I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is everything young adult fiction should be – characters and plot that feel real and don’t try to coddle the reader along the way. I saw a lot of my teenage self in Louisa; I, too, was basketball-obsessed, still trying to figure out my own feelings about sexuality and love, and I couldn’t help but root for Louisa throughout. The peripheral characters are all very distinct, and Bledsoe seemed to perfect the art of making each one unique without distracting the reader from the larger storyline at play considering the sheer amount of characters for such a short book.

I’ll admit I requested this one for the historical context. Basketball may have been the most important thing in my life for a time, but I didn’t really give a passing thought to Title IX or how recently it had actually been implemented in practice when I was playing in the mid-2000s. As an adult now, it seems all the more important to be able to look back and appreciate what real-life Louisas have done for the rest of us, and Bledsoe does a fantastic job of doing just that.

I’d recommend this book to any school athlete, any former school athlete, or readers interested in historical fiction with a feminist lens. It’s a great representation of the genre, and I’m grateful to have been able to read it and cheer Louisa on from the sidelines.