I don't usually stray away from my love for literary fiction, but this time I'm so glad I did. It's no literary masterpiece, I wanna get this straight, but the writing style gets across what's important and improves a lot throughout the novel, too. It was hard to get into it in my case, I'm not used to having to remember 10 names at all times. But once you get past that, you realise that this author LOVES their characters. Nothing repels me more than authors that couldn't care less about their characters. They're the life blood of your novel, for Chrissake, CARE. The pacing was good, the plot points were good, it all kept merging together nicely; towards the end I literally couldn't stop reading. I actually liked it so much that I'm contemplating giving it 4,5 stars. So I'm excited to see these boys again soon.

I am LIVING for the drama in this book! Usually sports based novels are absolutely not my thing, but The Foxhole Court managed to create such an interesting mix of characters and stakes, that I was hooked despite my personal biases. I will immediately continue with book two and can only recommend this opener for the All For The Game series to everyone who wants to dip their toes into the waters of sports novels.

listen! i think it's time to acknowledge that good books aren't always entertaining and entertaining books aren't always good. and this definitely fits in the second category. i was extremely entertained but this book is not a masterpiece it reads a little bit like a 270 pages long exposition for a much longer book and i really want to see where the story goes Edit: after thinking about this book for a few hours (while at work oops) i have more things to say 1) i didn't know i needed a weird queer-sports-yakuza/mafia-contemporary-fiction-drama in my life. but here i am thinking about those boys 2) i don't know what drugs nora sakavic does but i hope she's fine and will take more (maybe give me some) 3) why on earth would the yakuza/mafia care about kids?! i mean i read the book and all but what?! 4) read this book. seriously.

"Its not the world that's cruel," Neil said. "Its's the people in it." Neil Josten is always on the run. But always doesn't mean forever. He soon is found by Kevin Day, one of the most popular Exy players up until the point, where he broke his dominant hand. Kevin and his coach want Neil for their Team, The Foxes, the least popular, smallest and probably worst Exy Team in the states. Kevin doesn't seem to recognize Neil, while he is totally aware of the figure of his history. He unwillingly agrees to join the Foxes and is soon confronted with media and press, attention, and his teammates, especially Andrew Minyard. Everything he doesn't need and doesn't want right now. Nobody knows the secret he carries around, and he is not sure how long he will be able to keep it. The first part of the "All for the Game" trilogy. The book is very easy to read and has some interesting characters. The whole plot is just getting started, so it was sometimes a very stretched story, mostly consisting of Neil getting to know the campus and Exy practices. Near the end, there were finally some hints leading to the back story that involves partly Neil and Kevin, which makes me hopeful, that there is going to be more about it in the next two books. I had difficulties getting behind Andrews's character. Sometimes he still seems to be a secret to me, so I am eager to find out more about this mysterious bad boy.

Is there crack between these pages or why is this story so addictive?! 90% of the characters are absolutely unlikeable and yet, here I am, absolutely loving them and their story. One star less because I was kind of surprised the book already ended. I felt the story only just picked up but -boom- end of book. Plus, I still don't really know how Exy works. If there's a made-up sport in your book, please explain how it's played! I'm begging you! What's the rating for this book though? I thought this is YA but the topics seem a little above that. Anyways, I liked the book. Go read it!

4.25 / 5 stars The infamous Foxhole Court to the rescue when I’m in the deepest reading slump ever – and they did it. I’ve had this on my kindle ever since @Stephanie loved it deeply and I finally found the courage to deep dive into this band of misfits, loving every second of it. It is for sure no absolute literary masterpiece but that’s perfect in itself, because none of the characters are perfect either. They are diverse, absolute menaces, unpredictability on two legs and to be fair I rarely had a hunch of what would happen next. It has become rare that a book manages to surprise me, but the Foxhole Court did and that is pretty impressive in itself. One of the points I adored the most was the immaculate banter between the characters. I hate it if it’s portrayed in books as if characters despise each other but it’s oh so obvious they don’t. Give me actual aversion, give me the bite and the tear, give me proper nastiness. I’m so tired of the pretending and then revelation that they never even hated each other – negative feelings towards other people are valid, too, and to have them portrayed the way they were in this book? I was here for it. As someone who enjoys banter bordering on meanness and villainy, this book was made for me. All the quick-witted responses, the sharp dialogues and rarely knowing who would leave the conversation having the upper hand kept me on my toes and made it massively enjoyable to me. Having said this: If you’re on the hunt for likeable characters – keep moving. This book makes you second-guess every emotion you have towards every single one of the players all the time and the only thing ever changing is your ranking in the most despicable characters. However, any time the reader settles on hating every single one of them, enter their opponents and redirecting the hatred towards them. The unpredictability of it all added a fun element for me and in general I quickly fell in love with this band of misfits and their fitting leader. The sport itself is a super interesting concept and I’d give everything to play it once. With all this praise, there is a reason this book did not break the 5-star mark: It wasn’t enough. There was not enough information about the system of the game itself, the way the season works (tournament? Playoffs? League system? What’s a Class 1 team? How do scores work? Is one goal one point scored? Are there differences? How does the schedule look in general? Etc). Knowing more about this would have deepened the involvement of the reader in the season’s happenings which were kept a bit shallow by leaving this out. However, the match description was perfectly done (with exception of aforementioned points missing). Plotwise … there was not much progress made, if one left the altercations between team members out of the equation. Which is okay but might be a point of critique for some readers. At some points the writing itself made it a bit difficult to follow who is currently talking to whom about who and the language used could have been a tad more precise to avoid this. All in all: I’m in love with the team. I know this sort of character is not for everyone and if you don’t feel comfortable with these menaces running wild that’s valid, too. I, however, related a lot to some of them and I thought this book was serving massively quotable parts and a different depiction of characters for once. Much love for the tiny psychotic ones.

Mental. MEN-TAL! I was searching for one sane person in this book. ONE! There is none. I don´t exactly know how to start this. I picked this book up through booktok. And yeah normally I do not blame TikTok for me not liking a book, but this one?! It was advertised as mlm and I can´t see nothing of it! I saw so many edits of Andrew and Neil that I really thought there will be ... at least SOMETHING. I guess it was just the shippers throwing their fanfics out there. I hope (!) that there will be some sparkles in the next books. Otherwise I´ll trust none of y'all anymore! I have no idea what I read, honestly. The story is told from Neil´s POV who has been on the run from murderous people his entire life. He has a passion for the sport "Exy" (it is made up btw and it is really cool that the author came up with a whole new sport) and was found by his former friend who seems to not recognize him. Fortunately, because Neil Josten is just a new identity he made up. He cannot risk being recognized. So, he got recruited for The Foxes and when I tell you they are all broken and mentally insane, I really mean it. A bunch of crazy kids and Andrew is the biggest one. He has his episodes and has to take pills to not flip out and murder people. But even with his meds he is unpredictable and delulu. But what is the plot of this book? - I am not quite sure. I am not sure what genre this should be. The sports is of course a major aspect, but their first (and last) match in this book does not happen until 75 % into it. The main focus lies on the relationships between the Foxes, mainly between Neil and Kevin and then also Neil and Andrew. Another big part is the others having to deal with Andrew´s outbursts. At this point I have to give you a warning: this book contains a lot of drug abuse. And it seems to be taken lightly. They even force drugs down someone´s throat because Andrew said so and everybody does what Andrew says. I am going to read the next books. Mainly because I already have them. But also because there is a teeny-tiny bit of hope, that I am going to experience what the Andriel-shippers experienced.

Tak bardzo się cięszę, że ta książka spełniła moje wszystkie oczekiwania. Prosta, ale wciągająca fabuła, super wykreowani bohaterowie i lekki, przyjemny styl pisania. Rozdział 7 był przykry, strasznie przykry... Biedny Neil, mam nadzieję, że jego życie będzie lepsze i nic złego się nie stanie... Bardzo polecam, i napewno sięgnę po kolejne części All For The Game!

Guys, brace yourselves, a rant is coming. This book is absurd on so many levels. There is nearly no plot with very very colourless characters. Can't name them, and I don't know how they look like. And: I couldn't care less about them. Neil is practically a brick and exists only in this story to have a plot. He has no significant traits, nor is he ever taking control of his live. You want to hide from your father who might kill you? Yes, why not play for a national team with someone in who might recognize your true self? Seems legit to me. Not. I'm not that much into sports, but even I know you can't just invent a new one in such a short length of time and make it that popular. Ridiculous. Have a player with knifes on the field? Ridiculous. Let the players use drugs? R.I.D.I.C.U.L.O.U.S. Say drugs again: I have the impression the author has absolutely no idea how medication works. Or mental illness. Or therapy. Or everything related to this subject. Please do your reserach or don't write about this kind of things. Needless to say I won't read the other two books, amirite?

Phew, what a book. It took me a really long time to decide whether I liked it or not. The writing style is pleasant, even fun. I especially liked the fast pacing during the Exy game! What I have my problems with are the characters and the drama. So far, the characters are still very flat and lack depth for me. You could even say I don't care about most of them. (Except for Andrew, because I have a soft spot for psychos). I just hope they grow on me in the next books. The other thing is the substance abuse thing, the violence thing, the social thing. Things are tolerated there that simply shouldn't be. I also don't understand the thing about psychotropic drugs. You don't come down from your level so quickly to be completely clean again if you take the stuff every day. It's not very conclusive, in my opinion. Then there's Neil's background story. What I think about it now and his handling of it... mhm ... the boy is and remains probably a (tired) teenager and has this naivety that I would like to shake out of him. However, I would find the whole thing pretty crazy and cool (even if unrealistic) as fan fiction for already existing characters. That's why I want to give the project a chance and will read on. Besides, I love the little monster. <3

hui. That was a book, tho! Not sure if I will ever find the right words to describe how amazing this series starts. Even though the story is written in third persons perspective, I got a perfect impression of Neil (main character) and his thoughts and feelings. The most amazing thing here is that he got depth very fast! He and all the other characters are very interesting, broken and crazy. Even though I haven’t bounded with everyone by now. I don’t know if I ever red anything which made me think ‚WTF‘ as often as I thought it while reading The Foxhole Court. Everything is crazy, thrilling and surprisingly logical. And this is happing on just 251 pages.

Also vorab: das Buch würde serious Trigger-Warnungen benötigen: Drug Use, Drug Abuse, Violence, Mental Illness, Child Abuse, Psychosis, suicide, murder, death, physical/mental abuse, bullying, ableism, alcohol, toxic friendship Ich hätte tatsächlich nicht gedacht, dass es so ernst und düster werden würde, aber es war auch unfassbar spannend. Die Geschichte kam einem gar nicht zu weit hergezogen vor, auch wenn es erstmal so klingt, wenn man versuchen würde zu erklären worum es geht. Es passt aber wirklich sehr gut und wirkt vor allem sehr real und echt. Von Minute 1 an ist die Geschichte spannend und ich konnte das Buch kaum aus der Hand legen. Es gibt so viele Sachen, die man im Hinterkopf hat, auf deren Eskalation man wartet und vor denen man sich fürchtet. Der Protagonist Neil zieht einen komplett in seine Geschichte und ich war total invested in alles, was in seinem Leben vorgeht. Die Charaktere sind sehr verschieden, sehr divers und haben alle wirklich schwere Leben hinter sich und mit einer Menge Problemen zu kämpfen. Auch wenn ich mir bei keinem (außer Matt und Dan) wirklich 100% sicher bin, was ich von ihm halten soll, finde ich alle super interessant und die ganzen Dynamiken sind sehr gut ausgearbeitet und lassen einen oft vor Angst was als Nächstes passiert die Luft anhalten. So gut wie alle Charaktere handeln sehr moralisch fragwürdig, haben eine Hass-Liebe zueinander, die auch der Leser entwickelt und verhalten sich teils unter aller Sau. Auch tragen sie alle sehr schwere Lasten und die Schatten ihrer Vergangenheiten mit sich. Das Buch ist auf jeden Fall sehr character-driven, aber auch der Plot, der sich langsam entwickelt, ist spannend und komplex und hält viele Vermutungen und Eskalationen für die Zukunft parat.

Nope, can't do it. Neil is naive, careless and a pushover. And the amount of bad things the book puts him through I can't stomach anymore. All the characters clearly have too many issues while the author stays shallow and never gives them any depth which gives the reader no opportunity to sympathize with them. I was absolutely done with this book when his teammates put drugs in Neil's (non-alcoholic) drink while he wasn't looking. I had other issues with the story but at that point I was just done. If Neil forgave them for that shit I don't know what to say about him anymore. Edit: I just read about who Neil ends up with and wow, no.