4 out of 4 stars
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On an October evening in 1960, it starts out as any other football game, but it’s the final game of the season for the Park County High Rangers. Brian and the other senior players are determined to win their last ever football game to make it the most memorable game of their lives. Despite their loss and injuries of the evening, the night ends up being even more memorable than expected. A massive fight breaks out amongst the players and spectators, followed by a kegger party, revenge vandalism, a police chase, and arson.
On top of all that, Brian’s mind is preoccupied with his girlfriend Deanie, who is upset with him about the events of the previous night. But Deanie has problems of her own now that her ex-boyfriend is back in town from California; he has his own plans for Deanie and refuses to take no for an answer. For Brian and Deanie, all of the events of that unforgettable night continue to haunt them for months to come.
Playing Hurt is a memoir-like tale of a group of youngsters living in a small town back in a time when there wasn’t much for them to do except drive around in their cars and “park” up on the cliffs. Gerald Nardella gives readers a pretty accurate depiction of what it was like to be a teenager during this time, with boys having only one thing on their minds and girls finding only one way to keep their boyfriends interested in them. This book contain some strong language and lots of strong sexual references, but it is not too graphic for a young adult audience.
I enjoyed reading this book for its quick pace and easy-to-follow story. It is engaging and certainly a page-turner, with lots of action and interesting characters, who are easy to both love and hate at the same time. About a third of the book takes place in the single night of the opening football game; this is my own personal preference with reading, but I love it when books takes place within a short time frame like this. I also love how so many tiny details from the opening of the book come back to become important later on in the story, and I have to commend the author for such a well-planned plot, with every word being relevant to the story.
I found a few typographical errors throughout the book, but they did not detract from the overall quality of the story. However, the formatting of my electronic book was a bit awkward at times, though I am sure that this is not the fault of the author but is likely the result of some error when converting to Kindle format. For example, paragraphs are not indented, and sometimes sections of dialogue between characters appear to be combined into a single paragraph. Some hyphens have been cut out, such as "rockand-roll" and "purple-andgold" (sic).
It would be easy for readers to criticize this book for being sexist and for encouraging abusive behavior toward women. But given the setting of the story and the time period in which it takes place, I just found the story to be more believable, and I often had to question whether this story is fact or fiction. I give Playing Hurt a rating of 4 out of 4 stars and recommend this book to those who would enjoy taking a short trip back in time a few decades.
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Playing Hurt
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