ARC, 288 pages
Release Date: February 13, 2024
Published by: First Second
Read from: January 30- February 5, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Publisher (I received a copy of this book from the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Cursing, Classism
For Readers Interested In: Romance, LGBTQIA+, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Sports (Softball), NA (New Adult. They’re in college)Molly Bauer’s first year of college is not the picture-perfect piece of art she’d always envisioned. On day one at PICA, Molly discovers that—through some horrible twist of fate—her full-ride scholarship has vanished! But the ancient texts (PICA’s dusty financial aid documents) reveal a loophole. If Molly and 9 other art students win a single game of softball, they’ll receive a massive athletic scholarship. Can Molly’s crew of ragtag artists succeed in softball without dropping the ball?
The author of the New York Times best-selling Check, Please series, Ngozi Ukazu returns with debut artist Madeline Rupert to bring an energetic young adult story about authenticity, old vs. new, and college failure. It also poses the question: “Is art school worth it?”
*MY THOUGHTS*
This wasn’t even on my radar, but the publisher reached out and asked if I wanted a copy, so I looked it up. Anddddd I jumped on the chance. I had no idea what it was about, but the cover and the title had me immediately. And lo and behold, this was exactly my kind of read.
I was so drawn to this because I WAS Molly at one point in my life. I didn’t go to the extremes that she did, but I was pulled out of class during my very first class in freshman year and told that I had a problem with some of my scholarships and I needed to fix it with the financial aide’s office before I could do anything else. And let me tell you the level of embarrassment. I felt for Molly so much and I hated it lol But in the end this is what made me fall for this book so much more. Anyway, the way Molly handled it was so much different than me. I just went to call my mom and she got it squared away after I was crying on the phone lol But Molly decided to take matters into her own hands and do all of these things that I could never do. Organize an entire softball team? Find people that would stick around an entire season? I just don’t think I could have done that. Or even cared to. So she was definitely braver than me and obviously much better at being a main character.
The cool thing about this was the softball aspect. I don’t play softball, but I’m a huge sports person, so I was glad to see that this wasn’t treated like just an “anyone can do it” kind of thing. Softball is hard and those balls are hard, so “just winning one” wasn’t as easy as they thought. And I thought people would appreciate it more by showing it the way they did. It just made more sense for it to turn out that way.
But with that being said, I do think that there was a villain (or someone they made into a villain) in this story and she didn’t need to be? Like I get that she was mad at her, but she knew what she did was wrong. And she knew that if nothing happened to her it would have seemed as if there was something going on. And in her line of job, she had to know that wasn’t ok. She just needed to take a break and work out her own things and stop blaming things on other people. She made her own choice. But with that being said, if she was the villain, I think they should have made her one. In the end it was way too easy to get what they wanted. I expected for maybe a LITTLE pushback. Even if it was just the look on her face. But it was weird that there was nothing there. She seemed like a nice person.
The romance was ok, but I guess I wanted to see more of them. Especially since it was a sapphic book. I think if it wasn’t sapphic or LGBTQ+ I wouldn’t care as much. But I always want the representation for marginalized people. (And yes i know there’s Check Please, but why can’t we have both?!) Hopefully we can make this a series and there are more books that shows it.
The art in this tho?! Incredible. I wasn’t sold on the idea that this illustrator was a debut artist. It was so, so good. I read it and then went back and looked at the art, and then went back and looked at the art again. I think the art really matched the words and it was really really done well. I can’t wait to see more of it in the future.
This book was really good. I hope to more in the future. This seems like it’ll be a great series. It doesn’t actually feel like an ending, so I’m going to be hoping for more. Read it and let me know what you think of it all. Tell me if you want more. Actually, if you don’t, don’t tell me anything at all lol
Overall, I give this
