Week 38 Review: We Are the Wildcats

From Goodreads:
A toxic coach finds himself outplayed by the high school girls on his team in this deeply suspenseful novel, which unspools over twenty-four hours through six diverse perspectives.

Tomorrow, the Wildcat varsity field hockey squad will play the first game of their new season. But at tonight's team sleepover, the girls are all about forging the bonds of trust, loyalty, and friendship necessary to win.

Everything hinges on the midnight initiation ceremony—a beloved tradition and the only facet of being a Wildcat that the girls control. Until now.

Coach—a handsome former college player revered and feared in equal measure—changes the plan and spins his team on a new adventure. One where they take a rival team's mascot for a joyride, crash a party in their pajamas, break into the high school for the perfect picture.

But as the girls slip out of their comfort zone, so do some long-held secrets. And just how far they're willing to go for their team takes them all—especially Coach—by surprise.

A testament to the strength and resilience of modern teenage girls, We Are the Wildcats will have readers cheering.

My Review:
Man, this book was fantastic! The idea of this coach manipulating these girls, and the pain that he causes, it was infuriating. I loved watching them come to terms with what he was doing, and the adventures that they had along the way!

We're in the heads of a good number of these girls on the team. From the three who were on the team previously, and dealing with the loss at the end of last year-and the new girl, and the girl who played a few games, we got to see a number of different perspectives, and I really enjoyed it.

They are the Wildcats, they won championship 5 years in a row-and then lost the 6th. Now they're coming back, and there's all sorts of emotions, from Mel, who's been a star player since her freshman year and is now Captain, to Phoebe, who went from bad to worse with a ACL injury. Ali, goalie extraordinaire-let in two scores after the play did a racist Asian gesture. Kearson, who subbed in for Phoebe for 2 of their final games last year, and didn't perform very well. Grace, the outsider. Luci, the Mel 2.0. I do wish we could've had more of Grace's perspective, but I enjoyed all of these girls stories!

I do wish that their Coach would've faced more punishment. The ending was pretty great, but I would've liked more, especially since he gaslit them, and Phoebe got seriously injured, playing before she was cleared by her doctor. He was a pretty awful person, and he deserved more consequences for his actions! 

I really enjoyed reading this book, though I'm not sure I'll check out more by Siobhan Vivian, given the twitter conflict with Sarah Dessen and a collage student.  

Author: Siobhan Vivian
Read: September 19th, 2022
Source: Library
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a SAC 2022 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: March 31st 2020

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars