Sinopsis: Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He's short, he's fast, he's got a ton of potential—and he's the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.
Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn't need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.
But Neil's not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil's new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can't walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he's finally found someone and something worth fighting for.
Final Score: 4.0/5
This was really good.
Neil Josten knows one thing by heart: If he ever stops running, he will die. Being the son of a mafia boss called "The Butcher" Neil's only hope of survival is maintaining a low profile while mending with the crowds and changing his name. But, when he gets offer a position as the new sub striker for the Foxes of Palmetto State University Exy team, the rule he had been surviving with will slowly fade away as soon as other problems start to make an appearance.
(Warnings: Drug use, drugging someone without consent, kissing without consent, minor spoilers regarding the previous warnings)
With this amazing premise we get involved into a very funny and emotional book. The reason why I found it was through a book recommendation in a youtube channel, but I'm very proud of having done it. The novel explores the evolution of characters, their thoughts and complexities about what made them who they are.
Neil, as difficult as he is, became one of my favourite main characters really easy. He's just a boy who wants nothing more than to stay alive, but having been a runaway all his life, having to hide from everyone, reminded me of my own self who used to mistrust everyone around her while growing up.
Neil has never had a safe space before and has been surviving more than living, always being too careful about what he says, who he talks to and what next step should he follow. He's a character that studies all the possibly worst scenarios he could manage in order to fulfil the promise he made his dying mother about staying alive.
"He'd hated and worshipped them all his life, jealous of their successes and desperate for them to excel. Now it seemed he'd been wrong all along; Kevin hadn't escaped either.
No matter what they did or who they became, maybe they never would." (The Foxhole Court, Chapter 4)
One of the things I love the most about him is, possibly, the fact that he's a well-made morally grey protagonist. He doesn't understand the concept of grief or suffering that others go through because his own upbringing has forbidden him to do so; his own mother taught him that everyone else was an enemy, a distraction that would get him killed eventually if he ever let anyone come too close to him. Now, he accepts to play Exy just because he's desperate to finally do something by his own choice instead of being forced to, even when that implies getting along with a team of people he doesn't particularly like.
"Betsy accepted that and moved on without missing a beat:— How are you getting along with your teammates?"
—I'm pretty sure the majority of them are clinically insane." (The Foxhole Court, Chapter 10)
Now, Neil also has a rebellious strike around him that makes him stand up for other people even when that wasn't his original purpose. And, I really hope so, I expect to see him becoming way closer with the rest of the Foxes than what he is now.
Andrew is a character from who I want to learn more about, especially because I want to try to understand why he acts the way he does it. He amazed me and seriously scared me too many times in a road and I consider that his backstory might be one of the best for the way the author has portrait him.
I would dare to say he is my favourite character so far if it hadn't been for a very uncomfortable scene during chapter seven, and it's because (Spoiler)
I'm absolutely against drugging someone and therefore making them easy prey for harassment. Even when Andrew firmly believes he was doing it to protect Kevin and just because Neil had given him bad signs of wanting to hurt the second, the ways in which he decided to act were too much.
Not only did he drug Neil, he also left him with Nicky knowing full well he had made a joke about sexually assaulting Neil before. Even when it's stated that Nicky only kissed him, Neil wasn't in his right mind to defend himself and something way more terrible could have occurred. (End of Spoiler)
Aside from this, I really do want to learn more about him and see what the author prepared for him.
Then we have the rest of the Foxes, which are Aaron, Andrew's twin brother who was physically abused by their mother; Nicky, Andrew and Aaron's cousin whose parents ignored thanks to his sexuality; Allison, a girl who lost her inheritance; Renee, a Christian girl who used to be part of a gang; Danielle, who was a stripper; Matt, who used to abuse drugs; Kevin, who is basically the Cristiano Ronaldo of Exy and abandoned his previous team thanks to a terrible injury on his dominate hand; Seth, who has anger issues as well as depression and abuses sometimes of his medicine; and, finally, coach Wymack.
The thing I love the most about the team, because sadly their stories aside from Kevin haven't been develop all that much, is how all of them came from broken homes and Wymack simply looked at them and said "Yep, this is the team I want"
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"Coach Wymack was quiet for a minute: — Did you think I made the team the way it is because I thought it would be a good publicity stunt? 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."(The Foxhole Court, Chapter 1)
Even when the team itself isn't a family yet, because there are two groups strongly form and they have their own issues for not wanting to get along sometimes, they are killing machines when they got out in the court to play against other teams, especially because no one else had given a single penny for them as a whole and they are going to prove how wrong they rest of the world is.
The sport! I want to watch a game of Exy so bad! The funny moments (Like Neil roasting Riko Moriyama ON NATIONAL TV, this boy has a death wish) made the book an easy read during my last week of college exams.
Perhaps the only reason why I don't give it five stars it's probably because it felt more like an introduction to the series, with the construction of the relationships and dynamic between them more than exploring the plot. But aside, I found it very intriguing.
Conclusion: The Foxhole Court is very well-made debut novel, with interesting characters and a promising story that has one of the funniest main characters ever written. It's highly recommended.
