Welcome to my stop on the blog tour celebrating the paperback release of Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez! Full stop, I loved this book. It was my favorite book of 2020, and remains one of my favorite books of all time. I adore it and still recommend it to anyone who will listen, and am so happy to be able to help put it back into the spotlight it deserves!
Check out my original review here, then have a look at the book and author info, and then enter for a chance to win your own copy of this incredible book- I ought to put my money where my mouth is, yeah? 😊
Oh! And as an added bit of fun, here is the song Camila runs to in the book that was my absolute favorite song from high school to listen to while you enter!
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez Published by Algonquin Young Readers on February 15, 2022
Pages: 368
An #ownvoices contemporary YA set in Argentina, about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line—even her blooming love story—to follow her dreams.
In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.
At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.
On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.
But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol—and she needs their permission to go any farther. And the boy she once loved is back in town. Since he left, Diego has become an international star, playing in Italy for the renowned team Juventus. Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by her feelings for him. Things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.
About Yamile Saied Méndez
Yamile (sha-MEE-lay) Saied Méndez is a fútbol-obsessed Argentine American who loves meteor showers, summer, astrology, and pizza. She lives in Utah with her Puerto Rican husband and their five kids, two adorable dogs, and one majestic cat. An inaugural Walter Dean Myers Grant recipient, she’s a graduate of Voices of Our Nations (VONA) and the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Méndez is also part of Las Musas, the first collective of women and nonbinary Latinx middle grade and young adult authors. Furia is her first novel for young adult readers.
Win a paperback (or ebook, if you prefer!) copy of Furia! The contest will be open internationally, as long as Book Depository ships to your country!
My favorite sport to play is basketball. I’ve never been much of a soccer person, too much running, haha!!
My favorite sport to watch is hockey and I always enjoy female athletes in the books I read–it’s important for girls to see other girls continuing to stay active and not give up on competitions just because the world focuses more on the male athletes and teams.
In high school, I did marching band (and entirely different kind of sport) but my best friends were swimmers and water polo players, and my years-long crush was a soccer player. My high school was lucky enough to have an active, supportive community around our women’s sports (like field hockey) but I remember a lot of fighting to allow women in football and soccer when I was a teen. Much like women in the military, the sooner we can create a space for women to participate actively (even on a less-than-ideal platform), the easier it is to bust myths that women “can’t” play sports, be competitive, have a sports/life balance, etc. Because we know that women won’t enjoy actual equity in society until we demolish those toxic beliefs by proving them to be lies.
There are several I enjoy watching, most often it’s hockey and tennis.
This was such a great book.
Jeeze – this book has been on my TBR list for so long and it’s on Hoopla but I keep forgetting to start it. I’ve heard nothing but great things about it.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
I like bowling
sounds like it could be intense and i do like reading sports books
sherry @ fundinmental
Fabulous cover
no fav sport