The Foxhole Court (All for the Game Trilogy)

Psychotic teenagers, a completely made up sport, a James Bond-esque deliverance ending, and do or die situations with completely over-the-top sass and wit?

Yes and yes, I am referring to The Foxhole Court. A grand trilogy by author Nora Sakavic is a bit of a secret gem in my opinion.

I could not even tell you how I found these novels or why, only that I had migrated into the deep and secret underbelly of Tumblr and the original fiction community and somehow popped out with a PDF of the first book and a burning desire to read and keep reading.

The All For the Game trilogy or more commonly known as The Foxhole Court is a trilogy centering around secretive and loudmouthed Neil and his rag-tag team of Foxes that play the fictional sport of Exy for Palmetto State University.

The first book is available online in PDF form for free to get a taste of what you are in for (http://aisylum.com/tfcdl/FoxholeCourt.pdf) and the following two books are for purchase for a measly .99 cents for Ebook on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Normally I would have seen that price and went sprinting in the other direction, but in this case it’s a godsend. I’d give Nora Sakavic my right arm and leg if she asked for it now.

So you might be wondering, what is this damn cheap trilogy about? Essentially it’s one of those “a group of outcasts come together” to save the day situations except the day doesn’t need saving and they don’t exactly come together-they do…but well they don’t. Intrigued yet?

I’ll give the more juicy details then.

The main character, Neil, comes from a shady background that slowly starts to take place during the course of the series. Not only do the details come slow and heady, they come intense and traumatic with each new revelation.

The story really begins with Neil joining Palmetto State University’s Exy team, the Foxes, mostly against his will and definitely to his distaste and dislike. The forerunner of the the Exy team, Coach Wymack, only recruits kids from troubled pasts for his university team-some think for publicity and some think for penitent reasons, but you’ll have to read to really find out why.

As you could probably guess the Foxes are not an easy group to like or even get along with. Most of them are assholes and a lot of them come from broken families, traumatic childhoods, and horrible beginnings. I’ll give you this warning now: these books are not for the faint of heart.

It covers topics from bullying, sexual assault, rape, drugs, violence, torture, and pretty much anything else you can think of. If any of these things are a trigger for you then please do not read or read at your discretion.

But other than a cryptic warning, I became addicted to these books. I won’t lie, the first book is slowwwwwwwww. Like molasses slow. Like waiting for the bell to signal the end of the school day slow. Like going to the DMV slow.

It’s a bit of a pain to get through but the set up is needed and understandable and by the time you finish the second book you’ve already forgotten the pace of the first. So there’s that.

But there are so many other things Sakavic does well. Her writing is quite mature and fluid and her characters are definitely her selling point. The Foxes are an amazing group of individuals and I slowly fell in love with each of them.

They are the opposite of flat characters, they are round and bouncy and full of secrets and details and likes and dislikes that make reading these books worth it (along with all the extra content from Nora herself on her Tumblr).

And as far as the sport aspect goes, I was pleasantly surprised. I am not a sports person. About ten different people in my lifetime have tried to teach me the rules of football to no avail. I don’t like them, I have no interest in them, and I don’t particularly care to watch them.

However, Sakavic does an amazing job explaining her new sport Exy to you. It makes sense, it includes thousands of little details that make it come alive, and she even explains the rules and details to you that you think you wouldn’t care about but you somehow do.

This book isn’t without its flaws, the pace is still slow going into books two and three, the characters-especially Neil and Andrew-can be frustrating, certain plot points can be confusing (there are still some details I’m a bit muddled on), and the romance gives the term “slow burn” a whole new meaning. I’m not joking.

If you are looking for romance, this is not your series. It exists and shows up with a vengeance in book 3 but you have to travel thousands of miles and traverse millions of pages to get to that development; so if you are not a patient person I would look elsewhere for your fuzzy feelings.

All in all, The All for the Game trilogy was a fantastic read with fascinating characters, intricate plot points, fluid dialogue, creative new sports and places, and well-built relationships that will make you want to pick up the books (or kindles), read them over and over again to catch all the small details you missed the first time, and then go stalk her Tumblr and seek out all the fan art you can find to fill the hole in your chest after the series ends.

Recommendation: If you like outcast stories, slow-burn romance, and dramatic storylines reminiscent of telenovelas and James Bond than this is probably your cup of tea. Make sure you know all the warnings and triggers before reading just in case, you don’t want to get yourself burned.

Score: 8/10