It is not the critic who counts.....

Girl in the Arena

By Lise Haines

 

I downloaded this book because it reminded me of my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quote. The first time I picked up this book I read a chapter and left it for a long while. Then I picked it up again. I'm kind of happy I did.



Looks like a basic dysopian novel from the cover (Great cover and if you haven't figured it out by now I DO judge books by their covers). Several pop culture references arise so, in actually, it's set in an modern time alternate reality.



Lyn lives in a culture obsessed with Gladiators. As a daughter of seven Glads, she has had her fair share of run ins with the culture. (I realize now you're going "Seven dads?" Let me clarify: 1 biological father and 6 step fathers) Lyn has had the privilege of being taught by most of her fathers, before they all died in the arena, how to fight but Lyn is a pacifist-kind of. Because of her mom's status as a "Glad wife," Lyn has also had to live her life according to the bylaws put forth by the Gladiator Sports Association. It's because of these by laws that she finds herself forced to marry Uber, the glad that killed Tommy, her seventh father. In order to save her  "banished glad wife" of a mom and her prophetic little brother, it would be easy just to marry Uber but as a daughter of seven glads, she does not take the easy way out.

Although Uber is a professional killer, you can't help but feel for the guy behind the dust and sweat and blood (see what I did there?). Maybe in a different time, under a different situation this would have worked.  That, among other events, really pulls at your heart strings.

This book was better than I expected but I still feel more could have been done with the story line. Lyn, her brother, Thad and her seventh father Tommy were really the only developed characters in the book (and Tommy was dead for most of it). In addition, I wish the setting was more developed. I know it's not a dystopian but I still would have liked some explanation of what brought the world to idolize a death sport.

All in all, I'll recommend it. It's a good read. Although I don't know if I'd classify it as a YA novel. The way Lynn grows, takes care of her brother and realizes she may like the 'enemy' all comes together to make a good read.

*Note: While I love the cover, it's inaccurate according to the story. Lyn actually enters the arena with a shaved head and a 'T' stitched into the back of her skull. THAT would have made a bad ass cover

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
-Teddy Roosevelt