A review by bgstrong
True by Karl Taro Greenfeld

3.0

"...where an angry teenage girl discovers the nature of the bigger game of life and what it really means to be a team player, a sister, a daughter, and a born survivor."

Only she doesn't!

She doesn't get to play professionally because she hates being a team player, the epilogue states that she "hasn't talked to her (severely autistic) sister who she spends 90% of the book taking care of or her dad in 12 years, and the only reason she is a "born survivor" is because she puts her soccer career in front of everything and everyone else. By the end of the book she's been through a lot (losing her chance at a soccer career, not finishing college, an attempted rape, the actual rape of her sister, a criminal boyfriend, a deadbeat dad, a dead mom...) and yet I had a really hard time sympathizing with her. She just seemed so selfish (not that that means that she deserved it, but we're talking about a fictional character, not a real human here), and overall very cold. I thought at the very least she loved her sister Pauline...but I guess not.

Ugh. A frustrating read. Not sure why I picked it for my May Amazon First Reads...but I did.