Reviews

Dangerous Play by Emma Kress

smamato2's review

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3.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for early access to this book.

The story told within these pages is an important one. Girls are powerful and can overcome many obstacles. That rape and sexual assault are real and when a community comes together we can change rape culture.
Zoe is a Junior and the Captain of the field hockey team. After a sexual assault at a party the team takes matters in their own hands to protect other girls from experiences the same horrors.
The book was slow to get started, it picked up once the interaction at the party occurred with Zoe. I enjoyed reading this book once I was about 20% in. Although dealing with a tough topic the book ended happily and will make girls feel powerful.
A note with the writing, the language was respective with the amount Fock and it’s variations were used within the writing.

abbybundy's review

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emotional informative sad medium-paced

3.0

neglet's review

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5.0

CW: assault. This book does a great job in portraying Zoe’s assault and how she struggles to deal with the aftermath. But what I love the most is the cast of fierce, physical girl athletes who unapologetically dream big and throw down hard. If you want a sports book focusing on a team—plus lots of tasty ice cream—you’ll love this one!

bookonthebrightside30's review

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4.0

This is a YA book that features a fierce group of girls who are on a Field Hockey team working their way to the state championships. After a sexual assault, Zoe makes it her goal to make sure nothing like that happens to another girl. She and her teammates take justice into their own hands. While they become the town superheroes, it may cost them if anyone finds out who is doing the punishing.

I enjoyed this book about Zoe and the field hockey team and their journey to a state championship. The characters were well developed and interesting. The book dealt with issues such as gender inequity, sexual harassment, bullying, and victim blaming. I thought the author handled these topics with care. The girls were strong and fierce and when hit with obstacles they banded together in friendship instead of against each other. I was impressed with the ending and would recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and OrangeSky Audio for the opportunity to read and review this book.
https://www.instagram.com/dani.reads.too.much/

raebrock's review

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5.0

Wow!! Honestly, this was an impulse ARC request I made and I 110% loved it! This book is super empowering YA lit with some heavy themes of sexual harassment, assault, and rape, set among a high school girls’ field hockey team. I loved the characters. I loved the messages. I loved the bits of humor and romance that were weaved throughout. The characters were very relatable and I was really invested in their stories. This book has a lot of heart.

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

vi_llainvibes's review

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3.0

When I was reading "Dangerous Play" I couldn't help but get angry. I can't count the times I heard comments shouted towards me or other women or how uncomfortable I always feel whenever I walk by any men or when I enter a room full of them. We shouldn't live in a world when girls and women constantly fear for their lives.

And that's something the hockey team lead by Zoe Alamandar and Ava Cervantes would back me up on.

It's a story about girls who are fed up with society letting boys get away with everything. They see that boys and girls are held to different standards and they're not fine with it. So they do take action.

This book reminded me a lot of "Moxie". I really liked both but the conversation about race was pretty much left out in both of them as well.

heresmika's review

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4.0

(3.75/5)
I started reading this book and I enjoyed it so much that I was ready to slap the 5/5 rating immediately. Unfortunately, the book went downhill afterward.

In short, why should you read this book?
- The main characters are a team of badass girls that play field hockey. They are all fierce and interesting and protect each other
- The book focuses on the effects of sexual assault and the girls that try to make their school a safer place
- The writing style was so good. I don't know what stood out to me, but I'll add the first paragraph of the book just so you could see: "The air feels different out here - wilder, freer. In a few minutes, our girls will jump out of windows and leap off roofs all over town. Ava already has. I could leap off this roof, swing around the elm branch, and let go into a tight flip before landing on the ground. It would totally get a 10 from the German judge. But the soles of my shoes stick to my bedroom floor, and my hands hold tight to the window frame. I'm not Ava." —- just look at that, it's so exciting and descriptive and great.

I really liked the premise of the book. Following the captain of the girls' hockey team after she had been assaulted and see her try to defy the current problems in her town and help others. The way I thought it will happen is through protest or a movement or forming a group with other people in a similar situation. But, the book was a lot more violent than that. I could somewhat understand what lead the main character to act this way, but she just threw rationality out of the window and ignored what her friends said.

Spoiler 3 girls from the team got guns and kidnapped one of the guys that harmed them. One of them shot him, and although it was okay in the end, it was still so fucked up.

Not only that, but the team really wanted the people that harmed them to pay for that, but when they did something horrible they didn't get consequences.

I think my main problem is that the plot went in a really weird direction. It was still interesting and I wanted to see what happened next, but there were times when I just wanted to leave the book.

Another part that I didn't enjoy was the way the parents treated the main character after she said that she felt like she is working/doing more than she needs to.
Spoiler the main character's dad had an accident and he couldn't move. The girl felt like her mom didn't help at all and instead the girl had to take care of her dad + do a lot of chores by herself. The parents made her feel like everything is her fault instead of thanking her for everything that she does but also showing her why she is incorrect. "All this time I've been the one holding him back. I've been the one making their lives harder" (page 250). And this theme repeats itself - even if she misjudged the situation, she still did a lot and her parents shouldn't make her feel this way.


I did like how the author managed to still focus on the hockey games and showed them practicing. There were a lot of interesting parts that I didn’t see in any other book; the team learned how to parkour and played during the night with glow-in-the-dark gear. It was done in a really nice way :) I also liked the friendship between the teammates and the romance was really cute.

Overall, I really enjoyed the beginning and ending of the book. The relationships in the book were meaningful and made me smile. Something just didn’t work for me with some of the plot lines but it was still enjoyable !

jenn_sveda's review

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5.0

I really enjoyed this one! I think the characters were believable, relatable, and empathetic. Sometimes it was hard to keep all the members of the team straight - I sometimes confused Liv and Ava, or forgot who the triplets were when they weren't mentioned by name. The story felt real and heartbreaking without being hopeless.

The story constantly surprised me, in all the best ways. There were many times where I felt the narrative was trending towards being too sympathetic to the sex offenders, and I thought "Here we go with the 'not all men' caveat," only for the characters and the narrative to affirm that yes, sexual assault is systemic, cultural issue that impacts everyone. I thought the message was clear without feeling preachy, and the solution that the team eventually arrived at was realistic and touching. As much as I loved the hooded vigilante angle, I think it was more meaningful and impactful to have the characters heal through sharing stories and building support networks instead, because that's a solution that we as readers can mirror.

Overall, I think this was a great YA book, and definitely something I would recommend for anyone looking for grounded, moving stories of combatting rape culture without leaning too hard into glamorizing trauma.

kateleos's review

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Not in the mood

mckaylarose99's review

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3.0

Not the best, not the worst?

I was so into it until the part where they pull the guns on Kupp. He absolutely was an asshole, but also just kind of made me feel like the author was trying to cram in so much more than was possible. Like, there was so much happening with so many characters I feel like I don’t know anything about any of them. And what I did know I didn’t necessarily like.

I don’t regret reading it, but don’t know if I would die on the hill that is this book.