Book Review: Fight Night
Title: Fight Night
Author:Miriam Toews
Read by: Miriam and Georgia Toews
Audiobook Length: 6hrs 19 min
What’s it about?
Swiv, a nine year old little girl is surrounded by people she loves. Her grandmother is getting older, obsessed with death, has a laundry list of
medical needs and is kind of eccentric. Her mother is an actress with a flair for the dramatic and big feelings. She also just happens to be pregnant with Swiv’s little sibling who they call Gourd. Together, the three of them live together in an attempt make it through the day and make a home for Gourd. In anticipation of Gourd’s arrival, Swiv writes a letter to Gourd, introducing the soon-to-be-born baby to the world Gourd is about to be a part of.
What are my favorites?
My Favorite Character: While I do have some qualmes with her (and we’ll talk about those later), my favorite character is Swiv’s Grandmother. She’s pretty patient, loving and honest. She sees Swiv more as an equal then as a little child. She accepts Swiv for who she is and embraces all of Swiv’s eccentricities. She’s funny but strong in all of the right ways and she doesn’t take any crap.
My Least Favorite Character: Swiv’s father. I know, he’s not really a part of this story, other than he’s gone. We never get his side of the story as to why he left. But that’s a big part of my issue with him. Swiv’s Mom and Grandma do the best they can, but Swiv’s had to grow up way too fast. She is in a position to act like someone twice her age and it’s not fair. If he had stayed around, even just in the vicinity and continued to be in Swiv and Gourd’s lives, Swiv would have more support,more of a chance to just be a kid. He could have helped with Grandma and Mom. I dislike him because he didn’t do any of that. He just left.
My Favorite Part: When Swiv rushes her grandmother off of the buss to avoid interactions. She ends up telling another passenger that they’re going to the first place she sees, which happens to be a strip club. When she’s realized what she’s done, she doesn’t know how to get out of it but is incredibly embarrassed.
My Least Favorite Part:The end because it reminded me of some of my own life experiences that were emotional and difficult.I didn’t expect the book to hit me so hard so I wasn’t prepared for all of the feels and memories that it brought back with it.
My Favorite Quote: “Grandma is hard of hearing and my mom is heard of listening so I shout all day long.”
My other thoughts:
The thing I had the hardest time with this book was Swiv’s age. She’s nine. At nine years old she’s responsible for running some errands, transferring her grandmother, helping her grandmother with medications and some everyday care such as bathing. She also cooks and does the cleaning. Rarely does she go outside and play. I know that some kids have to grow up too soon and, even while their parents love and try, the kids need to take on more responsibility. I just feel like it’s all so much! On top of that,she doesn’t act or feel like a nine year old to me. Some of that might be becuase I have a daughter about Swiv’s age, and I can’t imagine her doing half of what Swiv does, or acting like Swiv does but I feel like Swiv should be a year or two older and that would fit her better.
That’s probably why I liked it so much when Swiv had moments in which she acted her age, like when her mom was in labor and she thought her mom was turning into a wear wolf or when she got embarrassed about her grandmother talking about sex and the body. Or, even, when she decided it would be okay if Gourd was born without any sex organs because she thought that sex organs would be a “good thing to not have”.
I also didn’t understand why, when Swiv was expelled from school, why there was no apparent repercussions at home. She just had to basically become her grandmother’s full time caretaker.
I did, however, like the voice acting for Swiv, which was the voice for most of the book. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, and though I did feel like the voice didn’t sound like a 9 year old’s voice, there was something about it that I liked. It was almost calming.
On the other hand, I did not like the voice for Grandma.My dislike for the voice actor has nothing to do with her talent or voice because in those respects she was good. I just didn’t feel as if her voice fit at all with my image of her or how I imagined her voice to sound and it sounded a little too young for how old I think Grandma was supposed to be.
I know I’ve mentioned a lot of things I didn’t like, but all in all, I enjoyed the story. It was entertaining and, although in my mind, Swiv was about 11 and Grandma was was a late seventy, early eighty year old woman who was somewhere between the upper end of short to the lower end of average height and very round, almost like the woman from Stranger Things that called the paper about rats eating weird stuff, and I don’t think that’s how I was supposed to invision them, it was probably my favorite “literary” book I’ve read thus far. I was satisfied with the end. It made sense and it was a ending, not just the last page.I don’t think I’ll read Fight Night again, but I’m glad I got to read it now.
What do I rate this book?
I give this book a
5
out of
10 Gourds
But that’s just what I thought. Did you read it? What did you think? Did you love it? Did you feel like Swiv should be a little older? Let us know below.
