The Revenge Playbook

April 1, 2015
When boys on the football team start dumping their girlfriends, the girls team up to get revenge. Liv, Peyton, Melanie Jane, and Ana want to steal the revered Football of '76, touched ritualistically by every Ranburne Panther every gameday. The girls aren't friends, but each has a grievance against the team. Liv's boyfriend insists he still loves her but says the team will prevent him from getting a crucial scholarship if he doesn't accede to their wishes. Melanie Jane, a confident beauty pageant contestant, can't believe her boyfriend dumped her, and it turns out he was forced into it as well. Worse, the entire town allows the team members, and the team captain in particular, to get away with any sort of mischief or even abuse while punishing others for the same deeds. The girls plot to win access to the football, key to their revenge. In the meantime they spy on the boys, even secretly videotaping the team's secret initiation ceremony. Allen sets the action in a small town near Nashville and deliberately explores how the girls survive and thrive in the male-dominated society. While the initial setup feels comic, the book takes a hard look at real difficulties. Written in chapters featuring each of the girls, their different personalities add a nice level of complexity to the story. A deceptively light look at the dark side of football culture. (Fiction. 12-18)

April 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-In the small town of Ranburne, TN, football is king. The members of the high school team can and do get away with pretty much anything, but that's all about to change. Liv, Peyton, Ana, and Melanie all have their reasons as to why they want the football team to go down, and they plot to get their hands on the revered "Football of '76." The four of them manage to get the list of dares that's part of the JV football players' scavenger hunt. If the players don't complete the tasks by a certain time, they have to walk onto the football field naked during the homecoming game. All of the dares must be photo documented, and the winner gets the famous football. In the process of trying derail the scavenger hunt, the four protagonists become friends. This loose readalike to E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Disney-Hyperion, 2008), celebrates girl power and focuses on challenging "old boys' clubs" traditions. The chapters jump from present day to the pranks to the backstory, so it's a bit confusing at first, but readers will get familiar with each narrative fairly quickly. It's a book about high school, bullying, popularity, and finding your own voice while doing what is right. VERDICT A fun YA title that challenges sexist attitudes in modern-day high school culture.-Jesten Ray, Seattle Public Library, WA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 Peyton, Liv, Melanie Jane, and Ana have all been wronged by members of the Ranburne High School football team, and they are determined to take their revenge. Each year, the older members of the varsity football team make the rookies complete a scavenger hunt and retrieve a symbolically important football. Brought together by necessity, the girls hatch a plot to exact revenge on the team by stealing the football first. As the plot evolves, so does the friendship among the girls, and what started as a mutually beneficial arrangement becomes the foundation of an unshakable bond. The story is told in the alternating voices of the four girls, allowing insight into each one's troubles, while also skillfully moving the revenge plot forward. The novel deftly and gracefully explores many difficult themes, ranging from sexual assault to hazing, expertly balancing weighty issues with the more lighthearted struggles of high school. This timely novel provocatively shines a light on the power that many high-school football players can wield and sometimes abuse.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)