Pages: 363
Published: 30th August 2022
Genre: General Fiction
Content warnings: Misogyny
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.
Records are there to be broken. Or apparently not, if Carrie Soto has anything to do with it. After an abrasive cameo in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s previous novel Malibu Rising in which her uncompromising personality was as clear as the California horizon, there was good reason to be nervous about her being given her very own starring role, but those fears prove unfounded thanks to a masterclass of character development and meaningful writing.
Set against the backdrop of a fictional WTA tour, it fully embraces the world and tennis and packs in a seriously impressive level of detail, explaining the absolute basics of the sport while also going into the more technical and strategic aspects. But what is even more exquisite is how it never feels in any way overwhelming. It is just the right amount of information for the reader to get the most out of it, and enhances a book that is engaging and fast paced throughout.
The outline of the plot revolves around the tennis calendar. After a prologue which sees Carrie take the decision to come out of retirement and a lengthy summary of her glittering career, the story is mainly split according to the four grand slam tournaments. All the time the question is whether she will maintain her status as the greatest female tennis player in history, or fail to prove the many doubters wrong.
However, there is so much more to the book than that. It carries you on an emotional journey with a deep examination of Carrie’s character, the moving relationships she has with the people who are closest to her, and her deeply underlying vulnerabilities. There is also a clear yet extremely well realised commentary on attitudes towards sportswomen and how they are portrayed by the media. Each one of these components slide together perfectly.
The first few pages are all that are needed to reaffirm just the kind of person Carrie is at the start; someone with a complete devotion to being the greatest tennis player of all time. She is as single-minded as you could possibly imagine; not the slightest bit interested in making friends with the other players on the tour; rude and withering towards her beaten opponents. A force of nature.
Sportspeople are naturally competitive. They want to win more than anything else, knowing that the pain of defeat will far outweigh the joy of success. Words such as ‘nothing but the best is good enough’ are bandied around. Take all of those things and multiply them one hundredfold, and you get Carrie Soto. She does not want to win – she HAS to win. As some moments in the book illustrate, she will sometimes do whatever it takes to be the best, even if it means being incredibly ruthless.
It seems impossible when you list all of those things, but the story actually manages to get you to root for Carrie as she takes on each grand slam, especially later on once you understand her more and appreciate her many complexities. Her character progression is extraordinarily good, shaped by the events that happen to her and becoming more open-minded and accepting through the influence of others.
This is particularly evident when you chart the evolution of her rivalry with Nicki Chan, the player closing in on her records. They are full of fighting talk about what will happen when they meet on the court and the book is clearly building up to the moment they do, but there is a grudging respect there, even if Carrie cannot bring herself to admit it. Nicki is more steely in her resolve, and it is fascinating to see how she deals with Carrie’s attitude. The scenes they share together are powerful in many ways.
If Nicki is an example of how she does not make friends easily, then Bowe is the illustration of how Carrie finds it difficult to let anyone get truly close to her. As it turns out, they bring the best out of each other, both personally and professionally. It was nice to experience the slow burn of their romance, which is not always smooth going or free of disagreements, but there is a mutual understanding and a realisation from both of them that they can bring each other happiness if they can just put their egos to one side.
Bowe is initially stubborn and temperamental, before coming around to the idea that he is better served by listening and taking tips on board. His development is executed very well too, and it is quite lovely how he is there for Carrie during the difficult moments she encounters later on in the book. Another thing in his favour is how he tries so hard to be a better person.
For all of these compelling and well drawn characters, the best and most heartwarming of the lot is Carrie’s father and coach Javier. His dedication towards Carrie is one thing, but his wisdom and force of personality makes him full of life, along with a constantly analytical eye. There are several moments where Javier honestly steals the show, and you cannot fail to love him.
Dispersed occasionally between chapters we have media articles and short transcripts of television shows, following Carrie’s progress at the grand slam events. The male contributors speak about Carrie with scorn and open disdain, writing off her chances while verbally attacking her in a way that seems a little too personal. The amount of casual sexism on display here is not insubstantial either.
The topic of how the media reports upon and responds to female athletes is broached every now and again here, and once more Taylor Jenkins Reid gets it spot on. Although the story is set mostly during the 1990s, so much of it sadly seems so relevant today, with many sportswomen still judged on their looks or held up to different standards than men. As depictions go, it is a very accurate one and nothing captures it better than Carrie and Nicki’s conversation in a London bar.
Tennis is a sport where psychology plays a massive part, and that is why the first person narrative works so well during the matches, particularly when Carrie reaches the later stages of tournaments and comes up against tougher opponents. The final match is the tensest of all, with the result paving the way for what was a great end to the book. Incidentally, all the players are fictional, although there are references to a couple of real players such as Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, which to me felt slightly out of place.
The writing is supremely concise, which is a real achievement for a story that packs so much in from a thematic point of view. Some of the more emotional scenes are very intelligently handled and strike a chord with the reader, which is something Taylor Jenkins Reid excels at time after time, but perhaps more skilfully here than ever before.
Overall, any misgivings about a book centring around Carrie Soto are entirely put to rest. She may be flawed and at times exasperating, but the direction her story takes and the extent of her character progression is so great here that it is hard not to warm to her, helped along by those fabulous supporters Javier and Bowe. With this excellent piece of work, Taylor Jenkins Reid completes her own career grand slam.
An outstanding book. It exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways and delivers in just about every area.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stephen Reads Books 