historical reflection and a cultural reclamation, seeking to restore recognition to an athlete and to offer a new understanding of how Surya Bonaly was not fully honored during her competitive career. And that is exactly what this book did for me.

 

I enjoyed the way the author traces Surya Bonaly’s journey from her early life and adoption in France through her rise to international prominence in skating, highlighting her extraordinary athleticism, innovation, and resilience. In my opinion, Carol Denis Mitchell writes in a dynamic style, and I liked the way she places particular emphasis on Bonaly’s revolutionary contributions to figure skating, especially her historic one-foot backflip at the 1998 Nagano Olympics — a moment portrayed as both an athletic achievement and a symbolic act of defiance against restrictive judging systems.

 

I found that the author described how Bonaly wasn’t just a competitor but a pioneer who challenged the aesthetic and cultural expectations embedded within the sport.

 

I liked the way the author connects Bonaly’s legacy to earlier trailblazers such as Mabel Fairbanks, positioning her achievements within a lineage of Black excellence in sport.

 

I also felt this book serves as an impassioned homage to a remarkable athlete whose influence extends far beyond the ice rink. To me, it is a heartfelt work aimed at preserving memory, inspiring new generations, and reaffirming the enduring importance of representation in sport.

 

All in all, I believe this book serves as an inspiring introduction for younger readers, sports fans, and anyone interested in the history of figure skating and the legacy of athletes who changed their sport forever. Very well done and highly recommended!

 

 

It was my pleasure to receive a complimentary copy of this book, and that does not in any way affect my opinion of this extraordinary and exceptional book.

We posted our review on Goodreads, and we have submitted the review to Amazon.

You can use our review any way you wish. Thank you for your interest in our reviews and we wish you great success with your book and your future books!

Best to you,

Bruce Miller