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Headshot
An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competition
An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.
Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.
An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.
Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2024
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26119 people want to read
About the author
Rita Bullwinkel
19 books204 followersRita Bullwinkel is the author of Headshot and Belly Up, a story collection that won the Believer Book Award. She is a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, a contributing editor at NOON, and the Picador Guest Professor of Literature at Leipzig University in Germany, where she teaches courses on creative writing, zines, and the uses of invented and foreign languages as tools for world building.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,208 reviews
August 25, 2024
Longlisted for the Booker prize 2024, a surprisingly punchy read 🥊
Divided in short sections, in a structure governed by the tournament of a girls boxing competition in Reno, many themes are touched upon in the 1 on 1 confrontations between the characters
You can’t train for a sport unless you believe you have control over your own destiny. The point of training is to change the outcome of the future. You train to change something you otherwise would have lost.
consists of short sections, that have the electric feel of a match, even though flashbacks and omniscient narrator takes you out of the sport slipstream at times. We sometimes jumps decades into the future of the girls but also learn their current teenager interiority. Still in slickness of narration and how we sometimes zoom in to the deeper drivers of the girls competing, the book at times made me think of the film Challengers of Luca Guadagnino.
plays and illuminates themes in the matches she offers us from the quarterfinals onwards that happen in Reno Nevada, situated in a sad gym called Bob’s Boxing Palace. The dichotomy of underdogs and pedigree, well trained and talented, rich and poor, chaos and confusion versus good form, adaptability versus resoluteness are presented, without universal truths being offered.
It was refreshing to see many teenage girls perspective rendered with nuance in a book, most of the time they are relegated to stereotypes or ridiculed as vapid, and here we have 8 fully rendered characters with motivations, coping mechanisms and various social-economical backgrounds.
I found this an assured debut and, even though I find it hard to say what the goal of the novel as such was, I was along the ride and enjoyed the book. And I never had much interest in boxing before!
3.5 stars rounded up.
Quotes:
Everything the coaches have taught the girls is in the past.
Artemis Victor has no idea what it takes to own a house, but she knows what it takes to beat other people, which is what owning property seems like, beating other people at owning a piece of the earth and making that piece of earth yours, not to be shared with other people, because the owning of the property is a product of your victory over other humans, as in, you won more dollars than them so now this slice of land is yours for keeps.
Both Artemis and Andi have broken their fists loads of times, but Artemis’s fists have been broken a dozen more times than Andi’s, and, though Artemis doesn’t know it now, this additional dozen number of finger breakings has already pushed the fragility that is her human hand over the bridge and into the realm of permanently damaged. When Artemis is sixty she won’t be able to hold a cup of tea.
Andi hadn’t as much loved her father as needed him.
Whereas Kate Heffer looked at her life and what lay before her and she allowed time and events to circle her, things occurring for the sole purpose that she could walk through them, be a part of them, and then move on. For Kate, time was a thing that existed only to have her in it. Kate was a goal setter. She made detailed lists and kept highly organised folders.
That’s the thing with children. So often what they do, or what they think they should do, or what they think they are good at is just some product of something someone told them that they would be good at. If you’re tall people say, Surely you’re magnificent at basketball. If you’re a girl shaped like a block without hips, people say swimming, boxing, the discus, and then one thinks, Am I good at these things? Surely if people say it, it must be true.
It’s always better to destroy something if you can’t have it.
Andi’s in snooze city because sleeping is her all-time best coping mechanism. She sleeps like some people drink liquor.
All the coaches Rachel has ever been trained by are men with something to prove, or something that’s been lost. The coach Rachel Doricko has here in Reno has three kids he’s lost complete custody of. Debt collectors plague his phone. He came to the gym Rachel trains at because he wanted a place to be in power. Rachel tolerates this desire of his like one tolerates a tax. Everything has a price, thinks Rachel. Everything I want I have to give something for, thinks Rachel. This coach has taught me things about form and stance but I have paid for it, thinks Rachel.
The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular.
I love fighting Izzy, thinks Iggy, mid-throw. I love the way she looks when I beat her. I love the way I feel when I beat her. It’s the most important thing in the world to Iggy. Beating someone at something that matters more to them than anything is like squashing a fly. You can see the guts of a fly after it’s been smashed
It’s not that all of the girls in the Daughters of America tournament are punching their way through a dead person.
The people in mass with her are what make her the least sure of God’s existence. They are, most of them, cruel and small.
It is a gift to be alive, and to be fighting each other.
There are people who, just by looking at disasters, implicate themselves in the violence at hand.
Fighting is the opposite of being in hiding
Divided in short sections, in a structure governed by the tournament of a girls boxing competition in Reno, many themes are touched upon in the 1 on 1 confrontations between the characters
You can’t train for a sport unless you believe you have control over your own destiny. The point of training is to change the outcome of the future. You train to change something you otherwise would have lost.
consists of short sections, that have the electric feel of a match, even though flashbacks and omniscient narrator takes you out of the sport slipstream at times. We sometimes jumps decades into the future of the girls but also learn their current teenager interiority. Still in slickness of narration and how we sometimes zoom in to the deeper drivers of the girls competing, the book at times made me think of the film Challengers of Luca Guadagnino.
plays and illuminates themes in the matches she offers us from the quarterfinals onwards that happen in Reno Nevada, situated in a sad gym called Bob’s Boxing Palace. The dichotomy of underdogs and pedigree, well trained and talented, rich and poor, chaos and confusion versus good form, adaptability versus resoluteness are presented, without universal truths being offered.
It was refreshing to see many teenage girls perspective rendered with nuance in a book, most of the time they are relegated to stereotypes or ridiculed as vapid, and here we have 8 fully rendered characters with motivations, coping mechanisms and various social-economical backgrounds.
I found this an assured debut and, even though I find it hard to say what the goal of the novel as such was, I was along the ride and enjoyed the book. And I never had much interest in boxing before!
3.5 stars rounded up.
Quotes:
Everything the coaches have taught the girls is in the past.
Artemis Victor has no idea what it takes to own a house, but she knows what it takes to beat other people, which is what owning property seems like, beating other people at owning a piece of the earth and making that piece of earth yours, not to be shared with other people, because the owning of the property is a product of your victory over other humans, as in, you won more dollars than them so now this slice of land is yours for keeps.
Both Artemis and Andi have broken their fists loads of times, but Artemis’s fists have been broken a dozen more times than Andi’s, and, though Artemis doesn’t know it now, this additional dozen number of finger breakings has already pushed the fragility that is her human hand over the bridge and into the realm of permanently damaged. When Artemis is sixty she won’t be able to hold a cup of tea.
Andi hadn’t as much loved her father as needed him.
Whereas Kate Heffer looked at her life and what lay before her and she allowed time and events to circle her, things occurring for the sole purpose that she could walk through them, be a part of them, and then move on. For Kate, time was a thing that existed only to have her in it. Kate was a goal setter. She made detailed lists and kept highly organised folders.
That’s the thing with children. So often what they do, or what they think they should do, or what they think they are good at is just some product of something someone told them that they would be good at. If you’re tall people say, Surely you’re magnificent at basketball. If you’re a girl shaped like a block without hips, people say swimming, boxing, the discus, and then one thinks, Am I good at these things? Surely if people say it, it must be true.
It’s always better to destroy something if you can’t have it.
Andi’s in snooze city because sleeping is her all-time best coping mechanism. She sleeps like some people drink liquor.
All the coaches Rachel has ever been trained by are men with something to prove, or something that’s been lost. The coach Rachel Doricko has here in Reno has three kids he’s lost complete custody of. Debt collectors plague his phone. He came to the gym Rachel trains at because he wanted a place to be in power. Rachel tolerates this desire of his like one tolerates a tax. Everything has a price, thinks Rachel. Everything I want I have to give something for, thinks Rachel. This coach has taught me things about form and stance but I have paid for it, thinks Rachel.
The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular.
I love fighting Izzy, thinks Iggy, mid-throw. I love the way she looks when I beat her. I love the way I feel when I beat her. It’s the most important thing in the world to Iggy. Beating someone at something that matters more to them than anything is like squashing a fly. You can see the guts of a fly after it’s been smashed
It’s not that all of the girls in the Daughters of America tournament are punching their way through a dead person.
The people in mass with her are what make her the least sure of God’s existence. They are, most of them, cruel and small.
It is a gift to be alive, and to be fighting each other.
There are people who, just by looking at disasters, implicate themselves in the violence at hand.
Fighting is the opposite of being in hiding
May 6, 2025
Update : Now a finalist for Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2025
Longlisted for Booker Prize 2024 - One of those trendy novels that has the style but not necessarily the substance. It was fun reading about women boxing during the Olympics. I'm not sure what would have happened if I had read it one week later.
Longlisted for Booker Prize 2024 - One of those trendy novels that has the style but not necessarily the substance. It was fun reading about women boxing during the Olympics. I'm not sure what would have happened if I had read it one week later.
March 14, 2024
“Like looking at one’s reflection in two facing mirrors, it is impossible to say where the first female athlete began and where they will end.”
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
It feels like this book punched *me* in the face.
Rita Bullwinkel’s HEADSHOT follows the events of The Daughter’s of America boxing tournament. It is structured as a tournament bracket, each chapter following a different fight. In each fight, we learn about each girl, bouncing back and forth between past, present, and future as punches are thrown. Your alliances will shift. You will want each girl to win. Only one can.
I loved the way this was written. Even though it is such a short moment in time, we see so much of the girls’ inner lives, desires, and fears. We see what has brought them to the ring and what they will become out of it. And we are rooting for them through it all.
The final chapter was the winning blow. Outstanding.
(Thank you to the author & publisher for the early copy. I am not worthy!)
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
It feels like this book punched *me* in the face.
Rita Bullwinkel’s HEADSHOT follows the events of The Daughter’s of America boxing tournament. It is structured as a tournament bracket, each chapter following a different fight. In each fight, we learn about each girl, bouncing back and forth between past, present, and future as punches are thrown. Your alliances will shift. You will want each girl to win. Only one can.
I loved the way this was written. Even though it is such a short moment in time, we see so much of the girls’ inner lives, desires, and fears. We see what has brought them to the ring and what they will become out of it. And we are rooting for them through it all.
The final chapter was the winning blow. Outstanding.
(Thank you to the author & publisher for the early copy. I am not worthy!)
August 5, 2024
Finally finished this. Why is it true EVERY TIME I'm struggling to get through a book, once I push myself to finish it, I realize I really shouldn't have bothered and DNF-ed it instead?
The author reiterated character names so much, it felt like she thought I have memory problems.
The author reiterated character names so much, it felt like she thought I have memory problems.
August 25, 2024
While making my way through Headshot, it struck me that the act of reading is not dissimilar to boxing with one's brain. The author and reader are proverbial sparring partners, engaging each other through advances, retreats, feints, provocations, clinched embraces; going the rounds until both leave the ring changed somehow.
This was not the knock-out punch some had promised. Most of it settled around junior welterweight territory, with occasional bumps up to middleweight and several dips down to lightweight. I did go the distance, but Bullwinkel pummeled me with prose along the way.
Did someone check that Artemis Victor's gloves didn't have lead in them? wonders Rachel Doricko. What if Artemis Victor's gloves have lead in them? wonders Rachel Doricko. This could be my last day on earth, thinks Rachel Doricko. Maybe I'll die in this ring, thinks Rachel Doricko
There are 8 teen girl boxers and their names appear 1,962 times in 200 pages. I don't know how many total words are in this short novel, but a decent percentage are simply repetitions of character names. Obviously this is an intentional authorial choice, and quite likely a metaphorical use of language to exert a pugilistic effect. If the point was to keep me at arm's length, it was very successful.
2.5 stars
This was not the knock-out punch some had promised. Most of it settled around junior welterweight territory, with occasional bumps up to middleweight and several dips down to lightweight. I did go the distance, but Bullwinkel pummeled me with prose along the way.
Did someone check that Artemis Victor's gloves didn't have lead in them? wonders Rachel Doricko. What if Artemis Victor's gloves have lead in them? wonders Rachel Doricko. This could be my last day on earth, thinks Rachel Doricko. Maybe I'll die in this ring, thinks Rachel Doricko
There are 8 teen girl boxers and their names appear 1,962 times in 200 pages. I don't know how many total words are in this short novel, but a decent percentage are simply repetitions of character names. Obviously this is an intentional authorial choice, and quite likely a metaphorical use of language to exert a pugilistic effect. If the point was to keep me at arm's length, it was very successful.
2.5 stars
April 5, 2024
I have some mixed feelings about this short novel about boxing and growing up. At first I liked and was fascinated by the style, the eye for detail, and the descriptions of the characters. But about halfway through I’m afraid I lost interest and didn’t care that much anymore. Interesting, but in the end not really for me.
Thank you Penguin Random House US and Edelweiss for the ARC.
Thank you Penguin Random House US and Edelweiss for the ARC.
June 2, 2025
My heart leaped when I opened the book and saw this on the first page:
Any sports fan will recognize this as a tournament draw sheet, and with this opener the author has cleverly laid out the plot before typing a single word. We know we'll be reading a story about one victorious girl and seven who are vanquished along the way.
Boxing matches are often called 'fights,' but fighting and boxing really aren't the same. Fights are fueled by rage and typically last a few seconds, often with the aggressor injuring their hand against the bony skull of their opponent. Boxing isn't fueled by anger but rather a desire to win. It is not unusual to see boxers post-match either congratulating or consoling their opponent in a way that seems entirely genuine.
She respects her athletes:
What Bullwinkel is doing here is providing enough backstory to help us understand the exact moment in which seven of these girls decided they would be okay with losing. I've never read anything remotely like this before, and I loved it. It wasn't at all what I expected, but then again, what was I expecting?
Any sports fan will recognize this as a tournament draw sheet, and with this opener the author has cleverly laid out the plot before typing a single word. We know we'll be reading a story about one victorious girl and seven who are vanquished along the way.
Boxing matches are often called 'fights,' but fighting and boxing really aren't the same. Fights are fueled by rage and typically last a few seconds, often with the aggressor injuring their hand against the bony skull of their opponent. Boxing isn't fueled by anger but rather a desire to win. It is not unusual to see boxers post-match either congratulating or consoling their opponent in a way that seems entirely genuine.
The difference between them as fighters was greater than the difference between them as people. Artemis's form was polished and calculated. Andi hit carelessly. Her hands moved slowly, but in strange directions.Bullwinkel makes a lot of interesting choices. These girls are boxers, and she spends exactly zero time apologizing for or explaining their interest in the sport. They are girls, they box, and if you aren't comfortable with that then you're in the wrong book. Another choice was to make them all fifteen to seventeen years old -- old enough to have practiced for a few years, but young enough that they're required to wear bulky protective headgear during matches. They have not yet reached their full adult strength, and so while a bloody nose or black eye are not off the table, they aren't going to be inflicting permanent damage on each other. They fight not to knock each other out, which they aren't capable of doing, but rather scoring points for landing punches.
There is glorification, in the world outside boxing, of desperation and wildness while fighting--this notion that desire and scrappiness can and will conquer experience. No boxing coach has ever asked their athlete to be more desperate. Control and restraint are much more valuable than wild punches.
She respects her athletes:
Izzy is shorter, slightly, though Iggy boxes squatting lower. They both have a shared aptitude for muscle building. Their backs look like they have strings tucked under them. Their stomachs are quartered and squared and look like they've been made out of clay.And later:
The judges' armpit sweat stains look so earthly and sick, the clear mark of a human in decay, which is an aura that is completely absent from these girl fighters. These girl fighters are the opposite of humans in decay. They are accelerating away from death with speed and precision.People who watch a lot of post-game and post-match interviews with athletes end up eating a lot of platitude soup. Stuff like, "I just tried to keep my mind on the fundamentals and stay focused. My opponent is a really good player but in the end I guess I just wanted it more." They say things like that not because they're too lazy to think but because, at the championship level, this is the way they think. The ability to tune out everything else is what separates elite athletes from weekend warriors, and this stuff absolutely fascinates me. In case you couldn't tell.
What Bullwinkel is doing here is providing enough backstory to help us understand the exact moment in which seven of these girls decided they would be okay with losing. I've never read anything remotely like this before, and I loved it. It wasn't at all what I expected, but then again, what was I expecting?
September 14, 2024
This might be my sleeper hit of Booker season 2024. Although I know my enthusiasm isn’t shared by all, I really loved this gritty story of a young women’s boxing tournament in Reno. It is a story about 8 teenage, female boxers, and explores how they have found themselves in the sport, and in the ring in this tournament in front of a small audience. Bullwinkel’s story looks at how small and big moments in our lives lead to other, considers complex families, poverty, the trials of adolescence and identity, female aggression, and the issues in youth and women’s sport. It’s told in dispassionate, direct prose that reminded me often of Kick the Latch (which I also loved). Highly evocative of place, and very sensory. I think it would stand up well to a re-read. Not for everyone perhaps but lots to enjoy for some.
August 17, 2024
Overall I really liked this especially for a first novel. I liked the writing and how it shifted from interior and exterior. I liked how the book is organized. I liked the ideas around girlhood, competition, and also the male gaze. My biggest issue with the book is that it started so strong but not a lot happens and so the uniqueness of the style/structure wears off and there isn't an emotional payoff for the reader, I felt like I wanted to be left with more.
August 15, 2024
I don’t know if it was because I was in full Olympics watching mode when I started this and thus receptive to reading about the headspace of athletes but I liked this book a lot.
The boxing tournament setup is interesting and I enjoyed the opening rounds where we get match-ups between eight young female boxers. Is it really about boxing ? Partly ? There is lots of boxing in it, which is going to frustrate some readers, however the real power here is in the "why" of these women. What brought them to the ring ? how do they see themselves in it ? Many sentences made me think "ah yes, you nailed something essential here" but I might find myself hard pressed to say exactly why.
My favourite reviewer Dwight Garner is never hard presssed to say why a book works and his review in the NYT pulled out this quote about Reno - which I have never visited so can't comment on - but it gives you some sense this is not all about boxing !
To remark that Bullwinkel is observant about Reno and its casinos would be an understatement. “The people are like moths being lured to their own deaths, but instead of death all that awaits them are large, plastic, alcoholic slurpees,” she writes, an oddly incisive description of the American experience writ large.
The boxing tournament setup is interesting and I enjoyed the opening rounds where we get match-ups between eight young female boxers. Is it really about boxing ? Partly ? There is lots of boxing in it, which is going to frustrate some readers, however the real power here is in the "why" of these women. What brought them to the ring ? how do they see themselves in it ? Many sentences made me think "ah yes, you nailed something essential here" but I might find myself hard pressed to say exactly why.
My favourite reviewer Dwight Garner is never hard presssed to say why a book works and his review in the NYT pulled out this quote about Reno - which I have never visited so can't comment on - but it gives you some sense this is not all about boxing !
To remark that Bullwinkel is observant about Reno and its casinos would be an understatement. “The people are like moths being lured to their own deaths, but instead of death all that awaits them are large, plastic, alcoholic slurpees,” she writes, an oddly incisive description of the American experience writ large.
May 14, 2024
Quirky, cool book about women’s boxing. Well written, under the radar book that was recommended to me!
August 22, 2024
4.5 // We follow a boxing tournament called Women’s 18 & Under Daughter of America Cup. Eight teenage girls compete: Artemis, Andi, Kate, Rachel, Iggy, Izzy, Rose, and Tanya. Each section is divided into their respective boxing matches (wins and losses) until a champion emerges by the end. Each of the girls are well-defined with enough unique personalities, perceptions, quirks and/or goals to stand out and be memorable. Now after some distance, I realize I can’t recall all that much about three of the girls. But that’s not to say that they weren’t memorable in the moment. I’m sure if I were to pick up the book again, it would all come flooding back to me in euphoric bursts.
What I really loved about this book is its almost deceptive approach: it has you believing that you’re only going to learn about these young women in their quest for glory; that the hopes and insecurities we witness will only be immediate. Instead, with each competitor, we get to see a full life. The stylistic trick is that not only do we get to hear their inner monologues during the points of action (the match), but we also get to learn about their pasts and futures way beyond this moment in time. From young girls to old women, yet we never leave the setting of the actual match.
For some, this match means the world. For others, it’s a passing fad. This novel demonstrates that most times the events we put so much emphasis on ultimately turns out to be tiny blips in our lives. For some, the event will hardly be remembered. For others, it will be one of the defining stepping stones that provide newfound personal growth and self-preservation. But no one event defines who we are. We’re constantly shifting and learning; regressing and reprogramming and growing.
The only downside of the novel is the last section, which I did not like. It went into some far-out territory, which I personally didn’t find necessary. It was a bit reductive where all that came before would’ve sufficed. In my mind, the last few pages did not occur. Overall, I had a blast. A true knockout.
What I really loved about this book is its almost deceptive approach: it has you believing that you’re only going to learn about these young women in their quest for glory; that the hopes and insecurities we witness will only be immediate. Instead, with each competitor, we get to see a full life. The stylistic trick is that not only do we get to hear their inner monologues during the points of action (the match), but we also get to learn about their pasts and futures way beyond this moment in time. From young girls to old women, yet we never leave the setting of the actual match.
For some, this match means the world. For others, it’s a passing fad. This novel demonstrates that most times the events we put so much emphasis on ultimately turns out to be tiny blips in our lives. For some, the event will hardly be remembered. For others, it will be one of the defining stepping stones that provide newfound personal growth and self-preservation. But no one event defines who we are. We’re constantly shifting and learning; regressing and reprogramming and growing.
The only downside of the novel is the last section, which I did not like. It went into some far-out territory, which I personally didn’t find necessary. It was a bit reductive where all that came before would’ve sufficed. In my mind, the last few pages did not occur. Overall, I had a blast. A true knockout.
May 14, 2024
3.5 love the play with time; must reread
July 30, 2024
Set in Reno, Nevada, this book tells the story of eight participants in a women’s boxing match. It is structured around each fight, with descriptions of the background of each character in the bout. It then progresses to the next round with the winners facing each other in a single elimination tournament. There is lots of discussion of boxing strategy, and the impact of external factors, such as the psychological state of the athletes. The storyline includes flashforwards to let the reader know what eventually happens to the characters. This is related as the story progresses rather than in an epilogue.
I am very disappointed in the author’s depiction of Reno. I am not sure why an author would set a novel in a city only to fictionalize it. Why not just make up a city? To be clear, Reno is in the Western US. It is not “the heartland,” there are no cornfields anywhere nearby, it is only a four-hour drive to San Francisco, there are no “cathouses” nor billboards for them nor card-flippers on the River Walk (prostitution is illegal). There is no mini-Strip like Las Vegas. The Silver Legacy is not named after a Roman dictator, and Las Vegas is not the “mother” of Reno, since Reno predates it. The western mountains are not “rounded lumps” of brown hills – they are the majestic Sierra Nevada, home to ski resorts and beautiful Lake Tahoe.
The inaccuracy of the setting made me question the rest of the story. It is a decently written book about a subject I had little interest in. There is very little hope or optimism for any of the characters. It is not one I will remember for any length of time. In short, it is not a book I would ever have expected to be nominated for a literary prize, let alone the Booker.
I am very disappointed in the author’s depiction of Reno. I am not sure why an author would set a novel in a city only to fictionalize it. Why not just make up a city? To be clear, Reno is in the Western US. It is not “the heartland,” there are no cornfields anywhere nearby, it is only a four-hour drive to San Francisco, there are no “cathouses” nor billboards for them nor card-flippers on the River Walk (prostitution is illegal). There is no mini-Strip like Las Vegas. The Silver Legacy is not named after a Roman dictator, and Las Vegas is not the “mother” of Reno, since Reno predates it. The western mountains are not “rounded lumps” of brown hills – they are the majestic Sierra Nevada, home to ski resorts and beautiful Lake Tahoe.
The inaccuracy of the setting made me question the rest of the story. It is a decently written book about a subject I had little interest in. There is very little hope or optimism for any of the characters. It is not one I will remember for any length of time. In short, it is not a book I would ever have expected to be nominated for a literary prize, let alone the Booker.
August 28, 2024
1.5 rounded down to 1. # 4 of the Booker longlist for me to read.
What do you get when you combine the repetitive structure of and , the 'factoid reportage' stylings of , with the female sports milieu of [... all books I thoroughly disliked, BTW]? You get the latest debut novel that has no legitimate reason whatsoever for being on the Booker longlist - indeed, I am amazed it actually got published.
TBH, I was never going to be enthralled or even mildly interested in a book centered on a minor teenage girls' boxing tournament set in seedy Reno, NV. But the writing here is really of such an inferior quality, and the characters for the most part so uninteresting, that I wound up speedily 'hate reading' it just to get it over with and put me out of my misery, so that I could move on to the next Booker 'contender' - I wasn't going to let this defeat my 11 year streak of reading the entire longlist! :-)
So why a 1.5 instead of a 1 or no stars? Well, in spite of the atrocious writing and dull subject, I was able to plow through 75% of it in 2.5 hours, since there was absolutely NOTHING here that I had to think about or mull over - unlike say, , which took me ten torturous days to trudge through - so for that I am grateful. Am hoping this will remain #13 in my Booker rankings - I dread if there is actually something even worse lurking and waiting for me! {Which means, given my track record, that it actually stands good odds of WINNING the Booker, so take heart those who are rooting for it!]
What do you get when you combine the repetitive structure of and , the 'factoid reportage' stylings of , with the female sports milieu of [... all books I thoroughly disliked, BTW]? You get the latest debut novel that has no legitimate reason whatsoever for being on the Booker longlist - indeed, I am amazed it actually got published.
TBH, I was never going to be enthralled or even mildly interested in a book centered on a minor teenage girls' boxing tournament set in seedy Reno, NV. But the writing here is really of such an inferior quality, and the characters for the most part so uninteresting, that I wound up speedily 'hate reading' it just to get it over with and put me out of my misery, so that I could move on to the next Booker 'contender' - I wasn't going to let this defeat my 11 year streak of reading the entire longlist! :-)
So why a 1.5 instead of a 1 or no stars? Well, in spite of the atrocious writing and dull subject, I was able to plow through 75% of it in 2.5 hours, since there was absolutely NOTHING here that I had to think about or mull over - unlike say, , which took me ten torturous days to trudge through - so for that I am grateful. Am hoping this will remain #13 in my Booker rankings - I dread if there is actually something even worse lurking and waiting for me! {Which means, given my track record, that it actually stands good odds of WINNING the Booker, so take heart those who are rooting for it!]
December 1, 2024
*** Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize ***
”The girls of the Daughters of America tournament fight like they are assassins.”
It’s an interesting thought of what makes a person want to pummel another with full force in the name of sport. Or should that be under the guise of sport?
What I find even more interesting is what drives young women to want to do so? To hit someone with such brute force, wearing padded boxing gloves for maximum impact.
This book by Rita Bulwinkel does just that. It explores the myriad of reasons why a group of young women - all under the age of eighteen - are competing in a boxing tournament ironically named ” Daughters of America” at a rundown gym called Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno. All for the princely sum of $100 prize money and a tatty trophy. But oh! The glory of winning!
The book is divided into four boxing bouts, and through each fight, we learn more about each of the opponents. What their motivations are to lead them to this competition, what their hopes and fears are, and at the moment of the fight itself, the sheer physicality of sizing up the person you’re fighting against and trying to find their point of weakness.
The stories of the eight young women move backward and forward in time. We get flashbacks to major events that molded the girl’s personalities which formed part of their need to box. While the bout occurs, we also get a glimpse of the girls years into the future, as grown and even elderly women. We see in that moment where their lives end up. I found this style of writing interesting and feel it really works for this type of storytelling.
I’m curious to read her short story collection Belly Up based on enjoying her writing here.
3.5 punchy stars ☆
I invite you to find out more about this interesting novel from the Booker Prize itself:
I hope that this book makes it to the shortlist, as I found it quite refreshing to see something so contemporary and different being nominated for the Booker Prize.
”The girls of the Daughters of America tournament fight like they are assassins.”
It’s an interesting thought of what makes a person want to pummel another with full force in the name of sport. Or should that be under the guise of sport?
What I find even more interesting is what drives young women to want to do so? To hit someone with such brute force, wearing padded boxing gloves for maximum impact.
This book by Rita Bulwinkel does just that. It explores the myriad of reasons why a group of young women - all under the age of eighteen - are competing in a boxing tournament ironically named ” Daughters of America” at a rundown gym called Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno. All for the princely sum of $100 prize money and a tatty trophy. But oh! The glory of winning!
The book is divided into four boxing bouts, and through each fight, we learn more about each of the opponents. What their motivations are to lead them to this competition, what their hopes and fears are, and at the moment of the fight itself, the sheer physicality of sizing up the person you’re fighting against and trying to find their point of weakness.
The stories of the eight young women move backward and forward in time. We get flashbacks to major events that molded the girl’s personalities which formed part of their need to box. While the bout occurs, we also get a glimpse of the girls years into the future, as grown and even elderly women. We see in that moment where their lives end up. I found this style of writing interesting and feel it really works for this type of storytelling.
I’m curious to read her short story collection Belly Up based on enjoying her writing here.
3.5 punchy stars ☆
I invite you to find out more about this interesting novel from the Booker Prize itself:
I hope that this book makes it to the shortlist, as I found it quite refreshing to see something so contemporary and different being nominated for the Booker Prize.
September 9, 2024
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
This is bottom of my personal rankings for this year's prize, but to some extent that is a measure of the consistency of the list. Its view of a youth boxing tournament from the perspectives of each of the eight female competitors is an interesting approach, but having eight protagonists make it a little repetitive and some of the descriptions are a little grating if only because they are repeated so many times. It would probably make a greater impact on someone less familiar with the tropes of sports journalism.
This is bottom of my personal rankings for this year's prize, but to some extent that is a measure of the consistency of the list. Its view of a youth boxing tournament from the perspectives of each of the eight female competitors is an interesting approach, but having eight protagonists make it a little repetitive and some of the descriptions are a little grating if only because they are repeated so many times. It would probably make a greater impact on someone less familiar with the tropes of sports journalism.
October 5, 2024
I was not expecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did. The structure of the narrative takes the form of a knockout boxing tournament. A tournament with eight young women as the boxers. The chapters are each a match between two of the boxers.
I enjoyed Bullwinkel’s prose. With short sharp sentences firing off rapidly, and constantly using the characters full name, Bullwinkel creates the atmosphere of a boxing round. I genuinely was interested to find out which young boxer would win.
However, what makes this book more enjoyable is that while the boxers are fighting, Bullwinkel exposes their thoughts, which at times are quite bizarre and unexpected. Throughout these streaming thought passages, Bullwinkel also delves into the future, and we learn what happens to each boxer in their own future, their very different careers and lives.
This is a very short novel. I think this is intentional comparing the story to a fast-paced boxing match. Somehow Bullwinkel finds it possible to give each of the characters a descriptive depth fleshing out each of the very different young girls.
It also left me thinking that the tournament is so important for each of the boxers to win for varying reasons, and yet when we see their futures we realize that this tournament is just a transitory moment in time of all their lives and leaves no impact to their futures whatsoever.
Is this what Bullwinkel is trying to tell us? That things we believe are so important in the present moment really are not that important at all. Not sure, but I enjoyed it very much.
I enjoyed Bullwinkel’s prose. With short sharp sentences firing off rapidly, and constantly using the characters full name, Bullwinkel creates the atmosphere of a boxing round. I genuinely was interested to find out which young boxer would win.
However, what makes this book more enjoyable is that while the boxers are fighting, Bullwinkel exposes their thoughts, which at times are quite bizarre and unexpected. Throughout these streaming thought passages, Bullwinkel also delves into the future, and we learn what happens to each boxer in their own future, their very different careers and lives.
This is a very short novel. I think this is intentional comparing the story to a fast-paced boxing match. Somehow Bullwinkel finds it possible to give each of the characters a descriptive depth fleshing out each of the very different young girls.
It also left me thinking that the tournament is so important for each of the boxers to win for varying reasons, and yet when we see their futures we realize that this tournament is just a transitory moment in time of all their lives and leaves no impact to their futures whatsoever.
Is this what Bullwinkel is trying to tell us? That things we believe are so important in the present moment really are not that important at all. Not sure, but I enjoyed it very much.
August 25, 2024
Ein Boxturnier mit acht Teilnehmerinnen bildet den Rahmen des Romans "Schlaglicht". Der Turnierbaum ist vor dem eigentlichen Text abgebildet. Aus den Kämpfen heraus beschreibt Rita Bullwinkel die Leben der jungen Boxerinnen, die zwischen fünfzehn und achtzehn Jahre jung sind. Die Sprache ist ähnlich rasant wie ein Boxkampf. Die erzählten Leben sind zwar nicht immer rasant aber doch durchweg interessant. Ich habe früher sehr viel Boxen geguckt. Die Faszination für den Boxsport war beim Lesen sofort wieder da. Mir gefällt die Spannung, die durch das Turnier fast automatisch entsteht, und die Art wie die Leben der Protagonistinnen mit den Kämpfen verwobenen sind. Leser, die mit dem Boxsport nichts anfangen können, werden sich vermutlich etwas schwer tun. Für mich hingegen ist "Schlaglicht" ein absoluter Volltreffer.
Read
August 2, 2024Now Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
You can listen to Robin and Anika tackling this novel on our podcast: (in German; translation: )
You can listen to Robin and Anika tackling this novel on our podcast: (in German; translation: )
Read
April 7, 2024This is a very sure, very much without a doubt 'not-for-me'. Got absolutely nothing nice or interesting to say about this so I will not say more. I like the cover though?
March 13, 2024
Headshot is an adrenaline-soaked novel that, for the entirety of its 200 pages, I was unable to put down.
A group of teenage boxers challenge one another for the winning title. The chapters are broken up into a series of their face-offs, leading up to the final two.
Rather than being entirely centered around the physicality behind the sport, I found this to be an emotional reflection on how we get to where we are, with an added sucker punch of understanding our future selves are always waiting for us.
A group of teenage boxers challenge one another for the winning title. The chapters are broken up into a series of their face-offs, leading up to the final two.
Rather than being entirely centered around the physicality behind the sport, I found this to be an emotional reflection on how we get to where we are, with an added sucker punch of understanding our future selves are always waiting for us.
August 10, 2024
An interesting foray into the lives of eight teenage female boxers. While I appreciated how the novel depicts the females lives past, present and future — a sort of coming of age, I found it pretty much redundant and repetitive after the first two chapters.
October 3, 2024
This was my least favorite of the 2024 Booker longlist. I struggled to maintain interest through much of it, although I appreciated the concept and structure of the novel. It just didn’t “hook” me.
See what I did there?
2.5, “rounding” up. (Somebody stop me……)
See what I did there?
2.5, “rounding” up. (Somebody stop me……)
August 5, 2024
A terrible read. Constant repetition; repetition of names, repetition of action, repetition of character motivation; the entire novel is written in a peculiar, disjointed style which fails, as other reviewers have pointed out, to allow any development of plot or character. The idea, the story of a boxing tournament told through its individual bouts, is a good one but in execution it became boring and predictable. In fact, even when the individual stories are interesting, the early chapters especially, it is the writing style that holds it back and prevents it from going anywhere.
May 24, 2024
Good Grief! This was not an enjoyable read at all! The experience was just awful! There was no character development at all. Bullwinkle does not allow the reader to get to know the characters at all. There is no dialogue to help move the story along. Descriptions, upon descriptions abound, with no real payoff.
I truly not only dislike this book, I actually loathed it.
I would not recommend this book, nor would I read Bullwinkle’s work again.
This was just horrible.
I truly not only dislike this book, I actually loathed it.
I would not recommend this book, nor would I read Bullwinkle’s work again.
This was just horrible.
April 5, 2024
A strained simile every other sentence, ring the bell I want this fight to end.
May 11, 2024
Another of those rare books that does, in fact, live up to the hype.
Bullwinkel is the master of point-of-view writing, and of pushing POV to and beyond its limits to tell an utterly unique story. Headshot follows six young women (and, by extension, those in their orbit) as they compete in a regional boxing match, simultaneously under the lecherous gaze of old guy judges and the judgmental one of their parents, and in possession of complex interiorities unavailable even to themselves.
What makes this book remarkable is its attention to interiority as plot: the character development –– from past reflection to omniscient future speculation –– happens inside each girl, and is only occasionally visible through their outside behavior or reactions in the ring. When we as readers break out of the girls' heads, this change feels like its own kind of strike, as if we are moving from the site of true, subconscious action to one of performance. Boxing is never far from the readers' minds or our narrators', and yet, this is not a sports novel per se. It is a novel about personhood, girlhood, and adolescence, about locating the universal in the highly particular and (given the differences in personality and lived experience among the competitors) sometimes highly contradictory; anthropology by way of the closed fist.
Often, I think, novels might be criticized for being too ruminatory, especially when associated with women and femininity. What Bullwinkel does here is not necessarily to justify rumination under the auspices of action (in this case, actual physical fight scenes, whose choreography is never neglected!). Instead, she understands the independent consciousnesses of bodies in motion, taking them seriously as narrative technologies in and of themselves. What results is a truly remarkable set of character studies, whose intimacy never leaves the specter of the world and our collective futures behind.
Bullwinkel is the master of point-of-view writing, and of pushing POV to and beyond its limits to tell an utterly unique story. Headshot follows six young women (and, by extension, those in their orbit) as they compete in a regional boxing match, simultaneously under the lecherous gaze of old guy judges and the judgmental one of their parents, and in possession of complex interiorities unavailable even to themselves.
What makes this book remarkable is its attention to interiority as plot: the character development –– from past reflection to omniscient future speculation –– happens inside each girl, and is only occasionally visible through their outside behavior or reactions in the ring. When we as readers break out of the girls' heads, this change feels like its own kind of strike, as if we are moving from the site of true, subconscious action to one of performance. Boxing is never far from the readers' minds or our narrators', and yet, this is not a sports novel per se. It is a novel about personhood, girlhood, and adolescence, about locating the universal in the highly particular and (given the differences in personality and lived experience among the competitors) sometimes highly contradictory; anthropology by way of the closed fist.
Often, I think, novels might be criticized for being too ruminatory, especially when associated with women and femininity. What Bullwinkel does here is not necessarily to justify rumination under the auspices of action (in this case, actual physical fight scenes, whose choreography is never neglected!). Instead, she understands the independent consciousnesses of bodies in motion, taking them seriously as narrative technologies in and of themselves. What results is a truly remarkable set of character studies, whose intimacy never leaves the specter of the world and our collective futures behind.
June 19, 2024
I got over half way, so I'm not considering this a DNF. I can appreciate what the author is doing, the match of character, writing and tone is perfect, but I just couldn't enjoy the reading of it. It had a depressing drabness that rarely speaks to me. I'll balance out my reaction by quoting Jonathan Lethem's superlative blurb for it, which bears zero relation to the first half of the book I read, but sounds like a Lethem sci fi novel I'd love to read. (I wonder if he actually read it or pulled the quote out of his 'blurb drawer'.)"As blazing and distinctive a performance as I've beheld in a long while. Bullwinkel's figurative language is tethered at one end to the distant galaxies, at the other to the cellular structure of her young fighters' bodies. Whole lives are strung between. I'm amazed." I liked the writing, but in no galaxy would I call it 'figurative'.
April 30, 2024
Didn’t like this - by the time you get to chapter three or four (there’s one chapter per boxing fight) it became really repetitive and tedious.
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