The first game of the season acts as the climactic set piece, but it is what happens after the game that is the true moment when all the conflicts come together. The Foxes are the quintessential ragtag team, but the reasons behind their status are both intentional and tie directly into the larger picture. It was initially difficult to keep track of everyone, especially when the full team was introduced, but by the end of the story, I both had it down and was fascinated by the multiple layers of interaction and dynamics between them all. These guys don’t have baggage, they have an entire luggage train. Neil isn’t a sympathetic character neither are his new college teammates. Honestly, I applaud the author for writing a book about “sportsball” that includes all the drama and excitement of a sports story while sidestepping any potential criticism about not getting the sport right. As someone who is not particularly sporty, I bounced between having no idea what was going on while the characters are playing this sport to acknowledging that it’s okay that I have no idea what’s going on. Neil is terrified of his identity being revealed, and he ends up getting close to other people from his past who might remember and expose him.Īnd then there’s another twist-all of this is intricately connected to the sport of Exy, some sort of lacrosse/racquetball/rugby mashup created by the author. Overall, the initial premise stretched my suspension of disbelief pretty significantly, since this particular college student is a son on the run from his bloodthirsty mafia father.

College-aged characters plus sports is not usually my go-to, and I’m honestly not one hundred percent sure what this story is, beyond the standard coming-of-age narrative that college-aged protagonists usually undergo.

Multiple writers that I admire and whose work I love highly recommend this trilogy, so I figured I should give it a shot.

The raven king nora sakavic summary