A review by ryreadsreviews
Misdirection of Fault Lines by Anna Gracia

Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.

 

Title: The Misdirection of Fault Lines by Anna Garcia 

• Publication Date- 04/02/24
• Publisher- Peachtree Teen 
• Overall Rating- DNF (marked as three on required platforms)

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Okay here’s the thing…. I love tennis and I played throughout my life. Though I don’t read much YA anymore this stood out to me. It’s a coming of age tennis story which such a lovely cover. Before I say what didn’t work for me, I do think this is a fine story (mostly) for the age group and maybe would be more relatable to them. That being said, before I transitioned, I played tennis as a young “female,” adolescence and I really felt this missed the mark. I also want to hold space for the fact that I did not finish this book so maybe some of these concerns get better. 

First and foremost, I don't mind cursing. In fact I think it often makes books better, including YA books. Come on y'all we all cursed at 15, probably more than we do now. But with that being said the f word was used 5 or more times on some pages and I just feel that for a YA book that’s a lot. There are a lot of other ways to express emotion even from a YA voice. 

Now, like I said I played on a female high school tennis team. People weren’t always the nicest but there is some really mean language and descriptions in this book. I tried to put myself back in my teen brain and get into the story but these things just really took me out of it and I couldn’t get through it. At times I felt like I was bouncing between the really young side of YA to what felt more adult and incongruent. 

By no means should this keep you from picking it up if the premise sounds interesting. I did feel that the premise made it sound way more palpable than I found my own experience. Who knows maybe this will be more relatable for teens now, we need more expressive literature for that age group.