This week’s staff pick is Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen.
At Oregrove High, there’s an extraordinary price for victory, paid both on and off the football field, and it claims its victims without mercy. Kurt and Danny are on high-school teams vastly different in school status. Danny, slightly built, is on the underfunded gymnastics team, while physically gifted Kurt is the latest addition to the popular football team.
Each uses sports to cope with tough personal issues. Kurt’s foster care and painful stutter are more visible than Danny’s insecurities. A bullying episode inflicted by some football players results in tragedy, forging an unlikely friendship at the heart of the increasingly violent, steroid-infused power struggle.
