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State Champ
Win a free print copy of this book!
6 days and 07:48:00
5 copies available
U.S.ԻCanada only
“Ferocious, hilarious, slippery, and wise� (Leni Zumas)-the story of a woman risking her life and finding her own way to protest the end of abortion rights.
A high-school state champion runner turned college dropout, Angela is working as a receptionist at an abortion clinic when a “heartbeat law� criminalizes most abortions statewide. In the ensuing upheaval, her boss is arrested for providing illegal procedures and the clinic is shut down.
Angela has never been either an activist or a model employee. But she gets why her boss didn't follow the rules. She decides to go on a hunger strike in the boarded-up clinic, to protest her boss's arrest and everything that's been lost. She'll draw on her skillset: the masochistic discipline of a runner, a history of self-destructive behavior, and a willingness to sleep on exam room tables (whose hygienic paper she uses as her diary).
Angela's protest is solitary, enraged, and a little messy, but it mobilizes a group of people around her-an ex who's a local journalist looking for a good story, the everyday people the clinic once served, and most especially a formidable anti-abortion activist named Janine.
Lucid, strange, and deeply metal, State Champ cuts through the political rhetoric to explore the relationship between bodily autonomy and real freedom. Angela's story is about what abortion access means day-to-day and how much we are-in ways that can transform us-responsible for one another.
A high-school state champion runner turned college dropout, Angela is working as a receptionist at an abortion clinic when a “heartbeat law� criminalizes most abortions statewide. In the ensuing upheaval, her boss is arrested for providing illegal procedures and the clinic is shut down.
Angela has never been either an activist or a model employee. But she gets why her boss didn't follow the rules. She decides to go on a hunger strike in the boarded-up clinic, to protest her boss's arrest and everything that's been lost. She'll draw on her skillset: the masochistic discipline of a runner, a history of self-destructive behavior, and a willingness to sleep on exam room tables (whose hygienic paper she uses as her diary).
Angela's protest is solitary, enraged, and a little messy, but it mobilizes a group of people around her-an ex who's a local journalist looking for a good story, the everyday people the clinic once served, and most especially a formidable anti-abortion activist named Janine.
Lucid, strange, and deeply metal, State Champ cuts through the political rhetoric to explore the relationship between bodily autonomy and real freedom. Angela's story is about what abortion access means day-to-day and how much we are-in ways that can transform us-responsible for one another.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published May 13, 2025
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6278 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
December 19, 2024
This gloriously devastating novel grabbed me by the throat and never let go. Timely and prescient, this issue-driven story is grounded in the specificity of a hard-core narrator whose personal losses in life are measured against her one big win as high school state long distance running champ. The reader is brought relentlessly along when the narrator stages a hunger strike to draw attention to the cruelty of restrictive abortion laws and the imprisonment of the doctor whose example of sacrifice inspires her. Empathetic, enraging, and gloriously written, Hilary Plum has given us a perceptive portrait of our dystopian present.
March 28, 2025
deranged! (complimentary!)
“this whole journal-thing, which I’ve actually worked really hard on, is like an intro to something so important it can’t be included.�
“this whole journal-thing, which I’ve actually worked really hard on, is like an intro to something so important it can’t be included.�
March 10, 2025
This novel defies categorization. It's almost a bizarre cross between and , or a desperate epistolary novel on speed. Angela, our narrator and main character, has a voice that is utterly devastating, urgent, and strong. I empathized so much with her struggles big and small - her college coach's pressure on weight ultimately drove Angela to illness and dropping out; she also faces judgment from people who call her "too blunt." (She gave me spectrum vibes, but that's me.) Angela is clear-eyed in her protest after her boss has been imprisoned for providing abortions that have recently been criminalized in their rust-belt state. She reasons that she can't do much, but a hunger strike is one thing she knows how to do. The way that Angela deteriorates as the weeks stretch on is reflected in how her journal (ie the novel) becomes increasingly disjointed. And yet, as she is writing in this survival mode, it allows us to see the truth more clearly than ever. I finished the book in two days, was sobbing through the last fifty pages, and have been telling everyone I know to preorder. In short, Hilary Plum has shaken me to my core yet again. Everyone needs to read this novel. Thank you so much to Bloomsbury for sending me the ARC; available May 13!
March 28, 2025
Where's the red line, sheeple? STATE CHAMP knows. A defiant punk voice, fucked up and bristling from defeats, growls her barbed protest song, so vivid and direct you can't tell when its ragged refusals transform into the limpid melodic rill of exit music and fight song. Hilary Plum has composed an athletic, poised, and complex fury, knowing of the body and leavened with foils, to remind us how to take a stand.
June 3, 2025
I loved the story and the form of this. Easy and hard to read at the same time.
Read
May 18, 2025super super good
Read
February 23, 2025Interesting premise. Interesting format.
May 8, 2025
"To do something scary you just need to be more scared of something else."
This book is not my usual read, but something about it called to me, and I'm glad it did.
Angela is a past cross country state champion, a college dropout, the receiver of multiple DUIs, and most recently, a receptionist at an abortion clinic. When the clinic is closed and the Doctor who worked there is arrested for violating the new heartbeat law, Angela moves into the clinic and goes on a hunger strike until Dr. M is freed.
State Champ is written from Angela's POV during her days on the hunger strike in the clinic, so it is very stream of consciousness, and as her health deteriorates not all the thoughts are complete, or make sense, but they are so raw and visceral.
"I don't know how praying works. I guess people don't need, like, consent.
Next time, if there's a next time, I should tell her praying about me isn't praying for me. If you were praying for me, you'd be trying to want what I want. In a real prayer you'd offer to switch places with someone. You'd see it clearly, like god POV, where anyone could be anyone, like we all could picture a big switcheroo."
Angela is so unapologetically herself that I couldn't help but adore her. She felt like a real person who had messed up a lot, and struggled and was trying her best. I raced through this book is two days and if it had been longer I would have happily kept reading. This probably won't be for everybody, but I hope the readers who pick it up adore it as much as I did.
This book is not my usual read, but something about it called to me, and I'm glad it did.
Angela is a past cross country state champion, a college dropout, the receiver of multiple DUIs, and most recently, a receptionist at an abortion clinic. When the clinic is closed and the Doctor who worked there is arrested for violating the new heartbeat law, Angela moves into the clinic and goes on a hunger strike until Dr. M is freed.
State Champ is written from Angela's POV during her days on the hunger strike in the clinic, so it is very stream of consciousness, and as her health deteriorates not all the thoughts are complete, or make sense, but they are so raw and visceral.
"I don't know how praying works. I guess people don't need, like, consent.
Next time, if there's a next time, I should tell her praying about me isn't praying for me. If you were praying for me, you'd be trying to want what I want. In a real prayer you'd offer to switch places with someone. You'd see it clearly, like god POV, where anyone could be anyone, like we all could picture a big switcheroo."
Angela is so unapologetically herself that I couldn't help but adore her. She felt like a real person who had messed up a lot, and struggled and was trying her best. I raced through this book is two days and if it had been longer I would have happily kept reading. This probably won't be for everybody, but I hope the readers who pick it up adore it as much as I did.
March 28, 2025
So funny and punchy in a way that I couldn’t put down� but also such a profound meditation on what we owe to each other and the messiness of morality. Wow.
June 5, 2025
Phenomenal! New staff pick just dropped
March 26, 2025
This book was ok, but I wish there was more of an outcome. I honestly don't really understand what happened at the end and I read the last 50 pages three times. Some of this was due to the writing style of the book, which I found highly annoying. The story is told from the POV of Angela, a college dropout and general all around pissy screw-up, who almost on a whim, decides to stage a hunger strike to protest the prison sentence of her boss. I can understand why the author chose to use run on sentences, and thoughts that changed direction right in their middle, and stories that went nowhere. The book is a journal that Angela keeps while staging her protest, and it makes sense that the further she goes, the more disjointed the narrative becomes. You are watching her starve in real time, after all. However, that means that the story makes no sense, and some of the points the author seems to be trying to make through her characters don't come across very well, or at all. I think there was a lot of illusions to Angela's real motives, like was she giving herself a public suicide? I think there was some reference to the people who might have better motives, but who don't really stand up for what they believe in? Who knows, since the point kept getting muddled.
I would like to read some of the book mentioned in the author's acknowledgement though. Those sound way more interesting than this book.
I would like to read some of the book mentioned in the author's acknowledgement though. Those sound way more interesting than this book.
May 29, 2025
I really wanted to love this one - especially since it tackles such heavy and important topics that I don’t usually go for in fiction. As someone who is pro choice and frustrated with the direction our country is heading when it comes to women’s rights, the synopsis immediately caught my attention.
The story is unapologetic and intentionally messy, told through the journal of a woman on a hunger strike in protest of abortion bans. And while I appreciate the urgency and boldness of the concept, the writing style made it hard for me to stay connected. The narrative feels intentionally disjointed (as it should since she begins hallucinating) but it left me feeling more distant than invested if that makes sense.
That said, I’m glad books like this are being written. Even when the execution doesn’t fully land, the why behind it still matters.
Big thanks to Bloomsbury and Libro.FM for the gifted ARC and ALC.
The story is unapologetic and intentionally messy, told through the journal of a woman on a hunger strike in protest of abortion bans. And while I appreciate the urgency and boldness of the concept, the writing style made it hard for me to stay connected. The narrative feels intentionally disjointed (as it should since she begins hallucinating) but it left me feeling more distant than invested if that makes sense.
That said, I’m glad books like this are being written. Even when the execution doesn’t fully land, the why behind it still matters.
Big thanks to Bloomsbury and Libro.FM for the gifted ARC and ALC.
January 21, 2025
I received an advance copy of this book. Thank you
This book didn't really grab me, and you know what, that's ok, there are thousands of writers out there, each with their own style, and one size does fit all.
I thought this book would engage me since I feel strongly about the topic. In the description it says: "Lucid, strange, and deeply mental, State Champ cuts through the political rhetoric to explore the relationship between bodily autonomy and real freedom" I'll give it "strange" but hardly Lucid and didn't feel it cut through anything. I found it rambled, which makes sense as the character is progressing with her hunger strike, but the rambling left me feeling disconnected.
I am sure there will be readers who connect with the book.
This book didn't really grab me, and you know what, that's ok, there are thousands of writers out there, each with their own style, and one size does fit all.
I thought this book would engage me since I feel strongly about the topic. In the description it says: "Lucid, strange, and deeply mental, State Champ cuts through the political rhetoric to explore the relationship between bodily autonomy and real freedom" I'll give it "strange" but hardly Lucid and didn't feel it cut through anything. I found it rambled, which makes sense as the character is progressing with her hunger strike, but the rambling left me feeling disconnected.
I am sure there will be readers who connect with the book.
June 3, 2025
Angela was a high school state champion in track. Due to some bad decisions and alcohol issues, Angela lost her way. Now, as a young woman she works at an abortion clinic, still trying to get her life together. When her boss, the leading doctor at the clinic, is arrested after a new “heartbeat law� has been passed, Angela decides to hold a hunger strike in retaliation to the arrest. She does this in the shuttered clinic, quickly building support by the community. Not always an easy read, as the turmoil in Angela’s mind is expressed in bitterness and anger but I ended up finding it a rewarding and timely novel.
June 7, 2025
This book is unapologetically pro-abortion in a way I found refreshing. It's also deeply weird. The entire story is told through the journal entries of a messy young woman as she stages an equally messy hunger strike to protest abortion restrictions. It starts on the unhinged side and gets gradually less coherent as the narrator's health and mental status deteriorate. There are moments of dark humor and also of real clarity and humanity. The stream-of-consciousness style won't work for everyone (I'm not even sure it always worked for me), but I think a lot of people will resonate with the concept of being so mad that you feel insane.
May 17, 2025
Our narrator, Angela, is everything unlikeable in the way any chaotic twenty something would be. So much of her life story is chaos of her own making and she only shows us things partially because she's the one telling us. At times she is incredibly frustrating, but most of the time I just wanted to hug her. Who better to lead us through the chaos of the fight for autonomy than a woman who can barely keep herself together? Angela was a mess and so is the fight for bodily autonomy. This was messy, gross, and beautiful and the audiobook really took you into the atmosphere of the story.
June 6, 2025
I really loved the concept of this and think it’s well-written. It discusses big issues today: abortion, rights being taken away from us, protesting, eating disorders, and more. I found the relationship between the protagonist and her situationship (idk what else to call it lol) to be a really interesting dynamic as well! I feel like the book ended REALLY abruptly though. I was literally listening and the end credits came on and I was so confused! Anyway, thanks Libro.fm for the ALC even though I read it late!
May 20, 2025
An intense look into the responsibility of protest. Why do we do it and for whom?
We dive in deep to Angela's story. The other players of the story are very much formed and altered by her perspective, which makes her all the more realistic and gray of a main character. Still, this book comes to a quick close, and it felt very rushed, like the end of her story was thrown away. I wanted more concrete images and exchanges to end our time with her.
This is will keep you turning the pages, with anticipation but also with judgement. The power in this book is that it reveals really ugly patterns of thought that we've been trained into and how it harms our relationships with other women. I look forward to seeing what this author does next.
We dive in deep to Angela's story. The other players of the story are very much formed and altered by her perspective, which makes her all the more realistic and gray of a main character. Still, this book comes to a quick close, and it felt very rushed, like the end of her story was thrown away. I wanted more concrete images and exchanges to end our time with her.
This is will keep you turning the pages, with anticipation but also with judgement. The power in this book is that it reveals really ugly patterns of thought that we've been trained into and how it harms our relationships with other women. I look forward to seeing what this author does next.
May 22, 2025
Interesting concept: a previous state champ high school runner works as a receptionist at an abortion clinic. She goes on a hunger strike to protest abortion laws in her state after the clinic is closed.
The writing was stream-of-consciousness and broken up into journal entries tracking the days of Angela’s hunger strike. I liked being in her brain because I can connect in some ways, but it also wasn’t super linear or clear. And yet.
The writing was stream-of-consciousness and broken up into journal entries tracking the days of Angela’s hunger strike. I liked being in her brain because I can connect in some ways, but it also wasn’t super linear or clear. And yet.
June 6, 2025
Angela is a bad employee. But when her boss at the strip mall abortion clinic gets arrested for performing illegal abortions after the passing of a "heartbeat law," Angela goes on a hunger strike in the empty roach-infested office. A former state champion runner, the protest makes use of the only thing she was ever good at: pushing her body past its limits. Urgent, bizarre, and unexpectedly hilarious.
May 7, 2025
2.5 I feel like this was 2 stories put into one book. What I feel like was the author's intended message got lost. Angela's hunger strike to draw attention to her boss being jailed for performing abortions got muddled up with her back stories and even current situations not part of the hunger strike.
This book just missed the mark for me.
This book just missed the mark for me.
June 14, 2025
I didn't like the way this book was written. It was hard to follow and understand. Angela, a college dropout, works in an abortion. When the doctor at the clinic, Angela decides to stay in the clinic and begins a hunger strike. I understand Angela's motivation. She didn't strike me as someone who cared about abortion or the doctor in charge.
May 14, 2025
Fascinating binge read for me today. Besides the captivating writing and the exciting and emotional plot, it was also a different look at abortion access, especially in the comparisons of advocacy from both sides. Really thought provoking in a way I hadn’t seen before.
June 1, 2025
Thanks to the author/publisher for this ŷ Giveaway. I wish that I could say I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t for me. I think the important themes got lost in the stream-of-consciousness writing style. I have never been a fan of stream-of-consciousness.
June 17, 2025
Compelling day-by-day story of a hunger strike at a closed abortion clinic in order to protest the criminalization of abortion post-Dobbs. Much of this was interesting and well done, but the end was flat.
dnf
May 18, 2025DNF @ p. 78. I tried audio and physical and could not get into this for some reason. I wanted to love this but my eyes inevitably glazed over and my ears tuned out.
May 20, 2025
Wish there was more of a solid ending, interesting and quick read
May 22, 2025
LOVED the premise, didn’t love the execution (but appreciated the approach), HATED the ending.
June 16, 2025
this book was so bizarre and dark, but like, laugh out loud funny.
May 13, 2025
i'm really torn on how to feel about this one, it felt like i was reading two different stories at the same time. the writing style is one of my favorites, i really do love a stream of consciousness/diary like narration! but i still felt disconnected from the purpose of the book and what the MC was doing/where the plot was supposed to go. this is still a timely read that deals with important topics! big thank you to the publisher for sending an early copy my way! <3
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