It’s a running joke within the All for the Game fandom that, regardless of being obsessed with the book series, no one would ever recommend it to anyone. It’s one of those pieces of media that, despite being well loved, is also widely criticized even within its own fandom. Having said that, it has become a sort of comfort read for me, as well as many other readers.
All for the Game is a book trilogy by Nora Sakavic. These books are based around a fictional sport named exy, which is a sort of hybrid between Hockey and Lacrosse. We follow Neil Josten, an orphaned boy who’s been on the run for most of his life after his (now deceased) mother decides to get him away from his murderous mafia aligned father, also known as “The Butcher.” After joining a small town’s high school exy team, Neil gets scouted by Wymack, the coach of a college team, The Foxes, in Palmetto State University. As Neil is thrust into the world of collegiate exy, he must come to terms with the fact that he can’t keep running away.
For the sake of clarity, I will be briefly introducing certain relevant characters.
Andrew and Aaron are the twins of the group. Since Andrew grew up in the foster system, they grew up without knowing of each other, only to later meet as teenagers. The two don’t get along, but are still inseparable. They were also briefly the wards of Nicky, their cousin, after their mom died.
Kevin is a former member of the Ravens, the cultish mafia-run exy team, as well as a childhood acquaintance of Neil’s. He switches teams after a suspicious skiing accident that left him with a broken wrist on his dominant hand, rendering it useless for exy. He and Andrew have a strange sort of protection pact, promising Andrew will keep him safe.
Major criticisms
The Nicky problem
Nicky is a character I wish I could bring myself to fully like without it leaving a bad taste in my mouth. He’s Aaron and Andrew’s cheerful older cousin who followed them onto the team in order to keep an eye on them. He’s presented as a character who is very outgoing,flirty, and also deeply caring of the people close to him. Nicky is just generally a fun character.
Yet he is also presented as very predatory. Especially in the first book, Nicky’s flirty personality is taken a step too far; he makes sexual remarks at Neil despite being told to tone it down. His behavior comes off as borderline creepy in many instances. This reaches its climax during a scene in which he kisses a drugged Neil against his will.
These negative traits can exist within a character without taking away from the book, but, in the context of the books, I find it’s handled very poorly. At the point where most of the incidents have happened, Nicky is the only out gay character. This shouldn’t be an issue considering later on Neil himself starts dating Andrew, who we find out is gay. This aside, Nicky is also one of the only canonically non-white characters, and, taking into consideration another character I will discuss later, characters of color having predatory tendencies is an unsettling trend the books fall into.
Thea’s unaddressed grooming
Thea is another character that continues the trend of predatory characters of color, although in a less obvious manner, and it’s unfortunate her character was handled the way it was. She’s introduced as Kevin’s long-distance girlfriend who is still a player for the Ravens. Unlike Nicky, I couldn’t bring myself to find anything that made her a redeemable character. She’s still loyal to the Ravens, the team that abused and nearly killed her partner, which is a loyalty she maintains even later in life judging by the extra content provided by the author. She doesn’t seem very supportive toward Kevin, and, as far as the story is concerned, doesn’t really exist outside of the context of Kevin either.
These negative traits could be written off as just a kind of bland, badly written love interest character until you look at how she and Kevin get together. Kevin had lived with the Ravens’ players since he was very young and, when he turned 14, an 18-year-old Thea joined the team. We don’t know much about their relationship before they got together (or really at all), just that they struck up a friendship and that Kevin had a schoolboy crush on her. Then suddenly, Kevin turns 18, officially joins the team, and Thea and him get together.
What’s worse is that Thea originally wasn’t supposed to be Kevin’s love interest. In fact, I’m not sure if she was even supposed to exist. Kevin was originally meant to end up in a polycule with the main couple (Neil and Andrew); an outcome that would’ve actually made a lot of sense considering the trio’s canonical relationship with each other. If not with Andrew and Neil, then Kevin doesn’t lack possible love interests in characters with actual substance. He has a turbulent, but borderline romantic past with his ex-teammate, Jean Moreu, a starry-eyed crush on a competing team’s captain named Jeremy, and some decent chemistry with fellow teammate Allison. Why does Kevin even need a love interest?
If she had to exist, why couldn’t she have been a more involved character? Why was the concerning jump into a relationship with a barely 18-year-old Kevin she had known since his early teens never addressed? Thea only exists when it’s convenient. She isn’t mentioned having been concerned for Kevin when he escaped the Ravens, in fact, they seemed to not have talked for months after he left. Why are they together? All of this plus the cherry on top being the fact she is, unfortunately, the only recurring, canonically black character. (Dan and Matt aren’t being counted as black here despite the wide fan consensus that they are because they’re never confirmed to be.)
Edgy bad boy Andrew’s anti psychotics
I unfortunately can’t talk about this particular topic at length as I’d like to due to the fact that I am not a psychiatrist nor do I have any experience with anti psychotics. However, I do have access to Google and common sense. With those qualifications, I can easily say Andrew’s behavior on his meds is probably the most unrealistic part of the books (yes, not the mafia sports team, the drug representation).
Being consistently described as a “sociopath” and “evil” by his peers, Andrew has some sort of unspecified personality disorder causing him to have violent tendencies as well as low empathy. His medications are court ordered after the suspicious death of his and his twin’s mother. The meds, weirdly enough, don’t really have any real positive effects. They just make him more hyper and less stable; he’s almost more dangerous on them than he is off of them. It’s baffling why the court decided it would be better for the world at large if he was kept on them. What even are the intended effects of these drugs? Because they sure don’t keep him from committing crimes and being a general menace to society.
Minor criticisms
Rapid fire minor criticisms, some of which are funny, some of which are questionable
- There’s heavy usage of slurs in the first book (and really only in the first book). This isn’t too surprising considering The Foxhole Court was originally published in 2013, nor is it particularly out of character for any of the characters that use them. It’s still a jarring and questionable writing decision.
- Why does every single character have some sort of horrible tragic backstory? It makes sense for some, considering the whole mafia cult sports team thing, but not every character needs this terribly sad origin story. All of these characters by themselves could be anime protagonists just off of their backstories alone.
- The plot points range from somewhat bizarre and wattpad-esque (psycho bad boy love interest) to downright nonsensical (the mafia cult sports team). This baffling mishmash of sports anime style narratives paired with this entire mafia conspiracy, as well as all of the mini side plots, make the story feel like it’s being held together by a couple of toothpicks and duct tape. These books may be marked as contemporary fiction, but they might as well be fantasy.
WHy i like it
Considering all its flaws, there’s good reasons why All for the Game is as popular as it is, and why I, despite all of these glaring issues, still find myself coming back to these books.
The characters
The characters are probably AftG’s strongest quality. Despite my complaint that every single character has some sort of cruel and unusual backstory, it somehow works in favor of the narrative. Each and every character feels like their own person, especially within the main cast. Even the more flat characters have pretty distinct personalities and the story makes you care about them.
Neil especially is a very good POV character. His voice is very distinct and you see him change and grow as a person within the narrative. Neil suffers; his past is not a kind one and his present throughout the books is only marginally better. You see him in the beginning, a skittish prey animal, taking off at any sign of danger, then deciding to stand with his new family and face his past head on.
Forgiveness, grief, healing from traumas, vulnerability, these are all themes heavily featured in the novels.
Found family
The found family aspects of the story are probably another one of its strongest features. The Foxes start out as this mess of a team, barely being able to stop fighting long enough to work together. However, after Neil’s arrival and the fallout that this brings, they begin growing together.
Because we are seeing them through Neil’s eyes, we have a unique perspective on the Foxes. When he arrives, the team consists of two groups: the seniors (Dan, Matt, Renee, Allison, and least of all Seth) and the monsters (Andrew, Aaron, Kevin, and Nicky). Neil becomes the bridge between these two groups as they both adopt him into their midst. This is where Neil learns to stop running away.
The Foxes take in Neil who hasn’t really had anyone else since his mother passed nor stability since it was ripped away from him as a child. In turn, Neil unites them and helps them become a stronger team in the face of ridiculous odds. They are all better for finding each other
Yes or no?: Neil and Andrew
Neil and Andrew are the unexpected main couple in the books. Their story starts when Andrew takes a racket to Neil’s stomach in order to keep him from running away. This was back in the beginning when Wymack first came to recruit Neil. Despite this being a concerning way to meet someone, the theme of Andrew keeping Neil from running continues all throughout the plot. Andrew gives Neil a home, Andrew is the first person Neil trusts with his scars, and Neil is the first person Andrew trusts. They are probably the most messed up characters in the story, yet, somehow, the two maintain a healthy relationship.
Probably my favorite part of their relationship is how everyone else reacts to it. Andrew is considered a brick wall emotionally, as well as an unpredictable ball of “f*ck around and find out” energy. The deranged five foot nothing blond’s brain is a mystery to everyone else. So, when Neil comes in (only slightly less predictable, but far more approachable than Andrew) and Andrew starts actually listening to him, they’re all amazed and slightly horrified.
Their bond is so genuinely full of respect and love for eachother. It develops slowly throughout the books. There’s no indication that anything will even happen between the two until suddenly, three quarters into the second book, you immediately start recognizing that their bond is sinking into more romantic territory. They’re an interesting slowburn to dissect. Going from mild, mutual antagonism to a need to protect each other. Once you look back at the story, you’ll realize that there was no other way it could’ve possibly turned out. Andrew saw that Neil was worth it, and Neil kept proving him right. Andrew proved to Neil that it was worth having something to lose.
Theirs is a story of two deeply broken individuals helping each other find what was missing within themselves. They didn’t fix each other, but they helped each other find the courage to fix themselves.
Conclusion
All for the Game is a book series that I found at a very fragile point in my life, and this was a big reason why I latched on to it so hard. Despite all of their darkness, the books contain this overwhelming courage. Courage to face problems with horrendous odds, but also courage to keep living, to love after being hurt over and over again, and I believe that’s what has kept me coming back after all of these years. These characters are deeply flawed, as are the books they come from, which makes them feel painfully real in the absurd context in which they live. They are the reason why I continue to love these books after all these years, in all of their questionable glory (and let’s face it, the absurd plots are fun to read about).