We Are The Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian Review is here.
This book centers around Mel, Phoebe, Ali, Grace, Luci, and Kearson. They all just made the Varsity Wildcats field hockey team at their school after surviving a grueling tryout in front of Coach. Most are returning girls who are familiar with Coach’s style of coaching the team. He’s hard on them and, at times, makes them want to cry, but in the end, he pushes them to be the best they can be. Coach knows what’s best for them…or does he?
Each girl is battling their own inner guilt from last season when the Wildcats failed to win the championship, which they won for the best five years. This year with Mel as the captain, they are determined to prove their worth to win the trophy. But mainly prove their worth to Coach. With Psych-Up that night after the team roster is announced, it’s a bonding experience that begins with Coach crashing the party and delivering a gut-wrenching speech, leaving the girls more on edge than ever.
Ali is the team goalie and is harboring a secret as to why she wasn’t focused last year, causing their opponents to score two goals. Ali can’t shake what happened, and no one knows the truth expect Coach. Then there’s Phoebe. She pulled her ACL then tore it after playing a game Coach advised her to play in. Kearson took Phoebe’s position last year, subbing in, but she too has a dark secret of guilt relating to Coach that if she doesn’t expose might force her to fail before the season starts. Luci also may be new to the team as the only incoming freshman to make varsity. Yet being Mel 2.0 doesn’t always have its advantages.
Finally, Mel is the team captain and closet to Coach. They text, talk, and confide in one another. But does their relationship cross the line? One thing is for sure will Mel wakeup and come to terms with the long-awaited confessions each girl finally gets off their chest? It’s a question that will haunt Mel for the rest of her life if she doesn’t figure out what she wants.
This novel took place in one day. Yes, you read that right. There are six characters, with each chapter taking place from another girls’ perspective. While the characters overall I really enjoyed it was a lot of characters. I kept losing which girl said what and forgetting the background of the characters if I put it down for too long.
I, myself, played field hockey in school, and that was the reason I got this novel. I did enjoy reading about the games and the individual stories, but there were too many to follow. I think if the book took place from three girls’ perspective and developed following them to the championship game, it would’ve been an amazing read. I really wanted Mel too to stick it to Coach and we never really got to see that.
The ending though of this novel is kind of in limbo. We are left trying to decide for ourselves what happened, and I think it would’ve been great to follow the characters into another chapter. But that wasn’t exactly possible with there being so many characters, and then there’s their parents and sibling who was in and out of the scenes. Again, I think if the characters were condensed, it would have been a 5/5 for me.
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Title: We Are The Wildcats
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Pages: 352
Where to Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Books A Million
I rate it: 3.75/5
