Leverage - by Joshua C Cohen (Paperback)

About the Book

High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

Book Synopsis

AN ALA FOR YOUNG ADULTS PICK - A relevant book about bullies, their victims, and a high school football team where winning is the only thing that matters.

"Sometimes there's a book so powerful and so ruthlessly brilliant that it makes you gasp and cheer. Leverage is that book."--Carrie Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Need

"Leverage proves that no matter how bleak our past is, our fate, in the end, is in our own hands."--Mohammed Naseehu Ali, author of The Prophet of Zongo Street

"About as dark and disturbing as YA literature gets."--School Library Journal

There's an extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove High.

It is paid on--and off--the football field. And it claims its victims without mercy--including the most innocent bystanders. When a violent, steroid-infused, ever-escalating prank war has devastating consequences, an unlikely friendship between a talented but emotionally damaged fullback and a promising gymnast might hold the key to a school's salvation.

Told in alternating voices and with unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the fierce loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won optimism of two young athletes.

Review Quotes

"Sometimes there's a book so powerful and so ruthlessly brilliant that it makes you gasp and cheer. Leverage is that book."--Carrie Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Need

"Sports novels don't hit much harder than this."--Booklist, starred review

"Often hilarious, sometimes sad and mostly uplifting, Leverage proves that no matter how bleak our past is, our fate, in the end, is in our own hands. Joshua C. Cohen has placed himself among the best storytellers of new American fiction."--Mohammed Naseehu Ali, author of The Prophet of Zongo Street

"Kurt and his struggles are heartbreakingly real, and readers will pull for him long after the story ends."--Kirkus Reviews

"This powerful novel is thought-provoking and well-written, and it's about as dark and disturbing as YA literature gets."--School Library Journal

About the Author

Joshua C. Cohen is a former collegiate gymnast who now lives with his wife in New York City.