The Extra-ness Of It All! Much like a certain guilty pleasure of mine, the CW’s Riverdale, this book is over the top, overdramatic it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in certain aspects, and just becomes super trashy…but I’m low-key here for it.There was a particular scene at the end of the book when he does something that no one saw coming, but it gained him a lot of respect from his teammates was probably when I knew I liked him and am no rooting for him. It was really endearing to read how weary he became of others when they tried to help him or offer him stuff like money or clothes. Having a mobster as a father, he’s experienced some pretty messed up things that no kid should ever have to, and has the physical and emotional scars to prove it. Neal As The Protagonist! He is an incredibly withdrawn, anti-social and distrusting person, and with good reason.Neal quickly begins to learn that he’s not the only one keeping secrets, it’s just pretty stressful when those secrets could get out and get him killed… What I Liked: Neal remembers him from his past, and worries that if Kevin recognizes him that his cover would be blown and he’d have to once again run away and start over somewhere far from there. While they try to not come to blows, Neal also has to be careful around another teammate and star athlete, Kevin Day. Andrew Minyard in particular is a real piece of work, and Neal doesn’t get along with him at all. They are a bunch of rejects and junkies I mean seriously, they are some pretty shady people, and they are all allowed to play a contact sport against other teams. Of course, he does eventually go to Palmetto and meets the rest of the team who are basically a college sports team version of the Suicide Squad.

Anyways, it’s an opportunity that others would kill for, but for someone like Neal who’s on the run because of his father being a murderous Mob Boss nicknamed “The Butcher,” he has his reservations about the exposure it’d bring. Exy is a fictional sport the author created that looks like a kit-bashed version of Lacrosse and Soccer with the same level of aggression as Hockey or Football.

The Story Revolves around Neil Josten as he gets hand-selected by the Head Coach of (fictional) Palmetto State University to play on their Division 1 “Exy” team.

It’s a lesser known, self-published set of books that has indeed gotten some small hype for being an LGBTQ centric YA fiction, but with it being a top 10 seller on Amazon, that makes it pretty hard to ignore. Upon my epic quest to find more LGBTQ literature, particularly of the Male-Male variety, I saw this trilogy pop up on several lists I’d seen on Tumblr that implied that it would be a great addition to that line of fiction. Genre(s): YA, Contemporary, Sports Total Star Rating: 3.75 Stars Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing

The foxhole court paperback