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About
A figure skating prodigy, sixteen-year old Alivopro Doyle is one of a few "hopefuls" racing against nature's clock to try and jump and spin their way into the Olympics. But when a disastrous fall fractures two vertebrae, leaving Ali addicted to painkillers and ultimately institutionalized, it's not just her dreams of glory that get torn asunder, but the very fabric that holds her fragile family together.
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Reviews
"Ali's caustic, unapologetically self-centered voice is strong and well-developed, and the secondary characters, especially Ali's parents, but also her tutor and her pregnant cousin, offer both thematic reinforcement and opportunities for humor."
Publishers Weekly
"The Hopeful is a fine debut, smartly exploring the costs of obsession and trauma, the wages of daring to chase your boldest dreams. Tracy O'Neill's gift for precise and surprising detail reveals her page after page to be a smart and compelling storyteller, whose gripping first novel is sure to thrill readers."
Matt Bell, author of In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods
"In her hypnotic debut, Tracy O'Neill has created an indelible character in Alivopro Doyle, a young woman trapped in an anguished tangle of identity and fierce ambition. Though Doyle fights to keep us at arm's length with crackling comebacks, we can't help but notice, and want to protect, her tender brokenness as she struggles to break free from a body that has failed her."
Karolina Waclawiak, author of How to Get Into the Twin Palms