Dangerous Play

June 14, 2021
It’s Zoe Alamandar’s junior year, and she’s hoping that the players she and her cocaptain Ava recruited over the summer will finally take their Syracuse high school’s field hockey team to States. The season starts promisingly, but after Zoe, who cues as white, is sexually assaulted, she loses her focus. Feeling helpless and angry, she and her intersectionally diverse teammates, many of whom are also survivors, use their athletic skills to fight back, sneaking into parties to attack and scare off any boy who attempts to assault a girl. When things go too far, though, and the team’s sisterhood begins to strain, Zoe must decide if this tack is the right path to recovery. Debut author Kress nimbly alternates between heart-pounding field hockey scenes and social commentary, acknowledging, unlike many books about rape culture, that classism and racism intersect with and compound misogyny. If the narrative sometimes comes uncomfortably close to equating the girls’ vigilantism with their attackers’ sexual violence, it also renders Zoe’s trauma unflinchingly and compassionately, making this a worthwhile look at sexism and the healing power of speaking out—as well as a passionate love letter to an underappreciated sport. Ages 14–up. Agent: Roseanne Wells, Jennifer De Chiara Literary.

June 15, 2021
A field hockey captain guides her tightknit team in secret missions to save girls from predatory boys. In this contemporary feminist debut, Zoe Alamandar is a disciplined, goal-oriented team captain with an ambitious plan for her junior year: lead her team to the New York State Field Hockey Championship, garner the attention of college scouts, and earn a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill, which has a top-ranked team. Zoe; her co-captain, Ava; and their hand-picked team are off to a strong start when Zoe is sexually assaulted at a football player's alcohol-fueled party. At first, Zoe doesn't tell Liv, her best friend and teammate--and she doesn't want to burden her parents, who are dealing with her father's chronic pain from a serious accident. Instead, she channels her confusion, hurt, and anger into the team's parkour sessions and late-night expeditions to rescue girls from would-be abusers at parties. The exploration of Zoe's post-assault behavior is thoughtful and believable, particularly how she distances herself from a crush, fixates on saving other girls from the same fate, and raises awareness about toxic masculinity and rape culture. The author's frequent use of curse-word stand-ins--fockey, fock, focking, and absofockinglutely--come to feel distracting and corny with repetition. Zoe is White; their names cue Ava as Latinx and Liv as Chinese American. A timely and absorbing character study of a sexual assault survivor. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

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August 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-This debut is a plot-driven novel about a field hockey (or fockey) team out for revenge. Zoe Alamandar is captain of the field hockey team leading her team on and off the field. She and her co-captain hand-selected a team and are determined to make it to the state championship and win scholarships. But when Zoe is sexually assaulted at a party, everything changes. She no longer excels at fockey and has no interest in school or her relationships. When a teammate reveals she was raped earlier in the year, she and Zoe decide to take action into their own hands and bring the rest of the team on their vigilante journey. Although it is not the most engaging book, readers may relate to Zoe and her situation. With an overworked and absent mother and an injured father, household responsibilities fall on her shoulders. Most character traits are described but not fully developed. VERDICT Readers will cheer for Zoe and her team-on and off the field. Recommended for medium to large collections.-Sara Thomas, New Castle P.L., DE

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 20, 2021
Grades 10-12 Zoe Alamandar is focused as she enters her junior year of high school. She and her cocaptain, Ava, are going to lead their hand-selected team all the way to the field hockey state championship and, hopefully, to a scholarship for Zoe. But when she's sexually assaulted at a party, her plans take a backseat as trauma settles in. Feeling powerless, Zoe and her teammates turn to parkour and vigilantism to save other girls from the same fate--only the lines between protecting and retribution begin to blur when they confront their tormentor at school. Zoe's flighty nature and anger after the attack radiates from the pages, portraying convincingly how fear and pain can cripple judgement. The pacing can be bogged down by numerous subplots, not to mention that the team's ability to thwart a rape each time they crash a gathering can feel both pessimistic and idealistic. Nonetheless, Kress' engrossing debut is all about agency, and in addition to frequent game play-by-plays that will appeal to fans of sports novels, this will make an empowering addition to #MeToo collections.

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