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This was one of the options on the poll for our April Book of the Month! In the end it lost out to Red, White, and Whole but I'm glad I've still got the chance to read it now!

How are you liking the format? It takes me out of the story a bit, but I think that's probably necessary. The story so far would be pretty intense, especially for a middle grade kid.

So Teddy's mom feels guilty because she left the family and wasn't there. I'm wondering why she wasn't around. It sounds like Dad got custody of the kids, but usually that goes to the mom, so it sounds like she went off on her own. Also, I'm wondering about Ethan's involvement. It sounds like the others blamed him right after whatever happened.

Lynn wrote: "How are you liking the format? It takes me out of the story a bit, but I think that's probably necessary. The story so far would be pretty intense, especially for a middle grade kid."

I actually really love the format! Dialogue is always the part of books that draws my focus the most so having a book made up entirely of what's basically dialogue really suits my attention span. I also really love the text and facebook group chat inclusions, like button numbers and all! The author did a great job of capturing how kids really speak, and I say that because I recognised my own text talk within it as well as the general lowkey whiny bickering sort of vibe those group pages tend to have.

My one gripe is that everyone's reaction to seeing Teddy is sort of repetitive. I feel like there's a point to that like the author is trying to show how everyone always lies about how an injured person looks to be more positive or compensate for other feelings but it's getting to the point where it's a bit tedious to keep hearing that whole "you look good, you look great, you're so strong" stuff.

Kadi wrote: "Lynn wrote: "How are you liking the format? It takes me out of the story a bit, but I think that's probably necessary. The story so far would be pretty intense, especially for a middle grade kid."
..."

I do think the reaction is realistic, though. I mean what do you say when you're told to say positive things to someone who isn't going to respond?
What I like about a format like this is that the reader has to infer so much, so it makes us think while reading. I used to read a book called Free Thaddeus! with my classes about a boy who gets assigned to in-school suspension for the entire year. The story is told through discipline reports, notes, emails, and even lunch menu requests. This book reminds me of Free Thaddeus! because of the format.

Kadi wrote: "Lynn wrote: "How are you liking the format? It takes me out of the story a bit, but I think that's probably necessary. The story so far would be pretty intense, especially for a middle grade kid."
..."

Have you read to page 112 yet? I don't like the way it was left at the end of that "Inside" entry. Leaves me with concerns about Teddy.

I wonder if it's true that people in a coma can sweat and get agitated. I've never heard that before.

Lynn wrote: "Have you read to page 112 yet? I don't like the way it was left at the end of that "Inside" entry. Leaves me with concerns about Teddy."

This the trouble with this book not having chapters. It's really hard for us to tell where the other is at and because I'm reading the kindle edition it doesn't have page equivalents. The only thing I can say to try and convey where I am so far is that I'm at 50% so does page 112 come before that? I have an inkling that I know what you're talking about because I highlighted it.

Is it the part where he's like: (view spoiler)[
"I love the pain
It hurts
It hurts so bad
And it's the greatest feeling in the world"
(hide spoiler)]?
Because I was very very concerned reading that and it just made me think how much this whole town idolises football and even the therapist questioning Ethan feels like he's more concerned about whether Ethan will continue playing than how he's feeling. Same with everyone around Teddy like most of them only really care that he's ok enough to play football. At least that's what it looks like to me, would you agree?

I'm stopping for awhile at the beginning of part 2 on page 167. I really like how we are learning that something more led to Teddy's injury.

Lynn wrote: "I wonder if it's true that people in a coma can sweat and get agitated. I've never heard that before."

I've never heard of it either but to be honest I don't know much about comas and the books I've read or movies I've seen take a lot of creative liberties with it. According to Dr Google sweating is physically possible in a coma although I don't know if sweating because of a bad dream in a coma is possible. We're not really sure how people think in a coma, are we? Like they can do tests for brain activity but it's not actually proven that comatose patients can hear people around them or have dreams or fully formed thoughts.

Lynn wrote: "I'm stopping for awhile at the beginning of part 2 on page 167. I really like how we are learning that something more led to Teddy's injury."

I didn't even know it was split into 2 parts lol. I'm only a couple of pages away from it. I took a break from reading it yesterday but I'm going to read some more tonight so I'll probably start part 2 then.
I also really love the slow build up, like normally I hate slow burns but this is really amplifying the mystery and intrigue by giving us this slow trickle of information.

Kadi wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Have you read to page 112 yet? I don't like the way it was left at the end of that "Inside" entry. Leaves me with concerns about Teddy."

This the trouble with this book not having cha..."

No, that wasn't the point that had me concerned. This ends with "There is nothing better, There is nothing better, There is nothing."
So much of what he is thinking about relates to football. I agree with you and it almost sounds like he doesn't think he has value off the football field and neither does anybody else. That could really be a problem if he comes out of this with some kind of permanent disability.

Kadi wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I wonder if it's true that people in a coma can sweat and get agitated. I've never heard that before."

I've never heard of it either but to be honest I don't know much about comas and..."

Right, and I don't think most people have memories of what went on in their heads if they do wake up.

Lynn wrote: "I do think the reaction is realistic, though. I mean what do you say when you're told to say positive things to someone who isn't going to respond?
What I like about a format like this is that the reader has to infer so much, so it makes us think while reading. I used to read a book called Free Thaddeus!..."

That's true. I guess I would just not say anything about how they look😂 Like I'd avoid that topic entirely.

I never thought about that but you're right! The way all the info is laid out before us really makes us have to work to infer things and I've just realised I really love that. It's very much in-line with the golden writing rule of "show, don't tell".
I've just added Free Thaddeus to my tbr and it looks super good!

The beginning of part 2 is about 2/3 of the way through the book, so I'm definitely past halfway. There is a completely blank gray page at the end of part one and that really through me when I saw it. In my head I was thinking, "what does this page mean?" but then I turned the page and saw the beginning of part 2. I'm not sure if you'll see that in the Kindle version.

I'm pretty sure that Free Thaddeus! is out of print now. I couldn't get it for my students the last couple of years I taught because of that, but they loved it when we read it. It's just hilarious, especially for anyone involved in a school setting, but it also presents some serious messages.

Lynn wrote: "No, that wasn't the point that had me concerned. This ends with "There is nothing better, There is nothing better, There is nothing."
So much of what he is thinking about relates to football. I agree with you and it almost sounds like he doesn't think he has value off the football field and neither does anybody else. That could really be a problem if he comes out of this with some kind of permanent disability."

Oh I highlighted the bit just before that that says "Life is football. Football is life." and I think that reinforces the idea too that football is way too important to everyone there.
Do you think he's going to wake up? I feel like he might only at the end because his condition has been slowly improving. I'm not going to like it if he wakes up and he's totally fine though. Like I don't want anything bad for him but I also really hate happily ever after endings and a story about coma patient is as real as it gets. I hope they cover his waking up and what happens then properly and not rushed because that's almost if not more interesting than his current state and could lead to some really great commentary.

Kadi wrote: "Lynn wrote: "No, that wasn't the point that had me concerned. This ends with "There is nothing better, There is nothing better, There is nothing."
So much of what he is thinking about relates to fo..."

I don't know if he's going to wake up. I think we're being led to believe that he will. I agree that it would feel like kind of a cheat if he wakes up and everything is just fine. I'm getting anxious to find out what actually caused his injury. It's starting to sound like some kind of hazing incident.

This is definitely a book that I would read with my students. There so many things that I could use as teachable moments. That's one of the things I miss about teaching.

I'm starting to read again with part 2.

I'm starting to not like Teddy's parents. They both seem to have their own agendas and they're not considering Teddy. Also, I'm starting to wonder how much blame Teddy has for his own situation. I may have made a correct inference earlier about hazing. This is another thing I miss about reading books with kids - the discovery that comes while reading a story.

I love a good twist.

Okay - I've finished the book. I didn't really care for the way the book ended, but right up to that point, I thought it was a really good story. It will be a 4 star read for me. I'm taking off one star for the ending. What did you think about what Ethan and Alec said? This story is so timely with the recent discussion of CTE. I read the author's note at the end also and found that interesting.

Lynn wrote: "Okay - I've finished the book. I didn't really care for the way the book ended, but right up to that point, I thought it was a really good story. It will be a 4 star read for me. I'm taking off one..."

I've just finished it too! I completely agree on the 4 stars. It was so close to 5 if not for that ending. I knew it was going to do that! As I was reading along I was keeping an eye on how much percentage I had left of the book and the revelation came too close to the end for them to do anything truly meaningful with it.

The way the only words we actually hear Teddy say is "I remember" is so disappointing. He could've at least said "I'm sorry" or "It's my fault, too" or something.

So when we were near the end of part 1 I wrote this long comment about the facebook group chat and my thoughts on Will and also sharing my suspicions on Clea but I never pressed the post button. Coming back at the end now to find out that my suspicions of Clea were correct is so satisfying! The word play in there is actually clever. I knew there was a reason she was being so pushy about the rumours!

My thoughts on Will now are that he's sort of indoctrinated into being a bully which is really sad. He's just following precedent and doing to the newbies what was done to him but the way he lowkey threatened everyone is sad. It's difficult because you can see that he is a product of his circumstances so it's really hard to just point your finger and say "no, he's a bad guy!" but I suppose he should still be held accountable, right?

The Clea thing was a complete surprise to me. That was the twist I mentioned, and it was clever.

It seems to me that the whole thing was institutionalized bullying disguised as team building. I think Will honestly thought what they were doing was the right thing. Unfortunately, I can see something like this happening in real life. Football culture can be really crazy in some parts of the US.

I think there is lots of blame to go around starting with the coaching staff. Whether they knew or not, they were ultimately responsible, but, yeah, the players were also responsible. If this were a real program, the resulting shake up would affect the whole community.

Lynn wrote: "The Clea thing was a complete surprise to me. That was the twist I mentioned, and it was clever.

It seems to me that the whole thing was institutionalized bullying disguised as team building. I t..."

I think the Clea thing was probably the smartest part of the plot, the reveal of the truth was pretty heavy-handed.
I agree with your views on both the coach's responsibility and the institutionalised bullying. As a former teacher did you feel more outraged over the coach's ignorance? On the one hand I did feel sort of bad for him like he was very genuine even from the start when people in the school were advising him to get a lawyer and say nothing to the family, but on the other hand how could he have not known if it had been going on for years?
Oh and that rookie rumble helmet! How did anyone ever keep that quiet or hidden? That's physical proof of the whole thing right there! That was the one thing that didn't make sense.

So here's my review: /review/show... I'm not sure if you've seen it.
I just want to say thanks for reading this one with me😊 You've made it such an enjoyable experience and I feel like I got so much out of our discussions which added to the enjoyability of the book.

Kadi wrote: "So here's my review: /review/show... I'm not sure if you've seen it.
I just want to say thanks for reading this one with me😊 You've made it such an enjoyable experi..."

Me too. It's always more fun to share a book. I'll check out your review.