Knights of the Hill Country

So different than all of the vampire/angel/werewolf books or the spoiled brat city kid dramas out there. I really enjoyed this book.

Hampton Green is the star of his high school football team. Not that Hampton feels like a star or even believes he deserves to be a star. Sure, he's a fantastic linebacker who has garnered the attention of college football scouts. But it's Hampton's best friend, Blaine, who is the real star. Until Blaine injured his knee during a game, he'd been the one everyone had cheered for. And it was Blaine and Blaine's father who taught Hampton all about football in the first place, after Hampton's own father abandoned Hampton and his mother years ago. So naturally Hampton feels a deep sense of loyalty to his show more friend.

However, Blaine's life is unraveling at a scary pace, and Hampton is starting to question things that had not so long ago seemed so simple. For example, why is it so wrong for him to want to date Sarah, a girl who might not look like the typical cheerleader/jock trophy girlfriend but seems to understand Hampton like nobody ever before. As Blaine loses his grip, Hampton has to figure out the difference between loyalty and blind obedience before his own world falls apart.

Tim Tharpe does an amazing job capturing Hampton's authentic voice. With a combination of Oklahoma dialect and Hampton's simple way of looking at things, he comes across as a real kid whose perception of himself is faulty and far too self-deprecating.

One aspect of this story that came as some surprise for me was the amount of suspense it contained. As an adult, I watched as Blaine's story unfolded through Hampton's innocent eyes - it was so clear to me what was happening and how Blaine was close to imploding while Hampton couldn't see it. I was terrified that Blaine would drag Hampton down with him and destroy Hampton's limited chances for a good future.

As a character, Blaine was hard to like. His motivations for acting the way he did are very clear and understandable, and I can totally believe his spiral out of control. However, the way he treated Hampton was hard to bear, especially given the amount of blind loyalty Hampton felt for his best friend. Many times I wanted to reach into the pages and give Hampton a good shake and tell him to ditch Blaine, that the guy was bad news and not a good friend at all. Hampton deserved so much better.

This is a great story for both boys and girls. There are some fairly descriptive passages about football games and plays, but these work fairly well and are easy to understand even for a non-football geek like me. Mostly, Hampton is an immensely likable character, and you just want so badly for things to turn out well for him. show less

Rating: A

I read this story over the weekend, and I found it to be really good--very Friday Night Lights (and I LOVE Friday Night Lights). Hampton Green, the afore-mentioned star linebacker is a likeable character (if you can get around his bad grammar and southern dialect and affinity for idioms like "He doesn't give a day-old donut" and "Boy Howdy!")

Also, the girls in Hampton's life (the not-so-cut-out-to-be-a-football-player's-girlfriend Sara, and the way-too-typical-football-player's-girlfriend Misty) are really well done. There's scene in which Sara and Hampton are riding with two of Hampton's friend and she puts herself out there, inviting him to do something with her family (because she eschews high school pecking orders), but his show more friend is blatantly rude. I felt super bad for her and felt her character really come out at this point. Plus, Misty should be a charicature, but she gets some redeeming play in the end of the book.

You want to not like Hampton's best friend, Blaine, but you have to. (Or you at least have to feel pity for him.) Either way, all the characters are well-developed. Another benefit to this book was that the conflict, albeit on a high school, still felt genuine to me. I got it.

The only drawback, what brought this from an A+ down to an A was the dialect. I understand the hill country of Oklahoma probably has a strong sense of language (use of "hisself" rather than "himself"), but it made for herky-jerky reading in my particular case. If that could have been dialed back just a touch, it would have been completely spot-on for me as a Midwestern reader. I think I'll be picking up some more of Tharp's books. show less

Tharp’s fine novel features gradually evolving and growing characters and a riveting football story. Hampton Green, a linebacker and Blaine Keller, the quarterback are both headed for college. Blaine is the leader and Hampton is the dumb jock follower. When Blaine ruins a knee, but refuses to tell anyone, his performance falls off. This failure of the body serves as a metaphor for the importance of dealing with the whole person. Hampton gradually begins thinking more and more for himself, but without throwing away his loyalty to friends, even friends who do dumb things--until they force him into choosing between basic human morality and blind mob mentality. The story is handled with grace. This is the book to give to the person who show more says they do not like sports books! Highly recommended for high school libraries. Along with Samurai Shortstop, the very best sport’s fiction, and among the very best books published in 2006. show less

Hampton Green isn't the sharpest stick in the knife drawer. It's hard for him to pull together his thoughts to even participate in a class discussion, but on the football field everything clicks for him. He can almost stop time to read a play, and he's definitely got size on his side: he's one of the biggest, meanest, most effective defensive tackles in a very competitive eastern Oklahoma high school conference. His team has won every game for nearly five years, and his best friend Blaine is the star running back trying to grind out one more season on bad knees that he doesn't want anyone to know about. However, there is an undercurrent that's unsettling: For Hampton, football is just a game. For Blaine, it is everything, and he doesn't show more try to hide his jealousy when big-time colleges start talking to Hampton and not him. Hampton lets his friends do the talking for him, as well as the thinking in most cases-- until Hampton realizes he's developing feelings for a very unpopular, nerdy girl named Sara, who helps him realize that his friends are pushing him around and getting him into situations he doesn't need to be in. This is a well-paced story that will appeal to guys and girls alike, although there might be more on-field action than non-football fans would like. At just more than 200 pages (I read it in eBook format at 251 pgs) this is a quick read but with enough depth to make students weigh the price of friends over sticking up for what is right. Recommended. show less

Hampton Green loves nothing more than playing football and hanging out with his best friend, Blaine. In his Senior year The Knights are facing yet another undefeated season and it should be Hampton's year. Instead, he begins to see the world in a different light: drifting away from Blaine, questioning the good ol' boys he always believed, and forging a new friendship with studious Sara.

A superb coming-of-age story with great first person narrative and wonderful descriptive language. May suffer a bit from age (c2008) and the Oklahoma setting for today's urban teans... nonetheless, a believeable look at a young man growing up. Nothing objectionable.

Great YA book with classic themes drawn from the world of high school football. What sets this one apart from a certain amount of predictability is the understated voice of the narrator. Beautiful.

This book is very well written by the author I don't really like to read but I brought myself to read this book because I like sports and it was a vey good book.The main character is suffering in his life and football is all he has anymore,his father left when he was young and his mom has a new man every week.So he has to deal with it and focus on football and becoming a legend.The knights are 1 undefeated season from becoming legends and they have basically locked it up because the last game is against a vey weak team so they should win easily.They went to easy and lose and don't become legends and nobody can believe it.So him and his buddy just let themselves go and they are just so deppressed and start doing bad things.