Welcome to Litsy!

This book…..heartbreaking, inventive, nuanced, poetically written. I loved it. Your heart will shatter for Rory Dawn but you will also find her extremely intelligent and resilient. The amount of dysfunction this child suffers is soul crushing but she persists. I really would love to see a follow up on this book. #Reno

Conceptually, this book is fantastic, and the fact that it highlights young women boxers is exceptional. I bear some responsibility for my somewhat “meh“ reaction to the book as I have very little interest in boxing, and I'm sure that sullied my reaction a bit. #TOB2025 #TOB25 Full review: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3934124522060211942/278442361882261270

#Nevada My first Vlautin, won‘t be my last. Haunting novel about a girl who moves from LV to Reno to escape an awful boyfriend…she hits rock bottom but then gradually she picks herself up and things get better. Bleak but gradually more hopeful.

Here is another audiobook from the haze that was February. It‘s a gritty tale of two brothers who have been surviving on their own since their teens. Everything gets turned upside down early one morning when one of them has an accident. The book walks a fine line by making the reader empathize with everything the main characters have been through while not hiding how absolutely stupid and horrible some of their decisions are.

It was interesting to get into the heads of the young female competitive boxers featured in this novel. I liked how the author conveyed the intensity of the moment while also shifting to times in the girls' pasts and futures.

#ToB25
#gottacatchemall (Marshadow: fight or fighter) @PuddleJumper

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 A book I never would have picked up if not for the #ToB25 short list! Unique structure of telling the stories if 8 teenage girl boxers as they fight in matches at a tournament in Reno. It was interesting enough while reading, but I finished it a few weeks ago and none of the characters or stories stayed with me. Soft pick.

This book was not for me, and I‘m not sure what it was. The boxing? The writing? Where there too many boxers so we spend too little time with the boxers? I‘m don‘t know, but it was something

#tob25

I enjoyed this book and how it used a youth sports competition in Reno, NV to frame the lives of the 8 contestants. The last chapter was a little weird, maybe? But Reno is a weird place, so whatever I guess. #tob #tob2025 #tob25

#25Alive! Day 23: The #Dreams of teenage female boxers are on display here with their feints, jabs, hyper-self-awareness. Gradually going through the #ToB25 shortlisted titles.