The Misdirection of Fault Lines Book Review

This was a solid read with a fairly engaging and evenly paced story.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants goes to the US Open in an emotionally honest and openhearted novel for fans of Yamile Saied Méndez and Jenny Han.

Three teen girls compete at an elite tennis tournament for a shot at their dreams — if only they knew what their dreams were.

Alice doesn’t belong at the Bastille Invitational Tennis Tournament. She needed a sponsorship to attend. She only has a few wins on the junior circuit. And now, she has no coach. Tennis was a dream she shared with Ba. After his death, her family insisted she compete anyway. But does tennis even fit into her life without him?

Violetta is Bastille’s darling. Social media influencer, coach’s pet, and daughter of a former tennis star who fell from grace. Bastille is her chance to reclaim the future her mother gave up to raise her. But is that the future she wants for herself?

Leylah has to win. After a forced two-year hiatus, Bastille is her last chance to prove professional tennis isn’t just a viable career, it’s what she was built for. She can’t afford distractions. Not in the form of her ex-best friend and especially not by getting DQ-ed for her “attitude” before she even sets foot on the court. If she doesn’t win, what future does she have left?

One week at the Bastille Invitational Tennis Tournament will decide their fates. If only the competition between them stayed on the court.

Misdirection of Fault Lines is an incisive coming-of-age story infused with wit and wisdom, about three Asian American teen girls who find their ways forward, backward, and in some cases, back to each other again. Anna Gracia, acclaimed author of Boys I Know, delivers with a refreshingly true-to-life teen voice that perfectly captures the messiness, awkwardness, and confusion of adolescence.

The Book Review

I read a prior Anna Gracia book, and I was curious enough to try another. While I feel that the comp to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants sets the reader up for false expectations, given this is very much not that, it does highlight how few books there are for young adult highlighting friendships between women as the main driver of the plot. There is a little bit of a romance here and there, but even as a romance reader, I liked that it took a backseat to the friendship and it was the relationship between the three girls that shone through.

While I don’t know a lot about tennis, I loved how this was set around a tennis tournament in honor of Bastille Day. And the way it ties into the girls’ growing bond, with them even referencing the “Liberty, equality, fraternity” motto at the end was great. I did expect a little more of the sport itself, but I’m glad it was more focused on the social and personal stuff, although someone who picked it up expecting more tennis might feel differently.

And with all that in mind, I did mostly like the girls, both individually and collectively. Each has a unique backstory and is on their own journey with competitive tennis. Alice is dealing with grief at the loss of her father, and goes on a journey of coming out of her shell, being a first-timer to the tournament. Violetta is a veteran of the tournament, reckoning with her mother’s pressure on her, as she wants to live vicariously through Violetta and for her daughter to achieve what she never could. Leylah, by contrast, is dealing with parents who don’t believe she has a chance to make it in professional tennis, and are pushing her toward a more “conventional” career path. I loved that, in spite of their differences, the girls bonded over their shared love of the sport and really supported each other.

The story was fairly engaging and evenly paced, although the focus less on the competition aspect in favor of the personal did result in moments of lull at times.

This was a solid read, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in YA book focused on friendship and coming of age.

Book Length — 352 Pages

Hard Cover Price — $16.64 (Amazon)