Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Carrie Soto Is Back

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Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

117 reviews

hmih's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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caughtbetweenpages's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

TJR has definitely found her niche! I'm generally an SFF reader, but there's something about Reid's brand of woman-centered historical fiction that scratches an itch for me. Nothing will top Evelyn Hugo, I think, just in sheer terms of feeling so real and larger than life at the same time, but I had a tremendous time with Carrie Soto's story as well. I love my emotionally stunted, autistic-coded, acquired taste of a girl! She made me care about tennis!

Ok, maybe that's reductive; what I mean is that I struggle with sports stories generally, in finding their stakes compelling and their protagonists more than one note. Plus, sport is more interesting for me (in real life) when people are kept out of it, lest I get parasocial about the athletes. Carrie Soto, like Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo, demands that I get parasocial with her, and thus override the stakes and flatness issues I tend to have.

Anyway! I had a lot of fun with this story. Though the "sports parts" did get a little repetitive (possibly my aforementioned sport story aversion, possibly a result of my reading this in a day), I enjoyed watching Carrie progress in her skill but fall behind in every other way. She doesn't finish school, she struggles to make connections with her peers, she struggles to consider that she may HAVE peers... it makes her desperation to stay The Best, to stay Relevant, all the more understandable. If you are exceptional at one thing, and are told all your life that you must be by the person you trust most, and you don't have many other friends because you're diagnosed Female and Not Willing to Pretend You're Not Exceptional for Male Comfort, it's easy for that one point of exceptionalism to subsume everything else about you. Carrie is not one-note specifically because of this; she is not just Tennis Woman, but is instead Tennis Woman Defending Herself.

I also thought the relationship was quite sweet. Carrie and her partner work together so well and I enjoyed seeing both of them grow together messily but with determination to make things work. That they became friends first was all the more important, because that's what Carrie really needed. Well, that and therapy. But I digress! It was sweet! I don't want to get into Carrie's relationship with her father or I'll start crying! I don't know that I'd read this again, but it made me miss Evelyn Hugo and want to read more, so I'm calling it a win!

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poisonivy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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danajoy's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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oz2021's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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abitofapoet's review against another edition

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emotional informative tense

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Yet another Taylor Jenkins Reid book that I absolutely have to give five stars to. I honestly wasn’t sure about how much I would like this, especially considering the only sport I’m interested in typically is hockey, but I loved this book. I was hanging on to every word, and I felt like I was actually watching each tennis match. It was described so perfectly, and so easy to follow even for someone who doesn’t know the sport well. (I’d say the extent of my knowledge previous to this came from playing Wii sports tennis with my sister lollll)

Carrie’s feelings of desperation, hopelessness, and being so power-hungry were written perfectly. Listening to the audiobook I was 100% in her head. I also adored the relationship between her and her father, and found myself falling in love with the love her that and Bo have for each other.

I cannot wait to read more of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books!!

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abbiemreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I am devastated in the best way. TJR always knows the best way to tell a story and embed these characters into your heart. I could live in her writing and this interconnected universe forever. I always need more.

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alrauna's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

maddiebennet's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Since I highly enjoyed Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising, I immediately ordered Carrie Soto Is Back once I saw it had been released.

Blurb:

Carrie Soto is a thirty-seven-year-old retired professional tennis player who used to be the best woman’s tennis player in the world. When another tennis champion, Nicki Chan, comes close to breaking one of her records, Carrie decides to come out of retirement to defend her title.

Review:

Carrie Soto Is Back is a tight, breezy novel that packs a lot of emotion and excitement into its pages. Unlike some of other Reid’s novels, which feature complex storylines and large casts of characters, Carrie Soto focuses entirely on the development of its protagonist and her relationships with a handful of people. This focus allows Reid to craft a brilliantly flawed, complex, and believable protagonist who we can root for, even when she makes mistakes and treats those around her poorly. Carrie’s character arc unfolds amid the exciting atmosphere of tennis tournaments. The focus and character work in this book make it my favorite so far of the Taylor Jenkins Reid books I have read.

Reid also does a spectacular job writing Carrie’s relationships with her father, Javier, and her sparring partner, Bowe Huntley. Javier and Bowe are flawed but lovable, and the dialogue and banter between Carrie and the other characters add to the book’s entertainment value. Writing realistic relationships between characters has always been Reid’s strength, and it shines through in this novel

Although the storyline does not contain any surprises, it is nonetheless an exciting and inspiring journey to see Carrie grow as a person and as a player. Reid also sprinkles in commentary about feminism, aging, sports, and celebrity culture that is (usually) not too on-the-nose.

My one gripe with the book was the awkwardness of the Spanish words, phrases, and sentences Carrie and her father exchange with each other. I’m all for sprinkling in non-English components into dialogue to characterize a bilingual interaction, but the Spanish here felt clunky and forced. I’m not bilingual, but it did not feel like an authentic fusion of the Spanish and English languages. The sentences were so basic that they felt like they were written by someone with only a few years of high school Spanish under their belt.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like Carrie Soto Is Back if:

· You have enjoyed any other books by Taylor Jenkins Reid

· You like a good underdog sports story

· You enjoy witty banter between flawed but lovable characters

· You like watching a main character learn and grow

You might not like Carrie Soto is Back if:

· You dislike Taylor Jenkins Reid’s writing style

· You despise messy, flawed, and occasionally cruel main characters

A Similar Text:

Borg vs. McEnroe (2017). I chose a movie rather than a book for two reasons: one, Carrie Soto Is Back reads very much like a movie. Secondly, Borg vs. McEnroe has much in common with Carrie Soto—in fact, the Borg/McEnroe rivalry is referenced in Carrie Soto. Similarities between these texts include:

· Stories about tennis world champions

· Deeply flawed protagonists

· Discussions of sports and celebrity culture

· Depictions of characters who push their bodies to the limit for the sake of competition

Content Warnings

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