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Knockout Games G Neri Books

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Knockout Games G Neri Books

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Knockout Games G Neri Books Reviews

G. Neri first came to my attention with the ridiculously titled SURF MULES. I gave it a chance because it was summer and I was bored, and I loved it. I've kept an eye out for his name since. His latest novel, KNOCKOUT GAMES, is ripped from the headlines. The Knockout Game sounded like some fad made up by the media, and to some degree it is. But where it is played, people have ended up in the hospital.

Neri has the good sense not to sensationalize the story, but to humanize it. He gets into the bones of why someone might play such a stupid, hateful game. Some of it comes from the young age of most of the players, still in middle school and eager to seem impressive. Some is the high from the violence. It's a combination of factors.

Erica Asher, unlike most of the players in her town, is white. But she has her own camera and a pretty good eye, and the players like having their knockouts filmed. As she gets more involved with the game, she also becomes more involved with the Knockout King, Kalvin. He's charismatic, genuinely talented, and kind and sensitive when he talks to Erica alone. But the sweet boy she falls in love with is also capable of great cruelty, some of it directed at Erica.

Just as Neri builds up the reasons why, he tears it down with a realistic description of the consequences. KNOCKOUT GAMES is not preachy - in fact, some people get away with more than they should and some get away with less, and both sides are a tragedy. The racial implications of the Knockout Game are also explored. (Although the real-life trend of Jews being targeted is avoided.)

KNOCKOUT GAMES is a tough read. It's violent, and the sex (which the heroine wants) leads to unfortunate consequences (as it is filmed without her consent). The characters are complex and sympathetic, but many times quite unlikeable. It is a story about finding the courage to speak up, but it's a hard journey for Erica. I highly recommend this book for older teens, but I doubt I'll revisit it. It would be a hard one to reread.
When fifteen-year-old Erica Asher moves with her mother to St. Louis after her parents' breakup, she is sent to Truman High School. Erica immediately realizes she is one of only a handful of white students in a largely African-American school. She is warned by the school's disciplinarian that the school had once been a hot bed of violence and insanity, until he arrived, and told she better not become a problem. When an altercation with Destiny, one of her primary abusers, threatens to get Destiny sent to the alternative school, Erica takes the blame and Destiny immediately befriends her. In an attempt to seal a friendship, Erica shows Destiny a video she's mixed, impressing Destiny so much with her artist's eye that Destiny invites her to meet some of her friends. What Erica discovers is the TKO Club. This "club" is a group of middle and high school boys led by the Knockout King, a dropout named Kalvin. These boys target unsuspecting citizens and rush up to them, hitting them as hard as possible in the side of the head...a knockout. At first Erica is shocked by the violence, but as she spends more time as the club's videographer, she begins falling for Kalvin's charms and tries to justify her part in the boys' games. G. Neri does an excellent job of portraying both the "high" the boys get from their wanton violence and the horror of such a random act on defenseless citizens. He shows the pain and anguish such violence causes not only the victims, but the community as a whole, and when a death results from the game, Neri carefully outlines what happens to the young offenders without being preachy. In an author's note, Neri discusses how he learned about the knockout game in 2012 and was inspired to write the story. As with Neri, I had never heard of such violence, but a quick Google search revealed that this is indeed yet another scar on our wounded society. I recommend this book for ages 15 and up. I always fear that novels like this will give students bad ideas, but Neri does an excellent job of relating the horror of the events and the fallout that results from such violent behavior. There is use of curse words as well as a sex scene between the two main characters. This book is slated for publication August 2014 and I received an egalley of the book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Intriguing input and perspective of real life kids 2014
loved the main character Erica
Great book