A story about love, pain and overcoming abuse illustrated beautifully and altogether a quick read that was impossible to put down.

Total Suplex of the Heart starts as the story of a journalist covering independent wrestling but quickly evolves into something much deeper. What begins as an assignment turns into full immersion in the world of pro wrestling, offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at an industry that can be both thrilling and deeply flawed.

The book doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of wrestling, including its often misogynistic culture and the struggles women face in the business. At the same time, it’s a deeply personal story of a woman confronting the emotional scars left by a controlling mother while navigating friendships and romantic relationships. These elements add depth and emotional weight to the narrative.

While I found the premise intriguing, the execution didn’t fully meet my expectations. The frequent jumps in the timeline were disorienting and made it difficult to stay fully engaged. However, one aspect that truly stood out was the artwork—rich in detail, from intricate clothing designs to immersive settings, making each scene visually compelling.

Overall, Total Suplex of the Heart is an insightful read with powerful themes and stunning visuals, but the scattered timeline kept me from loving it as much as I had hoped.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Humanoids Inc | Life Drawn for this advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not really at all what I expected. It took a much more serious turn, and I wasn't aware that it was inspired by the author's real life. I did like the illustrations, and I thought overall the book was very empowering, it simply wasn't what I signed up for originally.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I am disappointed. The arstyle in this book was beautiful but the plot did not reflect the same.

We keep jumping form one plot point to the next, it felt like the author had a bunch of bullet points to tick so they threw away the entire plot. Nothing that was mentioned had enough build up for me to care. Many imporant topics and conversations were thrown out of the wingdow for the next jawdropping thing. The wasnt even an attempt to tackle important issues. This book is autobiographical so it is hard for me to write anything about the contents.

I stopped reading this book at page 22.

First of all, I understand that this graphic novel is autobiographical and I would never negatively review somebody's life and choices. That is ultimately their business. However, this graphic novel did not work out for me. It wasn't done well and I ended up not finishing it.

I loved the art style in this. It was very well done. Beyond that, I found the story lacking. It was all over the place, skipping plot lines and mentioning some pretty serious topics without going into any detail on their importance, or the characters' growth from those experiences. There was hardly an attempt to even try to tackle most of the serious topics. I also disliked all of the characters. A lot of them made me feel uncomfortable/or were completely trashy toxic humans, but there was hardly any character growth from what I noticed.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for allowing me to give this a chance!

This will be added to my Goodreads, but out of respect to the author I will not be putting this on any major websites that are selling this.

This graphic novel is really captivating. Our narrator isn't perfect, but she is lovable and you can understand her motives for venturing into the world of wrestling. As we follow her life, putting away her passions for who she thought was a good guy (relatable), and finding her own groove. I think this is an honest way to speak about female empowerment, we are not perfect, we can be flawed and messy, but we deserve respect and autonomy over our lives. Bonus, the art is really fun.

Total Suplex of the heart tells the story of Georgie and her start in wrestling league. Georgie begins by writing a piece for her online journalism job but quickly gets swept away and develops a love for it. This book deals with themes of child abuse, eating disorders, and physical and mental abuse by a romantic partner. These themes are not given enough time to develop and felt rushed as did the ending. The art was amazing and you could really feel the movement of the wrestlers.

Thank you to netgalley and the Humanoids Inc for the e-ARC.

The art for this book was truly lovely but the plot and pacing were inconsistent and what is described as an "unflinching" narrative is just one full of sudden depictions of eating disorders, various forms of abuse, and mentally ill people portrayed as abusive and toxic. TSotH is inspired by the author's own experiences, but they came across as jarring and unpleasant from start to finish, making characters unlikeable and unrelatable.

2.5 / 5 ⭐

Total Suplex of the Heart was such an interesting comic, partially because of how different it is from what I'm used to reading, but I just couldn't connect with it.

It felt like the protagonist went through so much in just 160 pages, all of them coming from the same place but not justified enough to be able to connect with the character. Maybe if it had been a small saga, even if it were 2-3 issues, I would've felt closer to her.

Total Suplex of the Heart is a mostly true story about a time in the authors life where she participated in the world of wrestling. Cassidy is messy and she has a tendency to like men who are not good for her. Throughout the story she ends up dating and hooking up with guys who never have her best interests at heart. For the most part, Cassidy seems ok with that. Ultimately though, the story is one of self discovery and how Cassidy built her own female wrestling group and made something of the passion she found for herself.

The art in Total Suplex of the Heart is colorful and fun to look at. Every page is eye catching and beautifully drawn. It all comes together to give a snippet of a woman’s life struggling with who she is, who is really there for her, and doing something she loves vs. what is expected of her.

If you love sports stories with some romance and mishaps you’ll love “Total Suplex of the Heart”.

I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw both the cover and premise of this graphic novel, I was so excited and I'll start by saying that I wasn't totally disappointed I requested the arc. The art was beautiful and the story was interesting. It was also a quick read. While the FMC, and a lot of the side characters, weren't exactly likeable characters at all times that didn't necessarily make them all bad. It made them human and showed some truth into how close-minded that industry could be, and still can be, at times. However, it wasn't until the end that I realized. . . I was a bit disappointed. Now, I know that while the story is fiction the author states that it has basis off her own personal experience and I took that into account, but I still couldn't overlook the choices made if the story was still altered to be more fictional than memoir. Reading beyond here includes a little bit of material that could be considered spoilers to some and if I could adequately review this without including it I would except that isn't possible.

So these were my issues: Every other character that was a woman was awful in comparison to the FMC including the one who was supposed to be her friend. The DV that happened was horrible yet it felt like it was being suggested that the guy was doing it cause of her mental illness/disability and having such issues does not make one an abuser. At the end, the only other woman character we're supposed to like - that isn't presented as being awful the entire time - is then turned into someone we're supposed to frown at again, but that isn't my issue. No, my issue is this character who was the FMC's friend gets with the guy who committed DV against the FMC and the FMC doesn't tell her at all. Like it never comes up even though they used to be friends and even if they weren't anymore like that just rubbed me the wrong way.

So, in the end, those things really just ruined the read for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e copy!

Before i get into my review i want to point out this book should have had a trigger warning page at the start.
There is talk about Eating disorders, abusive parents and relationships, mental illness, child abuse, sexual harassment and many more.

This is a semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Joanne Starer. The beautiful art by Ornella Greco. The narrative follows Georgie, a freelance journalist who immerses herself in the local wrestling scene to write a story but after she gets enough information to actually write it she can’t seem to let it go.


I don’t know how i feel about this book, some parts were good and others not so much.
I felt a lot of important topics were not talked about enough and just brushed off.
none of the people were likable which sometimes that is the intention but this didn’t feel like it was.
I would have liked this more if we didn’t skip so much time. She meets someone and suddenly it’s a year later and they are together..?
The art style is definitely my favorite part about this book, i really enjoyed how much it added to the story.

I thought Total Suplex of the Heart was a fun comic that I would keep following if the story continued. More wrestling comics, please.

Georgie is a young freelancer and decides to get involved in the local indy wrestling scene for research about an article. As the drama, sex, sexism, and toxic relationships dominate her life, can she escape to the safety that comes when you love what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with?

The book is loosely based on author Joanne Starer’s own personal experience with the independent wrestling. scene.

Thank you Netgalley and Humanoids for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

You can pick up the comic here.

Hopefully, being a woman in the wrestling industry isn’t still this bad.

Without a doubt, there’s been a massive improvement in the treatment of women in the wedding industry over the last 5-10 years, let alone the last 20-30 years.

The book is rampant with the sexism and sexual advances/harassment that had been historically prevalent in the industry. Hopefully, things have changed somewhat.

The artwork throughout this book was so fun.

I was really impressed with the artwork from Ornella Greco. The scenes featuring action felt like you were in the ring with them.

The art featuring the characters “in the real world” was also well done, portraying the emotions that the characters were feeling.

I love comics about wrestling.

I’ve read a couple of comics recently that feature wrestling and had a really good time. More comics with wrestling in them!

This book was a great read! The story had a great pace and the characters were well developed. It was very easy to get sucked into the story and in just a few sittings, I was done reading the book!

This manga felt like falling into rapids only to be deposited on the shore safely at the end. I enjoyed what parts of the story I could pick up on but I did spend a fair amount of time lost as to how I went from point A to point B. I feel the character’s (and author’s) pain and happiness. I wish the storyline had been a bit clearer and maybe a bit better explained. It is a whirlwind of the emotional spectrum and a rough journey that many of us have unfortunately been on. I enjoyed the optimistic outlook at the end.

I was NOT a fan of this when I started it. The humour is off-colour and crude, and difficult topics are not handled with a lot of care, and the pacing is a little odd. I was tempted to not finish reading it. But I kept going, and I eventually did end up liking it quite a lot, especially when I realised it was autobiographical. The art style is probably my favourite thing about it, as it is a really lovely style.

Content Warnings for racism, fatphobia, homophobia, misogyny, eating disorder, parental abuse, partner abuse, violence

This graphic novel follows Georgie, who gets into the world of wrestling for a story that she is writing. But quickly she realizes that she wants to stay in this world.

We follow Georgie as she grows up and changes. I loved the story a lot. It explored a lot of themes like love, relationships and life struggles like an eating disorder. I also really liked the art. It was very beautiful.
I don’t really want to talk about the book much. I think you should just read it for yourself. It’s a wonderful book and I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The illustrations were easy on the eye, unfortunately I found the story chaotic and quite uncomfortable.

Unfortunately this book was all over the place. The graphic novel telling a biographical story of a journalist entering the world of wrestling sounds interesting but this book doesn't fulfill the promised premise. The concept itself was enough for me to want to power through but there was just very little that would make it memorable. Even the art style, albeit well done, wasn't special or intriguing in any way.

Total suplex of the heart follows Georgie, a freelance journalist, as she enters the wrestling scene in order to write a new article for her website.

I learned after reading this that this graphic novel is semi-biographical which almost makes me feel bad for rating this so low, but I can't bring myself to rate it any higher.

This graphic novel covers a variety of important and serious topics from domestic abuse, homophobia, sexism, eating disorders and generational trauma. Unfortunately, it does not cover any of these topics in any detail and rather glosses over them to get to the next plot point. If you're looking for a book that takes any of these topics seriously this is not the one.

An example is when Georgie's partner, Steve, slaps her across the face for singing whilst cleaning the toilet. The next page she is having sex with him and it is never mentioned again.

The 'plot' is also very incoherent. It jumps from plot point to plot point with zero cohesion or flow. On several occasions I found myself flicking back and forth, believing that I had skipped pages accidentally, I had not. There are just simply major gaps in the storytelling.

The ending also left much to be desired. There is no character growth or development, nor is there any conclusion to the story. There is a massive betrayal from Steve on more than one front and then it ends abruptly. Not really sure what happened there.

Thank you netgalley and Humanoids Inc for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own