The Foxhole Court

The Foxhole Court

Nora Sakavic

Publisher: Self Published by Nora Sakavic

Release Year: 2013

Date Read: September 15, 2018

Genre: Sports, LGBT, Contemporary, Young Adult

Rating: B/ 4 Stars

***This book series features talk of abuse, murder, torture, gangs, violence in general, and I believe later it may contain self mutilation, and rape, but I can be not. If this concerns you or triggers you I would advise looking more into it before reading. This book is on the darker side and talks of abuse a lot. If you are uncomfortable with it or it triggers you be cautious. This reviews talks about the abuse and the way I talk about it isn’t meant to offend or say that you have to feel this way. It’s all based on what I have learned self studying child psychology from a young age and other people I know personal experiences. ***

“It’s about second chances, Neil. Second, third, fourth, whatever, as long as you get at least one more than what anyone else wanted to give you.”

― Nora Sakavic

Neil has been on the run for eight years, not for a crime he did, but from a criminal he is avoiding, his father. Neil’s father is a murderer known as The Butcher, and Neil will do whatever he needs to do to not end up in his hands again, but when Neil gets the chance to play his favorite sport for the last time he can’t help himself. Neil is the new addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team, a team full of delinquents and people who most don’t want to give any more chances. Even though the team is full of trouble, especially one who is psycho in every way, the team members aren’t what puts Neil in danger. The team is well known, and it doesn’t help that a star player from another school is now on their team, and with him comes spotlight, something Neil has been avoiding. Now Neil must ask himself which is more important, Exy, or his life.

We’ve been told over and over not to judge a book on it’s cover, that is very literal with this one. I will admit, the cover put me off because it seemed like it was just something someone put on a fanfiction website, but when I found out why the cover looks like that I understood, and also was amazed. This book is self published, which makes it clear why the cover looks that way, but what I want to know is if the book is self published because no one wanted to publisher it for her, because if that’s the case, they messed up. While the description of this book seemed like it was a lot, when you read it, it doesn’t seem like it at all. It was to me, like I was watching Haikyuu(A sports anime for those who don’t know), mixed with a much darker version of the Raven Boys from Maggie Stiefvater, two things I love. This book mostly is set around before the start of the games to let you get to know the characters and how they interact with each other. It lets you get to know all the characters before you get to see them in action at the games. It mainly features Neil hanging around four other characters, Andrew, the psycho that everyone is too scared to mess with, Aaron, his twin brother and that’s all his character is, Kevin, the Exy star with a forever damaged left hand and family issues, and Nicky, Andrew and Aaron’s flirty gay cousin, which is why I described it as a darker version of the Raven Boys.

 

Pros

 

• I hate watching sports. I cannot stand it. I don’t care about sports at all. The only sports I watch is anime sport shows and it’s more about the characters and feeling happy for them then for the sport. This book is a sports book, and I loved reading them play the sport. Not only to cheer for them, but because I actually thought the made up sport was interesting. It’s brutal. The characters start to physically fight during the game and then just go back to playing as if they weren’t just in a fight. To make it better… This is a co-ed sport. They have girls on their team who get just as violent and rough as they do. As someone who hates watching real sports, I loved reading them play it. Mostly because they are all aggressive and brutal.
• Andrew. I love Andrew. And while I love Andrew just for being Andrew, my favorite part of Andrew is how he is written. The main character calls Andrew a Psychotic Midget, and he is not wrong. Andrew is terrifying. If I met a man like him in real life I would run. Andrew has two sides, his medicated side that is full of calm smiles that make him less aggressive, but still calculating and scary, and his sober side which is pure anger and aggression. But, It’s not just how Andrew acts that makes terrifying, it’s how people act around him. No one wants to have back facing Andrew. They all want him where they can see him, especially when he is angry. Even when he is angry he will smile calmly, as if nothing is wrong, but they know what will happen if they turn around while he is angry at them. Everyone in the book fears him.  No one wants to be around him when he is not on his medicine. They all avoid him on whatever cost. Their looks of fear and the way they go out of their way to avoid him is to an extreme. He has also beaten people almost to their literal death. Neil doesn’t call Andrew Psychotic as an exaggeration. The way the author writes Andrew makes you fear him as if he is real. She writes him so well. He’s unpredictable and terrifying. It’s something that I will never be able to explain completely. The way the other character fear him makes him even worse. They fear him like someone would fear a killer.
• The bonds between the characters. I keep comparing this book to The Raven Boys and there’s a reason. My favorite part of The Raven boys is the special bond between each characters. Each character has a different relationship and friendship for each character. That’s how this book is. The book focuses a lot on how each character interacts with another character and how they bond. It’s a very character driven story, which is something I personally love.  
• The accuracy or abused people. It’s not a mystery that Neil is abused, his dad is a crazed murderer that he is running from. A lot of authors write abused characters but make them mostly only fear the abuser, which is how it is for some people, but a lot of people who are abused fear anyone they can relate to their abuser. Neil’s reaction to adult males compared to women and people his age is very realistic. Neil isn’t an abused character just to make his character abused or to appeal to the audience, it’s apart of him. It control him in some situations. And yes, Neil being abused is a huge part of his character, but it makes sense for it to be, he has been dealing with it and running from it his whole life. He hasn’t had time to not think about him being abused or his abuser. Running from his abuser has been his life for years, so it makes sense for a major part of his story to be focused on his abused self, but it also doesn’t focus on it where that’s all Neil is. Neil has other characteristics and does in fact not let it control him fully. He says what he believes in and doesn’t let people push him around. He stands up for himself and others, but there are times when the fear does control him and he does cower or start to shut down. Neil is an abused character, but his character is not only abused.
• The LGBT part. While it is labeled as LGBT, it barely comes across as that. Now let me explain why that’s a pro before it seems like i’m saying something else. As I have said before, there are a lot of authors who make their characters only talk about being gay, only think about how they are gay, and all of their actions can relate to them being gay. It makes it come across as the characters are gay to just be gay and nothing more. Like the characters are there to say you have a gay character so you look more diverse. While there is more LGBT things to come in the series, this book only brings it up when Nicky is talking about how he is gay or flirting, or when Nicky is asking Neil which gender he likes. Neil, in the first book, never says if he likes either, and always just either ignores the question or denies liking either. The story focuses on the characters bonding instead of the LGBT part of it. Like some of the characters just happen to be gay instead of their characters only being gay. While being gay is a big part of someone’s life, it’s not all they are. There is more to them they who they like and their character should only revolve around that unless it’s exactly the plot of the book like Simon vs. Homosapien Agenda. Since this books focuses more on Neil choosing between the life he wants vs the abused life he knows it should focus more on his feelings towards the two then on which gender he likes. So the subtle amount of it in the first book makes it perfect and gives it time to build like real relationships and feelings do.

 

Cons

 

• If you are a sports lover and want to read this book for sports reason, in this book they only actually play once. That’s not to say they don’t play more in the rest of the series, but in this book they only play an actual game against someone once. It’s a sports book but it focus a lot more on the lives of the characters than the sports. But it is a interesting made up sport that has been explained like a cross between lacrosse and hockey and it is actually fun to read them play it, and they do practice a lot. But the book is more drama than them playing the sport.
• It has these weird moments. There were times that something happened and I had no idea why or it isn’t explained why it happened. It mostly is with Andrew, who does a lot of unexplained things, but it was still weird. One part that I couldn’t understand was why Andrew doesn’t want Neil to wear his contacts. It’s not explained, just that Andrew doesn’t want him to wear them and might harass Neil if he wears them out. It was weird. Now some of the weird things do get explained, but not in the first book, so it just stays weird.
• To someone who doesn’t like problematic characters this book will be a big problem. Literally every character is problematic with a past. It’s definitely a darker book.So if not into that, don’t read it.
• This book is mainly only found as an e-book. The only way I have found to buy paperbacks of the books is on Amazon. The author is self published though so it’s easy to understand that e-books would be easier to make than a lot of books she would of had to pay for without being certain people would’ve liked it. I have looked on Amazon though and they are there for sale.

“I’m not scared of Kevin. I know him.”

“You’re going to eat those words,” Neil said. “You’re going to choke on them.”

― Nora Sakavic

I really loved this book. I read it in two days. The first day I thought it was ok, but then spent all day wanting to stop everything to read the book. I wanted to just sit there all day and read it. I went to write and instead found myself looking at pictures of The Foxhole Court. I loved the characters and the drama that went on. I’m already halfway through the second book and am in love with it. I stayed up till seven in the morning reading it….. Now I do binge a lot of books but I don’t feel the need to drop everything, including sleep, to finish reading it. Only a few books have done it. This was one.

“Hope was a dangerous, disquieting thing, but he thought perhaps he liked it.”

― Nora Sakavic

I recommend the book to those who liked the Raven Boys(Especially Ronan) and want a much darker version where they play sports instead of searching for the welsh king.

“Andrew was smiling, but Neil knew his cheer didn’t mean he was going to play nice. He’d been smiling when he smashed a racquet into Neil’s stomach, too.”

― Nora Sakavic