Stephanie S. reviewed on 3/31/2021 + 168 more book reviews

It's very hard not to be drawn into the true story of a 13-year-old girl surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack. It's many of our worst fears. Bethany survived, of course, and thrived in many amazing ways, the most inspirational of which is that she continued to surf and is now ranked as one of the top female surfers in the world.

However, I found the book lacked one thing: which was the most basic and simple day-to-day ways her life changed following her amputation. I have talked to a number of arm amputees who told me it's "not the big things that are hard now, but the littlest things--like buttering toast or buttoning a shirt." Bethany quite skipped over these kinds of adjustments that she must have had to work through during her recovery. Instead, three weeks after the attack she was back on a surfboard with guts and determination, and it was onward and upward from there.

That is remarkable, of course, but I felt because of the omissions of at least some of the mundane details of post-amputee adjustments, that the story lacked a bit of depth.

I read an edition of this book that included information on the movie Soul Surfer, based on this book. In a way, the director of the movie agrees with my assessment. Sam McNamara wrote, "The book sat on my shelf for a while. Then when I read it, I saw there was incredible potential for a movie. But I also felt like there was something missing, namely the feeling that Bethany had struggled greatly with what happened. It was really just brushing the surface of the emotions I knew were there. I knew that a movie would need to dig deeper. Unless you see her struggling and overcoming adversity, you don't understand or connect with her."

I agree with his words. I couldn't connect with her deeply while reading the book, and I really wanted and expected to.

*** Three stars.

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