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lezreadalot's review
4.0
She had the kind of hunger that is necessary for any venture into greatness. But the only thing that I had was her.
Incredibly written. A coming of age story about two young women, one Japanese American and one African American, in 1980s Los Angeles; both fierce basketball players who love the game and are reaching for greatness. It's old from the perspective of Nancy, who first meets Raina through basketball. They start living together when Nancy's Japanese father and Raina's black mother fall for one another, and then Nancy very quickly falls for Raina.
It's always very pleasurable reading a well-researched novel, and based on the afterword, Revoyr based a lot of this on her own experiences. It shows. The way the neighbourhood and its people and its peculiarities are frankly and lovingly described, it felt really visceral, well-defined, and real. Nancy loves her hood, but we also hear about the racism that she and her father sometimes face, as well as ways she's aware of her own privilege amidst her mostly black peers. I really love Revoyr's style of writing, which is super down to earth, but sometimes she'll sweep into these really lush and expansive passages and descriptions that I got totally lost in, and it never seemed out of place in the milieu. She perfectly captured all the intensity and pain of being a teenager. As a novel about a sport, this was kind of perfect? So much so that I, notoriously disdainful of sport and ambivalent about books about it, was totally swept away. Between the layer of their friendship and Nancy's love, the girls have this intense rivalry that I loved reading about. All of the basketball matches were so good, especially nearing the end. I was on the edge of my seat. I also loved all the descriptions of their blended family, and Nancy's father was such a great guy, one of the standout side characters for me.
Where the book really shines is in the love story. This isn't a romance, but there's all the intensity that I could ever want, wrapped up in a lot of teen angst. I adore a good story about devotion, especially when it's wrapped in a complicated package, like Nancy's love for Raina. The language used to describe Raina, her physicality, the way she plays the game, the ways she treats others and approaches the world... it's pitch perfect. Nancy's infatuation is a thing that lives in this book, and while it never feels childish, it is written about in a way that perfectly encapsulates the teen experience? I just enjoyed it so much. One thing I didn't love was all the foreshadowing. I've definitely read and loved books like this before, where it's being narrated by the protagonist from a vantage point of years in the future; a protagonist who knows and hints at what is going to come. I didn't super love it here? It made me kinda jumpy, anticipating everything that was going to come.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Jin Yang; really liked it! Some of her accents for side characters didn't really work for me; they sounded a bit too exaggerated? But her rendition of all the sporty stuff was impeccable. This was my second book by Revoyr, and I'm once again really bowled over by the writing, and really appreciative of her perspective and the efforts she makes to shine light on communities that don't get the attention they deserve. Looking forward to reading even more of her work.
All I knew, despite everything, was the love, the inevitable love, which was deepening by the moment, which did not exist in me but in which I existed.
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