The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe was published in 2020 and was chosen as a finalist for the 2021 Pen/Faulkner Award and one of Instyle's Best Books of 2020. I have already read and really enjoyed her most recent novel, Margo's Got Money Troubles, so I was very excited to get my hands on this book. We deal with a lot of difficult subjects here: addiction, an adult/minor relationship, alcoholism, body horror and body shaming, death, bullying, light talk of an eating disorder, homophobia and a hate crime, infidelity, rape, sexual assault, blood, car accidents, outing, abandonment, and injury.
Michael and Bunny have lived next door to each other for years in their small town of North Shore, California, but they're lives could not be more different. Bunny and her father have lived alone in their huge house ever since her mother died when she was a child. Her dad is a very well known realtor and his face is plastered on every possible surface. He has his finger in every pie possible. Michael, on the other hand, started living with his aunt in her rundown apartment when his mom went to jail for stabbing his dad. But when they do finally start talking, they realize that neither one of them feels like they belong. Michael is gay, but closeted, and trying to avoid suspicion by dressing as goth as he can, while Bunny towers over their classmates. And while her height really helps her in volleyball, it does nothing to make her feel like "one of the girls", which she desperately wants. They strike up a friendship that lasts years until Bunny hears one of her teammates outs Michael and makes fun of him for being in a relationship with an older man. She defends Michael in the worst way possible, changing both her life and Michael's in ways she could not have imagined.
I read this book very soon after I finished Margo's Got Money Troubles, and I expected something very similar to that book. A novel that dealt with serious subjects in a lighthearted, sarcastic, realistic kind of way. And while The Knockout Queen delivered on the realism, it really could have used some of the lightheartedness and sarcastic banter. I did not particularly like either one of the main characters, but I did feel for them at certain points in the book. The story was interesting, and honestly kind of depressing, and it had an ending that was not quite happy. We will call it happy adjacent. To sum everything up, this book was not what I was expecting and if I had read it first, I probably would have liked it better. I don't know that I would have liked it, but I would have like it more. As it stands, I'm not a huge fan.
I'm giving The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe 3.5 stars out of 5. The story was interesting and had a lot of turns that were not what I expected and the writing was very good, but if you're looking for something fun, look somewhere else.
For more from Rufi Thorpe, visit her website at https://www.rufithorpe.com/
Pairs well with egg drop soup that is not too runny and using a rideshare app to get home.
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