The Favorites By Layne Fargo

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Dynamic Characters

Messy/ Toxic Relationships

Interview Style Writing

This book gives the story of the famous ice dancing team Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha and their 2014 Sochi Olympics performance. The story is told in moments by Kat and through interview format by Garrett Lin, Ellis Dean, Kirk Lockwood, Jane Currer, and others. Kat and her boyfriend/partner Heath meet Garrett Lin and his twin sister Bella at the national championship when they were 16. At this competition, Sheila Lin, the twins’ mom and Kat’s idol, invites Heath and Kat over to her academy for the summer. This marks the beginning of Kat and Heath’s journey, where they gradually immerse themselves in the ice dancing community and progress to the professional level.

The start of this book hooked me immediately. Starting with our main character Katarina Shaw’s POV, we the reader get to see how she’s been depicted in all these different ways, and she’s going to be telling her story in her way. Then we get the start of the interview-style format of the documentary about her and her partnership with other ice skater Heath Rocha. From the start, the reader is put into this perspective as if they’re sitting down getting the story. When reading Katarina’s POV sections, I felt she was sitting on a sofa in front of me, and on the documentary sections I felt I was on the same sofa but watching this on my TV screen. It was a great way to incorporate the interview writing style by having it be subjective because the reader is getting other people’s perspectives or “truths” of the events, and then you get Katarina’s truth, her firsthand accounts of what happened in her career to lead to the worst day of her life. The book’s non-linear structure maintains suspense, keeping the reader hooked.

Kat introduces herself through various labels—‘bitch,’ ‘murderess,’ ‘liar,’ ‘cheater’—and throughout the novel, I found myself interpreting events through these lenses, questioning which version of her the story would ultimately reveal. The suspenseful parts I was trying to decipher if this was the moment when she was a bitch or a murderess. Even when other characters were making decisions, the self-depiction of Kat made me think about where her reaction to the other characters’ choices would explain why she’s a “bitch” , “murderess”, “whore”, “liar”, “cheater”, and even “cold-blooded.” The use of the depiction of herself is what I connected to the most. Women are often labeled different things in the media, and that’s often not the truth, and by the end, I can see how some of the words were true but don’t make her a horrible person; it just makes her human.

Kat’s love for her sport to the point where she prioritizes it over her love interest was something I connected with her on. Often times, women are only seen for their worth by the love given to the person they’re with and not their own achievements, and that can overshadow many different things. People can be more than just the relationship they’re in; it’s not their whole being but only a part of them, and when that becomes the focus, it overlooks the whole person and only sees their worth for their gender role and not the strength, ambition, and determination they showed to grow and become great.

At first, I was upset that all these men were explaining Kat’s story to the public, and in a sense, it seemed skewed.I didn’t trust any of the other characters. However, when Kat began discussing her change of mindset, I started to understand that the three main characters in the documentary were likely the closest to her who agreed to be in it. This realization made me understand how I was in Kat’s shoes and how guarded I was.

Out of all of the characters from the beginning, I never trusted Bella. When Kat first starts to develop a friendship with her, it made sense. As the story went on, I started to question Bella, and there were many moments I felt Kat was blinded by her friendship. Their friendship had highs and lows, and I think for the environment they were in, that friendship and the things that happened made sense to them. There was a lot of betrayal involved, but for two women who all they wanted was to win, their dynamic wasn’t odd to them. On the surface they were always  competition, and that showed in different ways. By the end of it all, the shared experiences and respect are what kept the friendship going.

I enjoyed all the twists and turns this book had. I had many moments I anticipated some betrayals or turns and was angry when they happened, but it made the story entertaining. The characters in this story change and grow and really have to look inward to get to the ending. I appreciated messy, ambitious characters who were complex and had their own traumas they didn’t realize were dictating their behaviors. It takes many years for these characters to even begin to understand all of the different layers they carried themselves. The characters feel raw and fully developed, making their struggles and triumphs incredibly realistic.