PRACTICE GIRL

A young woman learns that some of the guys on the wrestling team she manages refer to her by the misogynistic term practice girl after she has sex with them.

Seventeen-year-old Jo’s dad, a high school wrestling coach, meant everything to her. His death from a heart attack several years before crushed her and made her bail on the sport, but her eventual return as the team manager has buoyed Jo. It’s helped her navigate a life with her mom, stepfather, and 4-year-old half sister in which she feels largely ignored and has provided a social group beyond her best friend, Sam, who is a star on the team. Jo’s introspective, funny first-person narrative voice is alive with poignancy and an increasing earnestness as she moves from enraged embarrassment to determination and starts wrestling again. Along the way, she revisits her abandoned friendship with classmate Leah, a rift that left her saying she doesn’t get along well with other girls. She also must face up to the complicated bond she has with Sam and decide whether she wants something more than friendship—possibly with Sam’s rival, Dax, instead. Jo’s dynamics with other people are interesting, and the narrative pulls no punches in its emotional honesty even if the story does wrap up a touch overly neatly. Jo and most other main characters are White; there is racial diversity among secondary characters.

A relationship-focused story told with intelligence and wit.