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bookittome's review
4.0
Mardie’s heading for trouble. Fast. With her slipping grades, a shoplifting incident, and the crowd she hangs out with, she’s nothing like her saintly older brother Michael.. only he has a secret of his own. Grieving from her mother, she acts out, but when Mardie discovers a female boxing club, everything changes.
Author Bobbie Pyron recommended her book to me because of the storyline of Mardie’s brother’s sexuality. I enjoyed that element of the novel, especially for its realistic portrayal of a gay student “outing” in school, but found the rest of The Ring just as compelling. Pyron’s characters are all diverse and well-drawn, but it’s Mardie who shines. We want to relate to her immediately, and Pyron makes it easy. Mardie has a troubled life. She’s experiencing peer pressured to have sex. Her boyfriend’s less than charming, and her best friend is quickly becoming estranged. When she steps in the ring though, she learns it’s her mind and heart that’s more important than her strength. She finds redemption in and out of the ring, with the lessons she gains from the boxing. And most important, she finds herself.
Two of my favorite characters besides Mardie were Amy, her stepmother, and Kitty, the boxing coach. Having a stepmother at the age of eleven, I could relate to the distance between Amy and Mardie. Amy was an unwavering positive force in Mardie’s life, and the catalyst for her life change. Kitty was such an interesting character, I almost wanted a separate novel of her backstory: how she become a boxing coach, etc.
For a debut novel, this is a great story. There’s a lot of side plots here, such as Mardie serving community service at a center for the disabled, so at times I was lost with such a large group of characters. The topics aren’t light either: teenage pregnancy, sexual orientation, etc are covered, and one incident in particular involving animals had me taken aback. Despite these, I finished The Ring and was rewarded with a great read.
Author Bobbie Pyron recommended her book to me because of the storyline of Mardie’s brother’s sexuality. I enjoyed that element of the novel, especially for its realistic portrayal of a gay student “outing” in school, but found the rest of The Ring just as compelling. Pyron’s characters are all diverse and well-drawn, but it’s Mardie who shines. We want to relate to her immediately, and Pyron makes it easy. Mardie has a troubled life. She’s experiencing peer pressured to have sex. Her boyfriend’s less than charming, and her best friend is quickly becoming estranged. When she steps in the ring though, she learns it’s her mind and heart that’s more important than her strength. She finds redemption in and out of the ring, with the lessons she gains from the boxing. And most important, she finds herself.
Two of my favorite characters besides Mardie were Amy, her stepmother, and Kitty, the boxing coach. Having a stepmother at the age of eleven, I could relate to the distance between Amy and Mardie. Amy was an unwavering positive force in Mardie’s life, and the catalyst for her life change. Kitty was such an interesting character, I almost wanted a separate novel of her backstory: how she become a boxing coach, etc.
For a debut novel, this is a great story. There’s a lot of side plots here, such as Mardie serving community service at a center for the disabled, so at times I was lost with such a large group of characters. The topics aren’t light either: teenage pregnancy, sexual orientation, etc are covered, and one incident in particular involving animals had me taken aback. Despite these, I finished The Ring and was rewarded with a great read.
martha_schwalbe's review
3.0
I can recommend this book to the few girls who are in Sports Literature, especially when we're reading The Contender. I like the idea of intense training and physical activity helping one escape life. I wrote a story, very similar in idea, about 30 years ago and submitted it to Redbook. The note I received back said something to the effect that it was too unbelievable, no one could get on a different track by being physically active. Way to go!
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