A review by meghan111
Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash

5.0

If you like novels with a single strong character voice, check out Stephen Florida. Stephen is a college student in North Dakota singularly focused on his wrestling career. As a senior, it's his last chance to win the 133 championship, and his drive is enormous and all-encompassing. He's also isolated and suffering from mental health problems. Reminded me of the novels of Teddy Wayne and [b: The Silver Linings Playbook.] Great writing: haunting passages about the hallucinatory frogman and the isolated North Dakota landscape, and also crystal clear blow-by-blow descriptions of wrestling from Stephen's perspective, using insider terms without much explanation but also keeping the reader aware of what's going on, a real feat.