One on One

Two high-school students--Sam, a born leader, and Deanie, a rebel--fall in love, in a bittersweet coming-of-age story set in a rural town in western Maine. By the author of Small World. 50,000 first printing. 50,000 ad/promo.

YA-- Sam Styles is a popular teen who honors the no-alcohol-or-drugs pledge and has a warm and supportive home. Deanie (a.k.a. Mutant) Gauthier shaves her head, adorns herself with chains, smokes cigarettes and marijuana, and tries to keep secret the abuse she suffers by her mother's boyfriend. This seemingly mismatched couple comes together because they share a love of basketball, and their needs and yearnings nurture their relationship off the court. While the pacing sometimes drags, the setting and characters are realistic, complete with drugs, sex, and violence. Teens will be able to identify with many of the people and their problems.
- Patricia A. Long, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this affecting story of high-school basketball and teenage romance, King returns to the small-town Maine characters who peopled her previous novel, Pearl. Sam Styles, who made brief appearances as the son of Pearl's lover Reuben in the earlier book, has grown into a straight-living, Bible-reading high-school basketball star. In his senior year, he finds himself attracted to scrappy, hostile little Deanie Gauthier, captain of the girls' basketball team. As Sam and Deanie struggle to lead their respective squads to state championships, a dark bond of sexual passion grows between them, and he is increasingly drawn into her troubled life. Conflicts ignite that threaten their relationship, as well as their ability to play ball. Both are beset by adversaries: J. C., an upper-middle-class drug dealer at the school, has a sordid hold over Deanie, and Pete, a dissolute teammate of Sam's, detests his sense of morality. On the periphery of the high-school action, but posing the most sinister threat, is Deanie's mother's abusive boyfriend. The overlong narrative loses steam as King (married to novelist Stephen) resolves each conflict separately, diminishing the impact of the grand finale. However, her rich characters and her brutal, violent portrayal of teenage life manage to sustain interest despite a flabby plot. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In such previous works as Small World ( LJ 4/1/81), King explored the darker side of human nature. Her new novel balances this darkness with suggestions of possible redemption. Sam Stokes and Deanie Gauthier share love and a talent for basketball, although their very different backgrounds make them an unlikely pair. He is an easygoing athlete with a penchant for reading the Bible; she is caught in a web of abuse and angrily faces the world with a shaved head and body chains. Yet as the Greenspark Academy Indians boys' and girls' basketball teams head for the Maine state championship, Sam and Deanie form a complex bond, composed of both pain and hope, that King makes believable and captivating. She successfully evokes both the excitement of small-town high school sports and the underlying tension her plot requires. For most fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/92; BOMC alternate.
- Jan Blodgett, St. Mary's Cty. Records Ctr. & Archives, Leonardtown, Md.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.