Challenge Corner discussion

Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts (which in 1692 was Salem Village, site of the origins of the Salem Witch Trials), the story follows the Danvers High field hockey team as they discover that the dark impulses of their Salem forebears may be the key to a winning season.

The 1989 Danvers Falcons are on an unaccountable winning streak. Quan Barry weaves together the individual and collective journeys of this enchanted team as they storm their way to the state championship. Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza, whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all, the DHS Falcons prove to be as wily and original as their North of Boston ancestors, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport.

Danvers vs Masconomet (9%) (view spoiler)[I've only ever read one other novel told from first person plural POV. I can see how it works here, since the story is about the team and not the individual. I'm interested to see where this goes.

Also, is Cory Gillis a play on Giles Corey from the Salem Witch Trials era? (hide spoiler)]

Danvers vs Bishop Fenwick (17%) (view spoiler)[That's a long exposition in the first two chapters but I'm happy to see the chapters do shorten out coming up. I hope that means more action and more about the mysterious force that's driving them.

I really like the team narration so far. It allows the POV to be omniscient but not seeing everything that goes on all the time with every individual. (hide spoiler)]

Through Danvers vs Lynn Classical (32%) (view spoiler)[Now I really like how it's going into omniscient views of each character and their family and life off the field. I'm a little upset that it had to be AJ, she spends the whole chapter attempting to work off the stereotypes she faces about black girls, only to do something that fully perpetuates them. I mean, I could tell that was where it was going. After the team decided someone needed to get arrested, it was pretty obvious that AJ would choose to do something.

Was it like a signed bomb threat or something? I'll continue tomorrow. (hide spoiler)]

Danvers vs Salem (41%) (view spoiler)[I loved this chapter and the way the magic starts to take hold on them. Did one of them do something that caused that to happen to the rabbits? It almost seems like the sort of thing the darkness would do, though I don't know. I love the connected consciousness aspect too, it's really interesting to think about. (hide spoiler)]

Danvers vs Peabody (59%) I've been waiting the whole book for Boy Cory's chapter. The ideas behind him are so interesting. (view spoiler)[There seems to be some gender dysphoria as well as sexuality questioning, which I was wondering about as soon as he was introduced. He's definitely got an interesting cast of characters surrounding him quite apart from the hockey team.

I'm not sure what exactly happened at the party. Is the implication that he ended up with Reed? I don't know how I feel about him getting his armband back either. It seemed like he was coming into himself, and I don't know how I feel about the setback. (hide spoiler)]

Looking forward to Heather's chapter up next!

FINISHED

I started this book having no idea what to expect, and I had no idea what to expect right up until the last page. I don't mean in any way, however, that I had trouble knowing what was going on. It's not that the plot had a lot of twists per se, more like it was just crafted to be unpredictable in a finished sort of way. Even from central parts in the book, you can tell that most of the book is some sort of memory of the past, so it seems final in a way that keeps you guessing, if that makes any sense.

(view spoiler)[Those last two chapters followed this especially. I wasn't sure what was going on until things looped back around and circled back on each other. It took a minute to realize that the final chapter was in the future (more on that in my review) but that was another element that was gradually revealed and that made the story stand out even more.

Also, I'm really happy about Cory Y. I had suspected there was something beyond gay, and I'm glad that Quan Barry not only touched on her journey as a trans woman, but also how that journey isn't exactly linear, and how sexuality and gender are fluid at all times in a person's life.

The bit about Heather and Julie and their parents was also completely unexpected. (hide spoiler)]

5 stars!