Tone knows the rules.
Keep quiet. Keep hidden. Try to
survive. That means ignoring the cries
of his mom’s latest boyfriend beating her, the drug dealing biker gang next
door, and all the pain and horror that he sees on a daily basis. But his one and only friend has found
something that seems to actually make him happy. MMA.
And when Tone gets pulled into the world of sport fighting he starts
finding things in himself he thought were long dead. Things like pride, respect, and even hope. But those things can get you killed in Tone’s
neighborhood. Now Tone has to make a
choice between hope and survival, and he’s not sure that he has a choice at
all.
This book is a dark, bleak, gritty, and hard. It felt like a punch to the gut, or maybe repeated
hooks to the head and knees to the face.
Something very painful and violent anyways. That being said, I think it’s
a great read. The characters are sort of
straightforward and the language is simple and direct, but all that works for
the world this book describes. The action scenes are clear, direct, and
brutal. They will leave you pumped for
the MMA style fighting and feeling beat and disgusted at the street
violence. The contrast between the two
was a clever way to show the difference between violent sport and violence at
home. The action scenes are wisely spaced far apart and the book focuses on the
day to day drudgery of Tone’s life. This may not make you feel sunshiney and
bright, but it is a real slice of what all too many teens have to face in the
real world. Now, that’s an entire subgenre of realistic fiction and I can
understand wanting to take the occasional break from the dreariest corners of
the world and read about vampires and whatnot too. However, if you want a hard knock book that
will keep you hooked then this is a really solid title.
You can check our catalog for Tap Out here.
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