Joshua C. Cohen

I am usually not a big sports novel fan, but I have read some very good ones in my time, so I'll never turn one away either. And this particular one blew me away...after finishing, the cover art seems perfect for the story this book tells.

Danny is an aspiring gymnast: small, shy, and perfectly willing to fly under the radar while he works toward his goal of getting a scholarship to escape the town of Oregrove. His new classmate Kurt Brodsky is a scarred, hulking giant, destined to be the new star player on the football team. On the outside, the two of them couldn't be more different.

But as the year progresses, so does an escalating war between Danny and his gutsy teammates and the Oregrove football team. A war that begins in pranks of ego and revenge and escalates into a nightmare of cruelty no one could have imagined. And when they find themselves the sole bearers of the terrible truth, the star fullback with a horrific past and the timid gymnast terrified of speaking up will form an alliance that is the only hope to ensuring justice is done.

The characters are so real, and that's probably what hooks you into the book from the first page. The narrative voices of both Danny and Kurt could come from any high school boy. They make you feel deeply and powerfully for them every step of the way, and even when you don't like the way they act you empathize and understand them. The supporting characters are likewise great and realistic; not all of them are admirable or perfect, but they remind you of people you know, and you get startlingly attached to them. This was one of those books that gave me physical reactions while reading, that's how into it I was. I rooted so strongly for the characters I liked that my breathing changed during triumphant and suspenseful parts, and I despised the antagonists so intensely at times that it made my stomach burn and a bitter taste come to my mouth.

This novel was terrible and beautiful; the scenarios it portrayed were sickening, triumphant, and possible. It didn't need any romance or contrived teen angst. It was just one amazing, straightforward story of two young men determined to stop the terror being carried out unpunished in their own school, and discover something about themselves in the process.

… (mere)

Danny may be a rising gymnastics star, but to the rest of the school, he's just the runt that gets picked on. He, and his other teammates are the constant target of the school's football stars. The two teams engage in a prank war that escalates and escalates, until something horrific happens to one of Danny's teammates. However, Kurt Brodsky, a new recruit for the school's football team, comes to their unlikely rescue, and becomes an unlikely ally. Told from the alternating points of view of Danny and Kurt, Leverage paints a realistic and difficult to digest picture of high school sports, one that isn't often talked about.

Usually, I don't read sports novels, and this one took a while for me to get into. To me, it was kind of slow moving at the beginning, and I honestly wasn't really sure where the novel as a whole was headed. However, once I got to the middle of the novel, I started getting into it, because I had learned more about the characters and cared more about them. However, I did get kind of annoyed the way the author kept hinting at Kurt's horrible background, and wouldn't just come out and say it. I think that aspect of the novel could have been handled a little better. As a whole, though, it was a generally fast paced read, once it picked up. Once things start to happen, it just escalates and escalates until the end of the novel, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you're a fan of sports novels, Leverage is definitely worth a look.

School wise, I don't think that this is one that you could embed into the curriculum. There are too many points in the novel that could be considered controversial, and it definitely would only work for an upper high school audience. This would be a novel that you could keep on the bookshelf in case you had a student that was interested in sports novels, being wary that it does contain some controversial scenes. This book is definitely worth keeping around.… (mere)