| Title | : | Gracie Faltrain Takes Control (Gracie Faltrain, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0330422294 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780330422291 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 250 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 2006 |
Gracie Faltrain is back and she couldn't be happier. Her team won the Championships, she scored a few goals and a boyfriend, as well.
Just as she's settling down to a new season of soccer, the stakes are raised. Coach has entered the team in the Firsts – a boys only league. To prove herself, Gracie has to fight harder than ever before. The other teams will do anything to keep her out of the game, and if she makes it, they'll do anything to see her lose.
But Gracie is sick of losing. She's sick of seeing friends, like Martin and Alyce, unhappy. Gracie decides it's time to take control and even the score for everyone, on and off the field.
Gracie Faltrain Takes Control (Gracie Faltrain, #2) Reviews
-
Noelle and I chat about this book at
Young Adult Anonymous.
How do I say this without sounding insane...
Cath Crowley is my spirit author.
It's like she looks at my high school self, takes a part of who I was, then a part of who I wished I was, and crafts a story that I always read at the right time.
Gracie, in this book, is at her well intentioned, wholly misguided best. She is steamrolling over her best friends in her efforts to help them. Mind you, they never asked or wanted her help. In fact, they've asked her to stop. But what kind of friend would she be if she took their nos at face value and allowed them to be less than how she sees them in her mind? Confused? It doesn't matter because it makes sense to Gracie! She's a Grade 11 version of Leslie Knope but instead of government, she loves soccer. Soccer is everything and this year, it takes even more meaning because her team is trying out for the Firsts, an elite league with televised games. The competition is harder and rougher, but the potential payoff is huge. Her competitiveness and confidence, which have admirably taken her to the top of an all boys team, are faltering under the physicality of the Firsts, her inability to remove Alyce from all of Annabelle's punchlines, and Martin's distance and indifference.
This is the type of book I'd usually hate. It's the dreaded middle book where the characters you fell in love with in the first book act completely opposite from how you'd expect, and all the obstacles seem manufactured to get you to a climactic third book.
Gracie pushes the boundaries of friendship, likability, and, okay, common sense. Martin, our romantic hero and staunch defender of all things Gracie, is suddenly adrift. Gracie's actions alienate her friends, and also possibly, the reader. Except... that is SO Gracie. Everything she does, however cringeworthy, is backed up by her character development. And Martin is still the crushworthy guy from Book 1, just dealing with some lingering issues. What I loved about this book is that Cath Crowley went THERE. She could have easily created some superficial problems with neat, pat resolutions. She doesn't. She takes her characters on a journey, and part of the journey of adolescence are stops at Self Involvement Town and Real Consequencesville. We've all been there.
I definitely see a tiny bit of myself in Gracie. After I lost a soccer match in 6th grade, I poured water on another player -- from my own team. I know. That's why I could believe Gracie did some of the ridiculous things she did, and why she had to do them in order to learn from them.
This isn't an angst filled book though. It's Cath Crowley! She won't punch you in the gut without having a scene where someone gets hit in the nuts too. Gracie always goes balls to the wall and takes you on a wild ride. Onto Book 3! I'm excited for the return of multiple points of view. The side characters are so great and I missed hearing their voices. -
"'I told you that love sucks. But is anyone listening to me? No. England could fall off the map and you’d just smile and keep playing soccer.' JANE IRANIAN"
Oh, yes, in this sandwiched volume soccer-playing
Gracie Faltrain takes control – of lots of things and unfortunately not in a good way at all. When I closed my copy of
The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain, Gracie had finally learned the lesson that soccer is a team sport and that winning takes the combined efforts of all players, but when I delved into the sequel I quickly understood that there is plenty of important stuff Gracie is very far from understanding. Apart from the fact that Gracie needs to become less self-centered and explosive, the most important mantras that have to be forced into her skull are “Winning at all costs might be quite costly” and “Helping others starts with respecting them.” To exchange the second hand-stitched proverb for a simile I could also say that Gracie barrels through people’s lives like a highly-motivated bulldozer driver, who deliberately mistakes rare wildflowers for weeds while keeping his earplugs in to drown out the noise of the tree huggers. Or, if I wanted to express Gracie’s problem without a trace of pomp, I would say: Because Gracie thinks she knows what is best for everybody, she meddles without restraint and without looking back whenever she can:
- For months Gracie is convinced that her best friend calling from overseas will unquestionably be grateful to be interrupted, because it is obvious that Gracie’s problems are more urgent, more severe and much more interesting than the ones she was about to elaborate on.
- Gracie pulls all possible strings to “rescue” her quiet, brilliant, library-affine and moderately contented replacement friend Alyce from staying unpopular and - in her unwavable point of view – unhappy forever.
- Although Gracie’s dearest wish is for her parents to mend their relationship, she ruthlessly ruins the first tender moment between them, because she immediately needs them to act on her behalf.
- Gracie decides to ignore both her mother’s and her boyfriend’s plea not to do anything and calmly destroys the fine layer of scrab that had recently formed on the festering wound that had been inflicted when Martin’s mother left her family years ago .
- Gracie tries to pressure her boyfriend into ending his friendship with her nemensis by resorting to childish name-calling and popcorn blitzes at the movies.
- In order to build up some victory feeling among her team mates Gracie humilitates other soccer teams on the field and then makes sure that they know that they have been bested by someone smaller, quicker and fitter. ”’We’re the only team everyone hates. What does that tell you, Faltrain?’ I ask. 'It tells me we’re better than everyone else, Martin,’ she answers. ‘Faltrain, they should measure your head for science. I reckon it’s the biggest I’ve seen.’ MARTIN KNIGHT”.
Even though I have to admit, that I saw a little something of my younger, impulsive self in Gracie, because I grew up in a family that did not snub shouting, dumping the contents of water bottles and sugar pots on people’s heads or asserting one’s opinion by force as part of the daily war, and because “Live and let live” was a motto that did not come naturally to my parents, Gracie’s enthusiastic hole-digging, which lasted almost 200 of the beautifully worded pages and – regardless of several intervention attempts by her mother - got her in deeper and deeper, was a pretty painful process to behold.
If I had not had the chance to get to know and treasure Gracie so much in the multi-angled first installment, I would probably have lost patience with her antics and rated the story, which is mostly told from Gracie’s one deluded point of view, down quite a bit.
But since it is a middle book, I suffered, but I suffered in hope. ”'Boy meets girl. Girl meets ground.' LOCAL NEWS WEEKLY” writes about a game of Gracie’s team. And so I never really doubted that once Gracie hit the bottom hard she would wake up, come to her senses and
finally get it right.
”‘I’ve lost him, haven’t I?’ Love’s like an egg. Break it, and you might still have almost every bit of yolk and white, but there’s no way you’re getting that back in the shell. And even if you could, there’d be still all the cracks. It’s why Mum and Dad are taking all winter to grow the smallest bit of green. It’s why Mrs. Knight never came back. ‘Yes, Gracie, love.’ Mum doesn’t bother lying. ‘I think you’ve lost him for now.’” -
4 stars like for the first book even though I have to confess I liked this one a bit less.
Aside from the fact that I was ready to jump into the book and slap (repeatedly) Gracie on more than one occasion for how unlikable, selfish and downright egotist she was, the single POV this time was less engrossing.
While in the first book it was fun to be in different people's head I can't say it had the same effect on me to be in Gracie's head the whole time. Maybe because I wanted to smash it?
Anyway, this gem of a series is unmissable, awesomely written, can I just say it reminds me of a mix of Marchetta's characters and a tad of PJ from Dairy Queen?
Onto to the final book. -
I didn't write an individual review for this one but Maggie & I wrote a
combo-review of this (in which I begin to suspect I run a blog with Gracie Faltrain) at YAA. -
Gracie, Gracie, Gracie ... I look forward to seeing you "finally get it right" in the next instalment.
The second book in the series was the hardest for me to read. Doubly hard maybe because this time there are no switching points of view - the reader is alone in Gracie's head. And although Gracie has finally learnt that soccer is indeed a team sport, now other problems await to be solved. Her boyfriend Martin still has no contact to his mom who left the family years ago. Her best friend Alyce is in love with Flemming, but the way she acts he will never notice her. Fortunately, Gracie knows exactly what her friends need and takes matters in her own hands. Her way of "helping" her friends in dire situations made me want to slap her countless times - it is not that she doesn't mean well, but it is impossible for me to see someone run headless into trouble and not even notice there is something going wrong without me wanting to tear my hair out. In this instalment, Gracie has to learn the hard way that her methods are in fact not the right ones, and that only because she sees an easy way out it does not mean that easy way out is there for others as well. -
Review of all three books: 'The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain', 'Gracie Faltrain Takes Control' and 'Gracie Faltrain Gets it Right'.
World, meet Gracie Faltrain. She’s in year 10, is her school’s soccer superstar and the renegade girl who plays on the boy’s team. Gracie is a phenomenal player, because when she’s on the field she grows wings and never misses a goal. But she plays for herself. She doesn’t pass or share the glory – when Gracie Faltrain plays, she plays to win, and nobody better get in her way.
But Gracie is slowly starting to learn that winning by yourself isn’t nearly as satisfying as sharing the triumph with a team. The same way her family isn’t whole when her dad is away and her mum misses him. Or how Gracie is lost when her best friend, Jane, moves to England for her dad’s work, and Gracie becomes a social outcast at school. Soccer is about teamwork, sharing the glory and commiserating the loss . . . the same can be said of friendships and relationships.
We stay with Gracie through to year eleven. She’s still a soccer superstar, but one year on and she has gained a friend – the geeky, shy and sweet Alyce Fuller is firmly under Gracie’s wing. Then there’s Andrew Flemming, Gracie’s soccer teammate who has finally become a friend, and the object of Alyce’s affections. Then there’s Martin Knight – soccer captain and Gracie’s new boyfriend. Martin’s mum left eight years ago, and her absence still stings. But Gracie Faltrain is here to save the day and fix everyone’s problems, even if she doesn’t understand them. Gracie’s about to learn though, that sometimes you’ve got to let yourself lose when there’s just no way to win.
And, finally, we’re with Grace in her final year of high school. Dan Woodbury is a player from the opposition, but that doesn’t mean Gracie can’t be intrigued by his lip-ring and flying skills. Jane is back from England and dreaming of Gracie’s teammate, Corelli, in his Superman suit. Alyce Fuller is completey and totally over Andew Flemming . . . right when he realizes how much he wants her back. Annabelle Orion is going from annoying mean-girl to Gracie’s arch-nemesis in record time, and Martin doesn’t want anything to do with Gracie anymore. But the championships are around the corner, and Gracie has to make some big decisions about where soccer fits into the great scheme of her future.
Cath Crowley’s ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series debuted in 2004 with ‘The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain’. In 2006 Crowley wrote ‘Gracie Faltrain Takes Control’, and she concluded the series in 2008 with ‘Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally)’.
Ever since falling in love with Crowley’s ‘Graffiti Moon’ I have had a voracious appetite for her written word. So it was with utter glee that I delved into the ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series . . . and, as has become her MO, Cath Crowley does not disappoint in the least.
The ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series spans three years in the high school soccer career of one Gracie Faltrain – only girl on the boy’s soccer team and catastrophic klutz. Gracie is a superb character, and even though she’s nothing like Crowley’s other beloved female leads, Charlie Duskin or Lucy, Gracie still has the feel of a Crowley creation. She’s a tomboy with a temper, often time oblivious to the thoughts and feelings of others around her (until it’s too late), loyal to a fault and fiercely competitive. She’s brilliant. Throughout the three books we read how Gracie gets it so, so wrong . . . and sometimes she learns how to save the game, but other times her lesson comes from accepting defeat and knowing when she’s beat.
Helping Gracie along the way is a cast of unforgettable secondary characters aplenty. Gracie is our main narrator, but over the course of three books each major and minor character gets their turn at narrating. Gracie’s parents take the lead a lot in the first book, explaining their side of separation and how hard it is to watch Gracie muck up from the sidelines of her life. But in the final two books the narrative voice is taken over by Gracie’s nearest and dearest friends. There’s her best friend, Alyce, the school nerd who gets her heart broken by a popular soccer jock. Andrew Flemming, said popular jock who learns his own self-worth only when the girl he hurt proves it to him. Jane, Gracie’s other best friend, relegated to England for the first two books but back in Australia for the finale and with a broken internal GPS. Martin Knight, in turns Gracie’s biggest fan and harshest commentator.
Multiple narrations are definitely Cath Crowley’s style – it’s her groove and signature move, and it works pitch-perfectly in ‘Gracie Faltrain’. When I first read the plethora of POVs in ‘The Life and Times’ I was a little overwhelmed – particularly when we get Gracie’s parents narrating too. But it works. Once Crowley gets readers into her rhythm, it becomes the most natural thing to be given a window into these people’s heads, to read the ways they bounce off each other and fall in misunderstandings and tangled webs. And Gracie’s parents offer some of the most poignant insights of the entire series;
HELEN FALTRAIN
I read somewhere that spiders can spin silk strong enough to hold the weight of a thousand trucks. I tried to imagine those lines of silver, thinner than air, stronger than steel. Sometimes I think that a hundred webs, invisible gossamers, connect Gracie and me. They coat our bodies, tie our limbs together, link our hearts. They can stretch across cities, countries – even anger. Unbreakable. I felt them that first time I watched her play soccer.
She needed to win so badly. I watched a new Gracie crack out of her cocoon that day. Grey, moth-like, she seemed covered in a dust that let her take to the air. Fly. They’re beautiful things, moths, with their dark patterned wings hooking on wind to push them forward. You have to be careful with them, though. Brush them just lightly, and they can’t fly anymore.
- ‘The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain’
Also, in the multiple narrations, certain character’s voices come to echo Crowley’s other works. Martin Knight is still living in the aftermath of his mother’s abandonment, and there’s a little of the heartsick Charlie Duskin and Ed in him. Likewise, when Gracie’s enemy, Annabelle Orion, takes the narrative reigns, her insights hint at some of the same struggles that Charlie Duskin goes through. It’s the same with Alyce Fuller, the no-hope nerd who is ignored by everyone (including Gracie) in the first book – she too has echoes of Charlie. All of these characters touch on what Cath Crowley is most curious about in her writing – people on the fringe, looking in. She loves the misfits and no-hopers, the ones who kick themselves down . . . and then she writes beautifully about how they get back up. They’re all here in the ‘Gracie Faltrain’ books, and they are lovely to read. But be warned, this is a series that will cause tears. But hey, no pain no gain, and there’s a lot to gain from the ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series.
I love, love, loved all three of these books. This is a wonderful series about fighting for what you want and not being afraid to stuff up, just so long as you admit when you’re wrong and do your damndest to make amends. And this series is funny. Gracie is infectious; her klutzy catastrophes will leave you belly-aching, and the social shenanigans Gracie finds herself in will leave you vicariously red-faced.
Hands up if anyone else fells like they’re in a strange life-looping door that keeps swinging back to hit them on the butt?
- Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally)
Cath Crowley is truly one of Australia’s finest YA authors. ‘Gracie Faltrain’ is a series with a lot of heart; exploring the pitfalls and soars of high school through the wonderfully fumbling Gracie Faltrain. If you loved ‘Graffiti Moon’ and ‘Chasing Charlie Duskin’, then be assured that Cath Crowley has been writing on a role since way back in 2004. . . -
Gracie Faltrain is fun to read about because as far as heroines go, she's far from perfect. REALLY far from perfect! She's interfering and arrogant and self-centred, and always extremely frustrating - but that's what makes her so interesting and such a vibrant character. You love her, but a lot of the time you also want to smack her. You're not just rooting for her to come out on top, you're rooting for her to wake up and realise that she's trying to get to the top the wrong way. I mean any fool could see that Jane was having problems and just aching for her old friend to talk to - but not steamroller Gracie!
I missed the style of the first book, because that unique layout really was so much of the charm. Here, each chapter is headed by a thought/quote from someone, and every so often Gracie will imagine Jane's response to something - in the first book, all those one-liners were given pages of their own. It was odd at times, but I really loved it. So I definitely missed it here. Still an extremely interesting follow-up though and I look forward to book three! -
I don't know how to rate this book...
Probably my least favorite Cath Crowley--likely because it felt the least Cath Crowley... :-/
I hear the third one is much more like what I've come to expect... so I'll stick with this series. -
Thanking my lucky stars that I don't have a friend like Gracie.
-
There are good reads and there are great reads. This second Gracie Faltrain surpasses both as a fantastic read. I love the wit, setting and sheer pace of this world. I could not put this book down and was immediately sad when it ended then thankful to realise there's a third and final book. Even if you don't care about soccer, you'll wish you grew up in Gracie's world when you were a kid. Cannot speak highly enough of Cath Crowley's talent - she makes me want to be a better writer.
-
Nov 2017:
HELP. ME.
Oct 2013:
Man, Gracie frustrates me. But I like how she figures it out eventually. And I love the way Cath Crowley writes. -
Gracie Faltrain is back and she couldn't be happier. Her team won the Championships, she scored a few goals, and a boyfriend as well. Just as she's settling down to a new season of soccer, the stakes are raised. Coach has entered the team in the Firsts - a boys' only league. To prove herself, Gracie has to fight harder than ever before. The other teams will do anything to keep her out of the game, and if she makes it, they'll do anything to see her lose. But Gracie is sick of losing. She's sick of seeing friends, like Martin and Alyce, unhappy. Gracie decides it's time to take control and even the score for everyone, on and off the field.
