Kim Deister
The book tells the story of the 1989 Danvers Falcons Field Hockey team. They have a long-standing losing streak, and I do mean LOSING. The team (which consists of all girls but for one boy) live in Danvers, which was once Salem Village, the infamous site of the 1692 witch trials. The area has a rich history, which leads the team to become convinced that witchcraft is the answer to ending their losing streak. And thus the story begins.
The mood of the book is very surreal. There are plenty of dark moments, but there’s also a fair amount of humor as the team members embark on their own individual journeys of growth and self-discovery.
One of the most unique things about the books is the perspective from which the story is told. It’s given in the omniscent 1st person perspective, the vague “we.” It is such a rarely used perspective, but one that really worked with the team, rather than any one individual, being at the center of the story. The only downside was that the “we” made it hard to connect emotionally with the characters.
I picked up this book for the nostalgia of it all. The characters are teenagers in the 1980s, when I too was a teenager. The pop culture references were great, bring me back to the time of big hair and copious amounts of Aqua Net. But it was unnerving to realize just how unaware most of us were to things like classism, sexism, and racism… all of which were present in this book at some level.
