FIGHT SONG

Sixteen-year-old Nópika “Nokes” Lasley is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and aspires to play hockey in the Olympics. Her mother, who died when Nokes was 5, was “a mix of Native American and First Nations descent,” but her white father has raised her apart from her mother’s relatives, insisting that she embrace whiteness. When her father, who struggles with alcohol abuse, is arrested for murder, Nokes is sent into the foster care system, where she learns that people aren’t always what they seem. Nokes runs away to the home of Luke Janner, a family friend in Minnesota who coaches a university-level women’s hockey team: “I needed a savior, and he was all I had.” But when things don’t go as planned, she wrestles with choices about confronting her past and her mother’s community. Van Brunt, whose father was an enrolled member of the Colville Tribe, has written a fast-paced novel that moves back and forth in time, gradually revealing what Nokes is running from. Although at times the language is clunky, and the interior monologue doesn’t feel authentic to the teenage voice, the technical hockey writing is strong, and the story excels in character development.