Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

Publisher: Dutton
Age Group: YA
Rating: 5/5
Source: Publisher

The football field is a battlefield

There's an extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove High. It is paid on - and off - the football field. And it claims its victims without mercy - including the most innocent bystanders.

When a violent, steroid-infused, ever-escalating prank war has devastating consequences, an unlikely friendship between a talented but emotionally damaged fullback and a promising gymnast might hold the key to a school's salvation.

Told in alternating voices and with unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the fierce loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won optimism of two young athletes.

I’m not a big fan of books about sports and LEVERAGE was my first one that I read and since this one was on my TBR pile for a really long time, I decided to give it a shot. This book had the most beautiful and lyrical writing I’ve ever read. You can spot a talented author and Joshua C. Cohen is one.

The book centers around the bullying that three football team captains always give to the gymnastics team. I hated Mike, Scott, and Tom. They were simply mean and couldn’t believe this was happening and they were just getting away with it. Now I don’t know much about high school football teams since I go to an all girls private school, so there’s no football and being that my school is small, there’s not much bullying going around and if there is, the guidance department fixes it. You’re never alone, but for Danny and his teammates, they were.

But my heart broke apart when Ronnie committed suicide. Ronnie was just a freshman and to me he wasn’t weak. He was young. So three huge, steroid infused football players beating and destroying the life of a small gymnastic freshman, you bet he’s going to be weak. The football players were huge and evil.

Kurt was one of my favorite characters. I felt bad for what he had gone through and how he felt it was his fault for Lamar’s death. And the three football captains didn’t help at all. At times, especially Scott, they would be so nice they made you feel important and as though they cared for you, and the next thing you know is they are punching you.

The ending was perfect. All three of them got what they deserved and even though no one was going to believe them, Tina had made the perfect plan. No one deserves to be bullying and their evilness made Ronnie kill himself. No one protected him and they kept on telling him to forget it ever happened. You can’t forget something like that. It stays with you forever.

Overall, I loved this book and I can’t wait for Joshua C. Cohen to write more books because I’ll definitely will be reading them.