Review of The Favorites by Layne Fargo

I loved the behind-the-scenes peeks at the drama, punishing hard work, sequins, and mind games of competitive figure skating. The backdrop for Kat and Heath's tumultuous mutual obsession was a series of destructive forces trying to tear them apart. The interview format and multiple perspectives add to the layers of the story.

Young Katarina Shaw always felt that she was meant to become an Olympic champion. Heath Rocha was stuck in the foster care system. When he and Kat met, they made a connection that first built into a best-friendship between two lost young people, then love.

Their mutual obsession ultimately translated into a powerful partnership on the ice, and, with scrappy Kat at the helm of their ambition and Heath a willing participant, they found unlikely avenues to training, and their connection, hard work, and talent combined into success. When they eventually advanced to the Olympics, a dramatic event stopped their journey to the gold medal--and broke them up for good.

Ten years later, we join the voyeuristic public and the insider news bursts in exploring what really happened years earlier. The delving into the past draws Kat and Heath back into each others' orbits--and reveals secrets they never could have imagined.

The Favorites is heavy on the skating--which I loved. (The prominent sports element reminded me of the tennis-focused novel Carrie Soto Is Back.) I love a peek behind the scenes, and I loved the politics, rivalries, determination, mind games, and sabotage in the story.

Side note: Kat is said to be quite naturally talented; it felt awfully convenient in light of Heath's devotion to Kat that hard work was able to lead him to the level of success that was required for the story to proceed around their partnership.

The couple's dramatic emotional turmoil and external sources of conflict (when they're advised to "trust no one," they would have been wise to follow the suggestion, phew) pushed any reasonable bounds of reality, but I didn't mind and was hooked on the roller coaster of a story, wondering what the heck would happen next.

The events after Kat and Heath's later reunion push limits (Heath's modern-day betrayal of Kat feels potentially unforgivable; their return to success certainly feels implausible because of their ages alone), and again I was up for the disasters, the blood (!), sweat, and tears, and the appealingly messy second-chance attempts at being true to themselves and finally finding professional and personal satisfaction.

The relentless pacing, romantic obsession, twists and turns, dramatic setbacks, exhilarating success, and sometimes over-the-top sabotage within The Favorites is immersive and irresistible.

Johnny Weir is a standout narrator in the role of Ellis Dean, a mischievous rival of Kat and Heath's and an attention-grabbing behind-the-scenes reporter with redemptive, golden moments of loyalty.

I received an audio version of this book courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio and Libro.fm.

More Bossy love for multiple narrators

The list of narrators is extensive; the many points of view used to offer varied perspectives to past events beg comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six (a title I included in the Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music).