| Title | The Knockout Queen |
| Author | Rufi Thorpe |
| Copyright | 2020 |
| Type | Fiction |
| Length | 290 pages |
| Finished Reading | August 28, 2024 |
| Notable | Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction |
| Ratings | Personal: 5 Stars Amazon: 4.2 Stars (675 ratings) Goodreads: 3.7 Stars (12,509 ratings) |
Michael and Bunny are neighbor high school students. Michael is poor and Bunny is rich – but both are outcasts with very little parental involvement. Michael lives with his aunt even though his mother has been recently released from prison for stabbing her husband when he was beating her.
While I did nurse this rejection by my mother and sister as a core psychic wound upon which my entire personality was founded, I also breathed a sigh of relief. [Page 16]
Bunny’s mother was killed in a car accident when Bunny was young. Even though her father is a significant figure in the city, she is mostly alone – largely due to her height.
I would have asked her why she had invited me in, or why she had shown me around with the thoroughness of a realtor, except that I already her, for her loneliness was so palpable as to be a taste in the air. [Page 12]
They become close friends and confidants, but not lovers since Michael is gay. We follow their friendship as they navigate high school and beyond. Two related violent events unite them but also separate them. But their love for one another is real. Later, Michael is talking about Bunny to his boyfriend.
“’My friend,’ I said, my voice nervous on the word because it meant so much and it meant so little. Bunny was my only friend, but she was not my friend in the way that Anthony had used the word. She was not my lover, and yet, in some way I knew I loved her more than I had ever loved anyone before…’[Page 150]
Unfortunately, that love can’t always protect them. As I worked my way through the novel , I thought “Oh, this is how the book got its title. Then later: “No, this” Then finally “OH! This”.
Rufi Thorpe is a terrific writer. I love this scene where Bunny is trying to talk with Michael.
“Yeah. I just, you know, and I never I just can’t – “ Her words were like a car that wouldn’t start, an engine that refused to turn over into a full sentence. [Page 185]
I can’t go into too many details at the risk of spoilers. Suffice it today this book is achingly beautiful with well-developed characters. We anguish over them as they navigate their lives. Life is just so immediate to teenagers. I was lucky growing up that I had parental guardrails to help protect me from the serious danger that looms. Michael and Bunny do not have those guardrails and all we can do is keep on reading, and hoping.
This novel is not the comedy we have with Thorpe’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.” Regardless, the great writing, a page-turning plot, and deep characters we feel for, earns this book gets my full 5 stars.
