THE BIG GAME IS EVERY NIGHT

A high school football player struggles in the aftermath of an injury.

“I never had a favorite team because I didn’t watch football for pleasure. I watched it like work.” That’s Grady Hayes, the 15-year-old narrator, on the subject of the sport he plays. For Grady and his high school teammates, football represents a way out of their South Carolina community, and his fellow players often discuss scholarships and prospects with sensibilities that waver between hope and pragmatism. “The stakes for that game against Gadsden were no higher than any other,” Grady muses. “That’s not to say they were low, only that the stakes were always high.” It’s in this game that Grady injures his leg—and, making matters worse, the doctors then take a week to determine the source of his pain. Eventually, one of them offers him an ominous diagnosis of his rare broken bone: “It’s almost like a miracle. Or whatever the opposite of that is.” From there, Grady becomes increasingly alienated from his family (especially his mother and cousin) and friends, all the while developing a penchant for pills and spending time with an unpredictable classmate who encourages his more self-destructive tendencies—including reckless off-road driving. Maynor’s novel is at its best when documenting Grady’s depression and alienation; throughout, it’s clear that Grady is aware that he should be doing something else, but he simply doesn’t care. His father’s arrival on the scene late in the novel adds a more chaotic element to the book, and offers a new context for some of Grady’s actions. At times, Grady can feel more reactive than proactive as a character, but the lived-in details of this novel help to balance that.

A heartfelt story of ambition, family, and frustration.