The writing team of Jim Shepard and Bill Hollinger (Short Season, paper, 1985) returns with brothers Brad and Dean—now graduated from Little League to the football field. A movie company has come to their small Michigan town to use their high school and its winning football team for a kind of Friday the Thirteenth teen-slasher movie. As a result, the brothers, both defense stars, have their values and outlooks seriously challenged. Brad, a casual success with girls, falls for Libby, or "Fox," the movie's Brooke Shields-like star. Dean, whose dream is to leave small-town life for a film career, has a chance at a featured role—especially if he can keep Brad's infatuation from interfering with Libby's performance. But both boys are inevitably disillusioned: Libby turns out to be incapable of a serious relationship, and most of Dean's role is cut. The predictable plot here is redeemed by the wry self-awareness in the brothers' alternating narration. Football scenes are particularly vivid, with some appropriately rough language. Though the supporting characters are strictly from stock, they and the boys are portrayed in a humorously entertaining style. Good, if slight. Read full book review >