Customer Reviews

Too Far

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I thought that this was a pretty good book. It is about a high school sportswriter named Sam Perry who is covering the South Fork basketball team who are nationally recognized as a state competitor, but when he hears about the basketball team's manager getting murdered he goes to find Ben Mitchell from the town who has been writing for ESPN for help on the story. Ben and Sam dig in to the story to find any help he can get about the murder. They ask the players and coaches, and anyone else who can give them the needed information. They eventually find out it was a member of the basketball team. This book was kind of predictable from kind of the beginning, so for the whole book you kind of know who it is going to be.

In TOO FAR veteran sportswriter Mike Lupica has written a thriller from a moral high ground, a plea for tolerance and against sadistic hazing. In the wake of the notorious Mepham High School football scandal, this book comes as a wake up call. It would be fair to say that actually this novel is nothing more than the Mepham case with the names changed and the athletic action switched from the gridiron to the hoops; it's pretty transparent that way. Well, Upton Sinclair wasn't subtle either. Nor is any man on a crusade against sodomy.

Old school print journalist Ben Mitchell gets interested in the death of a high school basketball player on Long Island, whose body has floated ashore. With the help of student reporter Sam Perry, Ben quickly maps out the lay of the land in a perverted, though very starry, b-ball organization. Its pecking order is maintained by a strict system of threats and balances, and a pivotal part of team control lies in systemic anal rape of fellow teammates. In one genuinely creepy scene, the boy reporter is lured to a desolate park in the woods where he is assaulted and sat on, his pants and shorts removed. From behind a broomstick, its handle coated in mineral ice to improve lubrication, enters his rectum as he squirms and cries, just an inch, that's all, enough to show him who's in control. When he agrees to lay off his investigation, his attackers laugh sadistically and promise him that if he doesn't obey their threats to the letter, that broomstick gets shoved in all the way.

It's no idle threat. They've already made their will known by using a basketball summer camp as a rape staging area, pressing a pinecone up the ass of one outnumbered boy, whispering to him "You like to be close to nature, don't you?" The trouble is that this campaign of intimidation can continue indefinitely, since each raped boy would (literally) rather die than have his assault reported, for fear that other boys would say he enjoyed it. Sam is taunted with the nickname, "Broomstick Boy." Others try suicide.

Lupica links this isolated case to a nationwide system of sexual abuse among teammates, citing dozens of real life cases. He suggests provocatively that such abuse is built-in to teams with multiple "stars," since such teams have a radical instability that implodes on itself. Shag and Kobe, he says, dislike each other, because on any team there can be only "one f--ing man." These codes of masculinity may seem outdated, but to the guard with blood dripping out his butt, staining the radiant white of his uniform shorts, it's no laughing matter.

In Mike Lupica's latest novel, "Too Far," we are presented with an interesting concept: the exploration of team pushed to and beyond the limit. The idea of participating on a team is very real to us, as we've all done so before, and we all know what it's like. Lupica's story takes the idea of competition to the extreme, and in the process, loses a base of reality. It would have been a much wiser decision on Lupica's part to explore a high school team plagued with realistic problems that the layperson could relate to. The rampant sensationalism and melodrama that characterize "Too Far" prevent Lupica from doing justice to a good concept. Finally, Lupica is unable to keep his writing strong throughout. Witticisms are disseminated throughout large sections of uninteresting prose and poorly done dialouge. On the whole, one would expect more out of Lupica; this is sub-standard work.

The basic concept of Lupica's latest is a strong, i.e., hazing and murder in a small town. However, Lupica's execution of the plot is fairly slow-moving and predictable, and his characters are devloped with little depth. They are one-dimensional at best, making it difficult for me to care much about what happened to them. Given the blurbs from two authors I like a lot (Harlan Coben and Robert Parker), I had high expectations for Too Far and had moved it to the top of my "to-be-read" list. As you can see, though, from my comments above, my disappoint in this book is obvious and I will not be rushing out any time soon to read another book by Lupica. Do yourself a favor and skip this book.

This book is good in a way because it does show how team hazing can be tragic; however, as far as reading enjoyment goes, I'd skip this one. It's about a reporter who digs to find out what really happened to the high school's basketball team's manager in spite of getting a big run around by the whole team. It really shows a dark side to school sports.

Karen Arlettaz Zemek, Author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

The cover blurbs mentioned "plot twists", "mystery", and "suspense". In fact, it's very linear and (spoiler alert?) everything happens EXACTLY as you think it will. I kept waiting for the twists but they never came. I like books about athletes, athletic team dynamics, and youth sports issues, so this looked appealing. Not a bad read, but pretty ho-hum.

Mike Lupica has once again solidified his position as the premier author of our time in sports related books. Too Far is a long overdue wake-up call for the parents of all high school and college atheletes. Hazing in sports has been shoved under the carpet for too long and Lupica is to be applauded for bringing it to the surface in a captivating format. Too Far is a thrilling ride that leaves the reader emotionally charged!

Mike Lupica writes a mean sports novel. His latest, Too Far, is no exception...

A "retired" sportswriter, Ben Mitchell, is trying to figure out what he wants to do after quitting his job over someone killing himself over a story. While he's killing time in the small town he came from, a high school reporter, Sam Perry, introduces himself and asks for advice on how to proceed on a story where he has information no one else has. The manager of the small town high school basketball team has turned up dead from a beating. It looks to be related somehow to a hazing incident during a team camp. When another player on the team and friend of Perry also shows "injuries" that might be part of the hazing, things start heating up. Mitchell starts coaching Perry on how to handle the story, but soon it evolves into an effort to keep Perry, his mom, and himself from getting severely beaten or even killed. Since the team is arguably the best high school team in the country, no one wants to rock the boat or expose anything that might be wrong. Mitchell and Perry have to decide how important it is to tell the story and uncover the truth, no matter how unsavory it might be...

This is not a novel for the squeamish. Lupica deals with the issue of hazing, or team initiation events that go far beyond playful pranks. In this case, sexual abuse is the problem, and the kids who were abused have to live with what happened as well as knowing that everyone else knows what happened. Add the pressure and threats to keep it quiet, and you start to understand the anguish involved on the part of the kids. You also come to understand the pressures involved by a reporter when they have to choose between the easy path of ignoring a story (sometimes for their own safety) or the harder route of exposing the truth regardless of the personal cost. Lupica does a great job in telling a well-written story with real issues faced in today's society.

If you're not easily offended by difficult subjects, this is an excellent read...

Considering this is Lupica's first suspense/mystery novel, I thought it was pretty good. Picked it up on a bargain rack for 99 cents and couldn't put it down. I say it's worth the money. As for all of these people saying this isn't real life and that he should write about real life situations and problems, they have obviously never been on a team because hazing is real, and sometimes it does go this far.

This was an enjoyable enough mystery. It began well, but did drag at parts in the second half. I liked Lupica's Wild Pitch (for adults)and Travel Team (for kids) much more. It seemed that Lupica was trying to appeal to both audiences with this book, and did okay with both, but this was not a home run (or I should say a 3 point swish). I would most recommend this to teen readers who are in between kid and adult reads.