For the majority of people, there are no two subjects more opposite than that of little ice princesses and elite gymnasts who grace everyone's television sets. the country with their elegant clothes and carefully choreographed routines and that of moldy, rotting corpses; However, this is just a common illusion among most people. Both subjects have their ugly sides, one being a little more morbid than the other, but the fact is that you really can't judge a book by its cover. High-performance gymnastics and figure skating are considered art forms – forms that people can look at in amazement and awe. With their miraculous range of flips, jumps and turns, some would say there is nothing quite as beautiful; However, there is a dark side that comes with every sport and all its intricacies. In the novel Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: the Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, author Joan Ryan reports that abuse and a lifetime of pressure are all wrapped up in one enchanting little package and are forced upon little girls. A dream hangs before them, as if within reach, giving them the mentality that to achieve greatness, one must be forced to deal with abuse and a life of disillusionment.Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Corpses is a novel in in which its author, Mary Roach, sees light and laughter in the face of death. His sense of humor and witty diction make such a boring subject worth reading. She sees light in cadaver research and finds humor in some of the things imposed on corpses, for scientific purposes of course. Among the long list of cadaveric applications, it includes bombing, dropping from great heights and crashing into walls at full speed. She... middle of paper ... suffering physical abuse, and their parents let all their financial stability fade into oblivion. She infuriates her readers with excruciatingly disturbing statistics regarding eating disorders, depression, and even suicide attempts. Although from the covers the two novels seem completely unrelated to each other, Stiff and Little Girls in Pretty Boxes are compelling and thought-provoking reads containing the good, the bad, and the ugly truths, but mostly the bad and the ugly, behind the corpses, elite gymnastics and figure skating. Works Cited Roach, Mary. Steep: the curious lives of human corpses. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 2003. 9-11, 224-227, 290-292. Print.Ryan, Joan. Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1995. 4-5, 151, 201, 206. Print.