Jane's reviews

2.5* but as there are no 1/2 stars i will upgrade to 3



Initially I was totally out of my depth, I know absolutely zero about American football and the opening chapters are full of talk about the game with sports terminology that went right over my head. I also got very confused between all the coaches…….this team had so many different ones that I couldn’t keep track of who’s who! It was slightly frustrating and slowed the pace of the story down for me…..but saying that if American football is your thing then that won’t be a problem for you.

This was a typical coming of age book with the added hardship of gang life, Darnell was a nice lad who had no choice but to join a gang, The ‘gangsta’ talk got a bit annoying ‘ Dis, dan, da, dat, dem, dey, ‘cuz dat ain’t where dey lookin’ fo' us.” But obviously that’s how Darnell and his ‘home’ friends spoke so it was relevant to the story and was needed. The general plot wasn’t very unique though I haven’t read anything like Erics story before so that made a nice change. I enjoyed the fact that there was a character with Down’s and we were given insight into the condition. Just because Eric couldn’t speak didn’t mean he was ‘stupid’. JMR managed to get the message over quite subtly that we should not judge on first appearances or discriminate over disabilities. It was nice to see that eventually Eric managed to learn how to communicate with the people around him.

I did struggle with this book, mainly because of the crass dialogue, and the football references but also because I found it a bit boring. Sorry.

Copy supplied for review