genre: historical/contemporary fiction, sports
Let me start off by saying this is absolutely an ice dancing soap opera in book form. It is high intensity interpersonal sports drama non-stop and I was HERE FOR IT ALL. So when I tell you I am giving it five stars, please make no mistake - I am not praising it's literary merits or the way it made me feel some kind of deep connection with humanity. It was not that. I just grabbed me and entertained me from beginning to end with something so outside my lived experience that I got to escape the current political hellscape for some hours and super care about some crazy intense ice skating athletes from the early 2000s. The format is very Daisy Jones and the Six, like a docudrama told from multiple points of view, interview-style, but also with a first person narrative by the main character.
The main character? Katarina Shaw, scrappy nobody from the suburbs of Chicago who has a dream to ice dance at the Olympics. Her partner is a former foster child who loves Katarina enough to become the kind of skater she needs him to be - until he can't anymore. And when I say this book is drama, I mean, it walks the razor's edge of being almost too much, but for me, it actually never crossed the line. It was just crazy enough, based on my limited understanding of uber competitive sports, to believe. It's less spicy than you'd imagine, based on the blubs on the back. The ending felt surprisingly tender and satisfying and I had a hard time sleeping after I finished, so much of it was spinning in my head.
So, I am throwing five stars at it for entertainment value.
content: a couple swears, some sex and adult humor, I'd rate it PG-13 no graphic open door scenes
No comments:
Post a Comment