Sonny Bear fights like a zombie, throwing punches as if he’s underwater. He’s the heavyweight champion, but he feels lost, drugged, and hollow. He wins the bout that opens the story with a split decision, hardly looking like a champion, not even sure what he is doing out there. He has run from the Reservation, cynical about the Moscondaga Nation, but only feels accepted by whites because he’s a champ. Now he’s “the Tomahawk Kid, the Natural Man, the Native Son” and faces an existential crisis: “Shove that tired old Redskin crap, I’m not anything anymore. Not Indian, not white. Leave me alone. I’m not anywhere.” In a parallel narrative, Starkey, the self-appointed Warrior Angel with a Mission for the Creator, escapes his group home to save Sonny’s soul and prepare him to defend his title against Floyd (The Wall) Hall. Starkey seems mentally ill but gives Sonny what he needs: a return to Donatelli’s Gym, old friends, and a strict training regimen. In this conclusion to his boxing saga first begun with The Contender over 35 years ago and nearly 10 years since The Chief, Lipsyte demonstrates his sportswriter’s gift of muscular prose and vivid detail. Sonny looks down on the Vegas strip and thinks it looked “like all the crayons in the world melted into a dazzling river.” When Sonny goes out for a run, Starkey follows on bike, “squeaking along a slalom course of garbage and broken bottles and ruptured concrete on the fifteen blocks down to Central Park.” With a swift plot, exciting boxing scenes, the mysterious, unstable character of Starkey, and life lessons drawn from boxing, this will appeal to fans of sports novels and all enthusiasts of good writing regardless of genre. The long wait has been worth it. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-000496-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
Sports’ biggest social movement moment of the decade gets a special homage.
Louisiana high school football star Russell Boudreaux chooses to take a stand.
NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick captured the world’s attention by kneeling during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality against Black Americans. His courageous actions, which resulted in his expulsion from professional football, galvanized a generation of Black athletes to use athletic platforms to spotlight social injustice. This novel draws on this context to weave a tale about two up-and-coming Black high school football players trying to make the most of their final season and escape the harsh realities of their hometown lives. Russell is the Jackson High Jaguars’ formidable tight end, unstoppable when paired with his best friend and game-changing quarterback, Marion. Yet, when White players from well-off rival Westmond incite a fight during a game using racial epithets, Marion must deal with the unjust consequences of biased policing that not only land him off the team, but possibly in jail. Even worse, one of the officers involved was reassigned following the unprosecuted police murder of a Black boy in nearby Shreveport. For Gabby, Russell’s love interest and self-proclaimed intersectional feminist, this requires a courageous stand—but facing up to injustice brings unforeseen consequences; readers must navigate the complex ethics that inform a principled activist stance. Debut author Buford delivers a novel that bridges the mighty dreams of Last Chance Uwith the trenchant social critique of The Hate U Give.
Sports’ biggest social movement moment of the decade gets a special homage. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-335-40251-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A thrilling, high-tech page-turner with deep roots.
A teen navigates different worlds: real and virtual, colonized and Indigenous.
In the near-future real world, Bugz’s family has clout in the community—her mom is their first modern-day woman chief, her father’s a highly admired man, and her older brother is handsome and accomplished. Socially awkward Bugz, by contrast, feels more successful in the virtual gaming world of the Floraverse, where she has amassed tremendous power. Yes, her ’Versona has a slimmed-down figure—but Bugz harnesses her passion for the natural world and her Anishinaabe heritage to build seemingly unbeatable defenses, especially her devoted, lovingly crafted Thunderbird and snake/panther Mishi-pizhiw. Cheered on by legions of fans, she battles against Clan:LESS, a group of angry, misogynistic male gamers. One of them, Feng, ends up leaving China under a cloud of government suspicion and moving to her reservation to live with his aunt, the new doctor; they are Muslim Uighurs who have their own history of forced reeducation and cultural erasure. Feng and Bugz experience mutual attraction—and mistrust—and their relationship in and out of the Floraverse develops hesitantly under a shadow of suspected betrayal. Kinew (Anishinaabe) has crafted a story that balances heart-pounding action scenes with textured family and community relationships, all seamlessly undergirded by storytelling that conveys an Indigenous community’s past—and the vibrant future that follows from young people’s active, creative engagement with their culture.
A thrilling, high-tech page-turner with deep roots. (glossary, resources) (Science fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6900-2
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Penguin Teen
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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