The Tournament
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Three girls with entangled pasts compete for glory in their elite all-girls private school’s annual tournament, putting their survival skills and their relationships to the test, in this young adult thriller that’s “Shakespearean…stunning…dark academia at its finest” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Gardner isn’t like other boarding schools. They take in those who’ve been rejected everywhere else, they offer a survival skills class that has students killing and gutting animals, and then there’s the Tournament.
A competition available only to seven elite seniors, the Tournament is revered by the entire student body. They’d do almost anything—including completing a series of grueling physical challenges—to win the champion’s cup.
And this year, three seniors make the Tournament more cutthroat than ever.
Max, the ruthless scholarship student who can’t afford any distractions, not even her ex best friend Nora’s stupid confession of love at the end of last year that ruined everything between them.
Nora, who always put herself on the sidelines so Max could have everything she wanted, but might just be ready for center stage now that Max has brutally excised herself from Nora’s life.
And Teddy, the transfer who’s on her last chance and will chase any high that can pull her back from the gaping, dark void inside herself that’s always threatening to pull her in.
If one of them wants to win, then they can’t let anything—or anybody—get in their way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The pressure cooker of external expectation meets a roaring furnace of personal ambition in this Shakespearean tale by Barrow (And Don't Look Back). Located on the coast of Washington, Gardner-Bahnsen School for Girls has a unique educational philosophy that melds high academic standards and athletic pursuits with survivalist skills including hunting and wound care. Seventeen-year-old scholarship student Max—who grapples with internalized shame about her family's less affluent lifestyle, relative to her peers—endeavors to win the Tierney Cup, an annual survivalist competition. Her plans are derailed when she learns that her former best friend Nora and transfer student Teddy will be participating as well. Nora, whose romantic advances Max spurned, finds in Teddy a partner who encourages her to step out of Max's shadow; Max wrestles with jealousy over Nora and Teddy's relationship; and Teddy struggles to manage her own violent urges. As the trio juggle the competition alongside mundane stress about academics and family, they must reckon with the sacrifices they'll make to achieve their goals. Via three close third-person perspectives that center nuanced discussions about class differences and belonging, Barrow weaves a stunning tapestry of complex character flaws and motivations while creeping toward a haunting climax. This is dark academia at its finest. The protagonists are Black. Ages 14–up.
