Knock-out Games

For Kalvin Barnes, the only thing that comes close to the rush of playing the knockout game is watching videos of the knockout game. Kalvin's crew always takes videos of their KOs, but Kalvin wants more--something better. He thinks if someone could really see the game for what it was, could appreciate it, could capture the essence of it--that would be a video for all time. The world would have to notice. That's where Erica comes in. She's new in town. Awkward. Shy. White. But she's got a good camera and a filmmaker's eye. She could learn. Kalvin could open her eyes to the power he sees in the knockout game; he could make her see things his way. But first she'll have to close her eyes to everything else. For a while, Kalvin's knockouts are strangers. For a while, Erica can ignore their suffering in the rush of creativity and Kalvin's attention. Then comes the KO that forces her eyes open, that makes her see what's really happening. No one wins the knockout game. Coretta Scott King Award honoree G. Neri captures the notorious and terrifying knockout game and its players in an unflinching novel that's hard to read and impossible to put down As a gang of urban teenagers known as the TKO Club makes random attacks on bystanders, Erica, who is dating the gang leader, wrestles with her dark side and "good kid" identity. As a gang of urban teenagers known as the TKO Club makes random attacks on bystanders, Erica, who is dating the gang leader, wrestles with her dark side and her "good kid" identity. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations, and graphic violence. Knockout Games is set in modern day St. Louis amidst a disturbing rash of seemingly random attacks on bystanders by a group of urban teenagers in a crew called the TKO club. The protagonist, Erica, is one of a few girls who is down with TKO in part due to her natural skill with a video camera and her ability to make art out of the attacks.