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Headlock

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Kyle Bailey is a high school senior who quits his gymnastics team to join an amateur wrestling class for people who want to go into the WWE. During these wrestling classes Kyle meets new friends, but also new enemies that want to have Kyle out of the class. Kyle graduated and showed real dedication to wrestling, even though he had to take care of his grandmother Chantal who raised him because his mother left him when he was eight. Kyle begins better relationships with his classmates, and kind of forgets about his high school friends. He starts a sexual relationship with his new older, girlfriend Ophelia. Kyle's coaches like him and think he has got good heart and he has potential. Kyle goes through some hard times as he watches his friends get teased and they fail to move on to the advanced class. The worst problem is a dramatic turn for the worse because his grandmother starts to get ill and she needs twenty - four seven care. Kyle is forced to call his mother and bring her back into his life because he is lost and doesn't know what to do anymore. This honest, warm, and funny story will keep you reading until the wonderful ending!

Kyle Bailey lives with his grandmother, Chantal. He has lived with her since his mother left him there at age four because she realized she wasn't "mother" material. His father has never been in the picture because he was simply a sperm donor from the local sperm bank.

Despite the unusual family situation, Kyle has done well. He is a high school senior and could be on his way to college, but he has other plans. Kyle wants to be a professional wrestler - the WWE kind that is on TV and really act more than wrestle. Unknown to his grandmother or any of his friends, he has enrolled in a wrestling training class, and he is doing quite well.

A local gym is the setting for much of the first half of the novel. Jeff, the instructor, is working with seven students, including one girl. He says Kyle is the most talented beginner he's ever come across. The motley group of students includes talented Kyle, hotshot Danny, hard-working Ben, "elderly" Hector, and the beautiful Ophelia. The training is physical, brutal, and exhausting, and the competition is stiff. Everyone hopes to be recognized by Rat Boy, the owner of the local Gold Coast Wrestling.

Kyle can't believe it when Ophelia shows a romantic interest in him. It just seems to add a little extra sweetness to his ultimate dream. Ophelia even loves his grandmother and spends increasing amounts of time as part of their little family; so much time, that she agrees with Kyle when he begins to notice his grandmother's behavior is changing in disturbing ways.

HEADLOCK by Joyce Sweeney will satisfy many readers. The plot is multi-layered with wrestling action, Kyle's first love, his absent and eccentric mother, and worry about the growing forgetfulness of his grandmother. HEADLOCK is a true page-turner much like Sweeney's previous novels, Players and Takedown.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Kyle Bailey dreams of being a professional wrestler. When he tries out with a group of other hopefuls, it seems all his gymnastics training will pay off - he's a natural!

But dream fulfillment usually has unforeseen complications. In Kyle's case they come in the form of a hot wrestler chick named Ophelia and his grandmother Chantel's deteriorating health.

In Headlock, author Joyce Sweeney combines the action of WWE wrestling, the tension of teen romance and a heart wrenching family story. All together, it's a smack down! And even, as a long-time fan of Joyce Sweeney, I'm amazed that she made me a fan of pro-wrestling, too!
-- Reviewed by Michelle Delisle

I bought this book for my son. I also bought this book for me, because I love Joyce Sweeney. But it took me a while to read it because, well, I don't like wrestling. I don't understand it or the fascination the public has for it. But...I love Joyce Sweeney's writing. So I started reading HEADLOCK yesterday, and, oh my gosh, I get it now! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Kyle is a high school Senior and a member of the gymnastics team. He has lived with his eighty-something year-old grandmother since he was four years old when his mother decided the mommy thing wasn't working out for her. His father was nothing more than a blast in a cup. No name. Nothing. Kyle makes good grades and has a steady job delivering pizzas. But what he really wants is to wrestle. To the dismay of his teammates, he quits gymnastics and enrolls in a wrestling class.

It soon becomes evident that Kyle is a natural. Everyone in the class can see it, but they're not all happy about it. Kyle soon realizes that if he's going to make it in this biz, he's going to have to learn to deal with the taunting and harassment from some of his classmates. When the only girl in the class begins to take notice of Kyle, it at once escalates the jealousy, and at the same time, makes it much more fun to deal with. Ophelia helps him focus on getting the opportunity to be in a show opposite Rat Boy, who can make or break his career. As their relationship blossoms, so does his fame as a wrestler. But when his grandmother's health begins to fail, Kyle must decide between the responsibility of caring for her full time or wrestling. His decision could cost him his love for Ophelia, and his fledgling wrestling career.

When Ms. Sweeney places you in the ring with Kyle and his opponents, you will experience the difficulty of the performance. If the timing's not perfect, the audience will know it's fake, or worse, the wrestler could meet with serious injury. The author turns wrestling into an art. A gymnastics routine. She shows the reader the professional side of wrestling, and how hard wrestlers work at their craft, sometimes just so they can help their opponent win. Some of the moves sound like dance moves, and as you read, they feel like dancing. Even the process of finding your wrestling name is a big deal.

And as Kyle struggles with his aging grandparent, you are relieved that he has Ophelia to interject both reason and humor into his life. This isn't a book just about wrestling. This is a book about making difficult life choices. HEADLOCK was a fabulous read and, as with all of Joyce Sweeney's books I've read, it will keep you turning the pages.

Kyle Bailey has a problem--he has an overwhelming need to be well liked. So when he chases his secret dream of becoming a WWE wrestling star, enrolling in the Fort Knocks wrestling school and leaving the notoriety of gymnastics and the comfort of his friends behind, his journey begins.

In classic Sweeney style, she ferrets out the psychological underpinnings of Kyle's motivations--digging deeper and deeper into what drives him and keeps us reading the novel. Kyle is a veritable tabula rasa--a blank slate. At the outset of the novel, he molds himself into what the people around him need, not really understanding what it is he needs.

Enter the absolutely hot Ophelia, fellow wrestler at Fort Knocks and the only girl on the team. Ophelia is an older woman with a budding drinking problem and a bad habit of choosing the wrong guys. Kyle and Ophelia join forces to figure out exactly what they need--and I'm not talking about the sparks that fly between them. Add to the plot an absent mother and father, an ailing grandmother, who was Kyle's primary caretaker, and a couple of menacing jocks who hate Kyle for his likeable style and want to best him, even if it means taking him out, for the coveted spot "in the show". All of this is played out against the backdrop of the inner workings of the wrestling scene.

Sweeney masterfully makes us feel like an insider with a front row ticket on a wild ride. Whether you're a girl or a guy, if you're not a wrestling fan, you will be by the time you read the last word of HEADLOCK.

Also check out PLAYERS by Joyce Sweeney--another fantastic book of sports and psychological mayhem.