The Favorites

September 9, 2024
Thriller writer Fargo (They Never Learn) tries her hand at women’s fiction in this melodramatic story of two ice dancers’ obsessive love affair and their long-held dreams to make it to the Olympics. Kat Shaw and Heath Rocha are children when they begin skating together in 1990s Lake Forest, Ill., fueled by Kat’s “gnawing ache of ambition” to follow in the footsteps of gold medalist Sheila Lin. In 2000, Kat and Heath travel to Cleveland to compete against Sheila’s twins, Bella and Garrett. Though Kat and Heath come in sixth, Sheila invites them to join her training facility in California. There, Kat’s drive outruns her loyalty, and she breaks it off with Heath, claiming he’s holding her back. What follows over the next 14 years are a series of betrayals between Kat and Heath, as well as feuds pitting them against the Lins, a retired skater turned blogger, and others. After many thwarted attempts at making the Olympic team, Kat and Heath get one last chance to compete in the 2014 Sochi games. The overly long story is sunk by the repetitive interpersonal drama, and by a foggy attempt to parallel the themes of Wuthering Heights (Heath/Heathcliff, Shaw/Earnshaw). Like the characters’ lives, it’s a bit of a mess. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

November 1, 2024
Star-crossed figure skaters whiz through decades of melodrama on and off the ice. Fargo's latest feature pairs skaters entwined by destiny and irradiated by fan and media obsession, as she cleverly tells her tale by alternating between narrative sections and clips from the script of a fictional 2024 documentary calledThe Favorites: The Shaw & Rocha Story. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha are "small-town Midwestern trash," both orphans, he of mysterious origins. Teen lovers, they enter the world of skating at the 2000 Nationals, where they meet their rivals, brother and sister skaters Garrett and Bella Lin, the privileged twin children of figure skating icon-turned-coach Sheila Lin (and an anonymous Sarajevo Olympic Village sperm donor). For the next 14 years, violent passions, bloody on-ice accidents, bedroom betrayals, sabotage, paparazzi-driven scandals, and nonstop cliffhangers--"Unfortunately, it was only the beginning"--lead up to an epic brouhaha at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, by which time the reader's capacity for outrage and surprise has gotten quite a workout. But don't give up in the stretch: "NBC Sports commentator Kirk Lockwood reports live from the Sochi Olympics. 'In all my years covering skating, ' he says, shaking his head solemnly, 'I've never seen anything like this.'" Though the stereotype-driven characterizations of the skaters are a couple dimensions short of real or relatable--Heath in particular is a furious cipher--Fargo does a nice job with the narrators of her documentary. One of them, a former skater turned gossip blogger named Ellis Dean, can be relied on to spill the tea ("That program was the most passive-aggressive shit I'd ever seen--and I'm from the South, honey"), while an uptight U.S. Figure Skating official dryly tows the party line: "Ice dance can have a certain sensuality to it, yes. Many programs express the beauty of the love between a man and a woman. But what Ms. Shaw and Mr. Rocha were doing bordered on vulgarity." After all the histrionics and hormones, the unlikely ending Fargo bestows on her characters is a hoot. Colleen Hoover-style romance heads to the Olympic rink. Buckle up.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2024
The author of They Never Learn (2020) puts Wuthering Heights on ice in this addictive outing. Teen Kat Shaw has loved Heath Rocha, the foster child her father adopted, since they were kids, but her first and most abiding passion is figure skating. Kat longs to compete professionally, and Heath, who loves Kat above all else, partners with her on the ice. After Kat's father's death, they flee Illinois and Kat's dissolute older brother to enroll in an ice dance school in Los Angeles run by former Olympic champion Sheila Lin. Kat and Heath find themselves embroiled with Sheila's teen twins, Bella and Garrett, their top competitors, whom both Kat and Heath are drawn to in different ways. What follows is a decade-and-a-half of drama and heartbreak on and off the ice. Told in a mix of Kat's first-person narration and oral-history style commentary from a handful of characters who orbit the world of ice dance, Fargo's latest is a blend of sports drama, romance, and page-turning suspense as Kat and Heath fight for gold on the ice and just as often battle with each other. Engrossing, thrilling, and just downright fun.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2024

Inspired by Wuthering Heights, Fargo (They Never Learn) creates a tempestuous love story set in the world of figure skating. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha are a formidable duo on and off the ice, until a shocking incident at the Olympics ends their partnership. Ten years later, Katarina decides to finally share the whole story. Prepub Alert.

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