The Comeback Season by Jennifer Smith

Picture 3The Comeback Season by Jennifer Smith

The last place Ryan Walsh should be this afternoon is on a train heading to Wrigley Field. She should be in class, enduring yet another miserable day of her first year of high school. But for once, Ryan isn’t thinking about what she should be doing. She’s not worried about her lack of friends, or her suffering math grade, or how it’s been five whole years since the last time she was really and truly happy. Because she’s finally returning to the place that her father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons cheering on their team. And on this — the fifth anniversary of his death — it feels like there’s nowhere else in the world she should be.

Ryan is once again filled with hope as she makes her way to the game. Good luck is often hard to come by at a place like Wrigley Field, but it’s on this day that she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape their past, or believe in the promise of those reassuring words: “Wait till next year.” Is it too much for Ryan to hope that this year, this season, might be her comeback season?

I kind of have mixed feelings on this book. I liked the baseball aspect of it, though it was a little hard to get behind the Cubs.  I’m don’t have a lot of love for the Lovable Losers.  But I totally understand Nick and Ryan’s (and her dad’s) love for the team.  I’ve been a Braves fan for as long as I can remember, so I’ve spent a lot of time cheering for them no matter the outcome of the season.  I mean, seriously – 14 Division titles in a row with only one World Series?  And now they’re not even getting that close to winning the division.  It can get depressing.  But I love them and I’ll always cheer for them.  I thought the baseball heavy sections of the book were interesting and I liked the insight that they gained from the sport.  I totally believe in the restorative power of baseball. :)

That said, the writing in the book was a little distracting.  The present tense was a little grating after a while.  I think I would have liked it more if it was in first person from Ryan’s perspective.  The book was also occasionally overly descriptive or confusingly descriptive.  For example, “Nick stands with his arms folded, eyeing her as if not quite sure what to say.  He sways a little, his hands shoved in his pockets…”  So his arms are folded and his hands are in his pockets?  That’s some serious flexibility.  Or does he shove his hands into his pocket as he sways?  There were several little things like that that were just really distracting.

There was a lot of sad stuff in this book.  It was a little overwhelming at times.