The author of this book is Jon Coy and has written many other books, most of which are about sports. Many of his books have been nominated for various awards and including the book I just read, Crackback. This is his first young adult novel that he’s written and has only one other. Even though this is one of his only two young adult novels, it is an excellent one.
The book Crackback is about a high school football player, Miles Manning, and his struggles as a teenager. This is a pretty spot on novel about how teenage life is in the sense of struggling football, school and a father that always wants more out of you. Miles is always being pushed by his father to be better at football and school. Whenever Miles doesn't do well in football or messes up, he has to put up with his dad when he gets home after dealing with the coaches. He has to push himself harder and harder in football after the starting and secondary quarterbacks are injured and are out of the season. On many different occasions Miles is assigned to ask questions about his parents’ family, which his father hates. Besides struggling with school, his father, his job and trying to get a date to the school dance, his best friend, Jonesy, also in football, is pressuring him to do steroids to get bigger and better at his sport. All of these struggles are things that any high school athlete could go through.
If I had to rate this book, it would be a ten. I find Crackback such a good novel because so many people can relate their lives, including mine, to Miles’s life. In football, I was always being pressured to be better and stronger by my coaches and friends. Coaches always push us to past our limits like Miles is pushed in football. Having a job, sports, school and relationships are all factors that many students endure at this time in their life like Miles. It can all be very stressful and tough on anyone this age. I also find this novel very good because is basically broken down into a language I can understand, I guess as far as grammar goes. It’s an easy read, but an amazing book as well. The scenery and imagery is that which my age group can relate to. Like, the situations that Miles is put in, everyone my age has also gone through. A major factor in this novel is peer pressure, which I have also endured while in high school. In a few scenes of Crackback, Miles goes to parties with Jonesy and is pressured into drinking. At a earlier time in the novel, Jonesy is pressuring Miles into taking pills to get a “edge” during the game and taking steroids to gain weight because , “Everyone on the team is doing it man and it works.” Both of these situations I have encountered myself and I’m positive other students have as well. Because I can relate to this book in the ways I just listed, I would recommend this book to everyone!
