Bruised, by Sarah
Skilton, is a tender story about sixteen-year-old Imogen, a Taekwondo black
belt, who has just witnessed an attempted robbery that resulted in the would-be
mugger’s death. After getting covered in his blood, Imogen tries to find –
really, re-find – herself and understand her relationship to those around her.
Ms.
Skilton’s novel was brought to my attention by a friend (also a writer) because
the teenage protagonist is a black belt in Taekwondo and is trying to come to
terms with her place in the world. My debut novel, Back Kicks And Broken Promises, which came out about a year before
Ms. Skilton’s, is also about a teenage Taekwondoist trying to come to terms
with his place in the world. Although the circumstances around their
uncertainties are very different, it is through Taekwondo training that they
come to some kind of conclusion. And, it is because of that that Bruised is a book that needed to be written
and needs to be read.
Too
often, books and movies about martial arts are about some kind of superhero or
cop or spy battling against super villains as he or she tries save to the
world. Bruised, on the other hand, deals
with martial arts and the martial artist in a real way. Most of us who practice
martial arts (I am a 28 year Taekwondo practitioner with a sixth degree black
belt) will never battle any kind of villain, let alone a super one, while
trying to save the world we live in. But we do fight. We combat those things in
our own lives that infect our hearts and minds - villains like fear,
uncertainty, arrogance, laziness - that challenge us every day. Ms. Skilton
depicts this side of martial arts expertly and honestly, the way only someone
who’s experienced it can. And, Ms. Skilton has, having earned her own Taekwondo
black belt. Moreover, she presents an honest depiction of a teenager. Martial
artist or not, Imogen is a typical teenager going through the common, but individually
unique, set of trials and tribulations that come with dealing with family
members during adolescence, the changing dynamic of best friends, and finding
romance for the first time.
Another
reason why I recommend Bruised is
because it shows Imogen battling with the meaning of her black belt and the
reliability of her fighting skills. This was particularly interesting to me for
two reasons: 1. Back Kicks, in its
early drafts, started out with that as its central theme and 2. speaking again
as a martial artist, that’s something we all question at some point in our
martial arts lives. Ms. Skilton organically puts Imogen in a situation that
makes her question her years of training and her attempts to find answers and
the resolution that Ms. Skilton puts Imogen through are nicely presented and true
to the principles of what all martial arts teach. There is nothing cliché or
predictable in how Imogen finds her place.
As
a longtime and lifelong martial artist, there were two instances of inaccuracy
in Bruised that made me crumple my
nose. As a writer of fiction, however, I was able to sidestep them under the
guise of literary license. I won’t point them out, however, leaving them for
other martial artists who read Ms. Skilton’s book to find. Truly, they don’t
really affect the story. Other martial artists will discover them, cringe for a
second and be done with it. It’s when non-martial arts people read them and
take them, perhaps, as fact that is my minor concern. As an experienced martial
artists herself, however, Ms. Skilton may have intentionally added them as an
illustrative device; depicting how teenagers, even though they may be
knowledgeable and adept at something, still get things wrong. Heck, even adults
do.
To
end this review, I’d like to thank Ms. Skilton. I enjoy those ‘bang bang’
movies and stories about superhero martial artists and spies who have great
martial arts skills. But, as I mentioned earlier, most martial artists don’t
get to use their skills that way. Ms. Skilton successfully presents martial
arts in their true light. While there are some really well written action
scenes in Bruised, it’s Imogen’s use
of the mental and emotional arsenal she’s attained that are the best and most
rewarding scenes. Bruised is a book
for those who like a little action in the stories they read, those who enjoy a
good YA coming-of-ager, and those who like an internal, more literary, kind of
story.
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On
a separate note, I couldn’t help from smile throughout my reading of Bruised because of the coincidental
similarities between Ms. Skilton’s novel and my own. Imogen’s Taekwondo master
is Grandmaster Huan. The grandmaster in Back
Kicks And Broken Promises is Grandmaster Han. One of the main characters,
what I like to call the ‘sub-protagonist’ or ‘second protagonist’ is Imogen’s love
interest, Ricky. The protagonist in my book is also called Ricky. And, lastly,
Imogen refers to and uses the character rules from Grandmaster Huan’s dojang (Taekwondo school) to help her
understand what’s going on around her; mantra that guide her way of life and
how she interacts with friends, family members, and teachers, and how she is
supposed to behave in all sorts of situations. Perhaps it’s the nature of
Taekwondo, more than other martial arts, because in all the arts I’ve studied
Taekwondo is the only one in which some set of rules are recited at the start
of every class. In my school and in my book, they’re called Mental Training and
Ricky, the protagonist of Back Kicks And
Broken Promises, refers to them constantly.
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