The Off Season

Book on CD performed Natalie Moore
4****

Things are looking up for D.J. Schwenk (who first appeared in Murdock’s Dairy Queen). She’s doing well in her junior year of high school, playing on the boy’s football team, and looking forward to a great season of basketball. Her relationship with Brian Nelson, quarterback on the rival high school’s football team, seems to be warming up as well. But there’s trouble on the horizon and D J will have to dig deep to find the strength to manage everything that’s thrown at her.

This is a great YA book (named a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults). The characters act appropriately for their age and maturity, and the plot twists are believable and possible. We may not all live on a dairy farm in show more north central Wisconsin, but we can all relate to the trials and tribulations of school, friends, and family life. Natalie Moore does a wonderful job performing the book. Her interpretation of the characters makes them completely believable, and her pacing is perfect. I love D J and will definitely read the third installment of her story, Front and Center. show less

Wow! This is even better than the first one although, in reality, it is just a continuation of Dairy Queen; even to the point that the story begins straight after DJ's triumphant Grid Iron final against Brian's team. The characters are so real and defined - Murdock has DJ down so well - he anxieties, her fears and her realisation that Brian is embarrassed by her, are all heartbreakingly real. The first half of the book is taken up with DJ & Brian's relationship - he takes her to the mall, buys her a phone and gets her ears pierced - all in an effort to erase the huge, gangly farm girl and make her into something cool. Unfortunately DJ does not realise this as she is overwhelmed by Brian's kisses! She wonders why he doesn't talk to her show more at the pizza place in front of his mates and puts it down to the 2 town grid iron rivalry! Then some People magazine reporters photograph them together, and Brian's teasing from his mates causes angst between them. There's also DJ's best friend Amber moving out of toen with her lesbian older lover and her mother's devastating back injury,her father's hare-brained turkey-farminf schemes ( or maybe organic cheese) as well as her little brother being sprung staying at a girl's place all night when in reality he was preparing for a science fair!But there is worse to come...Win, her older brother suffers a spinal injury during a football game on TV, and it is DJ who manages to finally bring him around from his self-loathing exsistence as he regains some movement and takes it upon himself to coach her on her quest for a college basketball scholarship! This book was so wonderful - I truly believed in the characters and I bawled my eyes out when DJ yells at Win and then he moves his toes! Great look at how families cope with such a devestating injury; especially when so much rides on each individual's sporting ability. Highly recommended - one of the best books I have read this year! show less

I am so glad there was a sequel for Dairy Queen. I mean, it worked fine as a stand-alone novel, but I wasn't quite ready to let go of DJ Shwenk and her family and friends.

As a sequel, The Off Season didn't disappoint. It moved me as Dairy Queen did - made me laugh and made me cry. Again, I was transported to the inner workings of DJ's mind, even if she didn't know where her thoughts were leading half the time, all it did was add to her character complexity and most of all, her character development (which does not occur enough in YA fiction!). It was never annoying. You had to be in her mind to understand her life.

I want to give away so many spoilers but I will restrain myself! Just be assured, if you loved or even just liked Dairy show more Queen you'll be very glad to get your hands on this next installment, especially as it picks up more or less exactly where the previous book left off. I feel pretty confident in saying you won't be disappointed. Well, you might be a bit disappointed in one particular character and his particular choices, and you might feel your heart break right along with DJ, but a part of you will say you saw it coming all along. Anyway, that's enough out of me! show less

The Off Season differs quite a bit from Dairy Queen. Where in Dairy Queen, the focus is all on DJ, she is, in some ways, not the central character in The Off Season, playing a more supportive role: sister and daughter. Though I think I was perhaps a bit less interested in the plot of The Off Season than in Dairy Queen or Front Center, which I've already started, I'm also hugely impressed by the content and daring in the subject matter.

Murdock takes some risks with the second book in the series, no question. Right at the very beginning, after the first book in the series was all about D.J. managing to join the boys' football team, she quits. She has reasons, good ones, but it's still anticlimactic after all the build up. However, it's show more such a mature choice, because, if she didn't stop playing, a minor injury might become a bigger deal and prevent her from playing basketball, which is pretty much her only shot at a scholarship and college. Though it's sad to see her give up on her football, seeing D.J. be so mature and face up so bravely to the judgment of her classmates is inspiring.

The real story here, though, isn't about D.J., though she's central to it and crucial to the way things unfold. Her oldest brother, Win, is injured in a football game, one the whole family was watching live. Injuries happen in football all the time, but this one is life-changing: Win's spinal cord snapped. He will never walk again, and that's just one thing among many that he'll never be able to do again. His dreams have been crushed, and he had a real shot at pro ball. Even with intense physical therapy, he'll probably not regain much use of his body. The Off Season is about Win's injury and the way the Schwenk family pulls together to help him.

D.J. basically puts her whole life on hold to help Win, because no one else in her family can take the time off, since her mother badly injured her back, her father needed to help his wife, her other older brother has football and college, and her younger brother is in middle school. That is so much pressure to put on one teen girl. Win, unsurprisingly, does not take the injury well. D.J. doesn't know what to do with her taciturn brother, but she turns out to be just the right person to help him, with her slow, quiet, determined Schwenk ways. There is so, so much strength in D.J., and she just does not see it yet, but I'm getting ahead of myself since that's what book three is obviously going to be about. Anyway, Murdock tackles Win's injury in this really powerful, emotional way, and goes into a lot of details about the hospital and physical therapy, and that is just so unique in YA fiction.

The romance remains on the back burner, and goes pretty much exactly where I predicted. Brian Nelson's a great guy in some respects, but much to caught up in the expectations of others. Basically, D.J. did not need all of that crap to deal with while she was trying to get her brother back on his feet. That's life, though, isn't it. In fact, that's what's so great about this series: how real D.J. feels and the whole cast.

I'm continuing to be really impressed with Murdock's Dairy Queen series. The audiobooks are fabulous, accent and all, and I'm already about a quarter of the way through the final book, which I both do and do not want to finish, because I already think it will be my favorite. show less

I love DJ Schwenk. I love that she is realistic, she isn't perfect, and a lot of the time, she has no idea what to say. This book picks up where [b:Dairy Queen|16178|Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1)|Catherine Gilbert Murdock|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166719842s/16178.jpg|564970] left off--DJ is playing football on her high school's team, sort of seeing the rival team's quarterback, and trying to keep her family's farm going. In the first book, I became comfortable with DJ, her family, and the entire cast of secondary characters. They actually feel like actual people and it was delightful to see the continuation of their story and the growth of each individual character.

[a:Catherine Gilbert Murdock|361963|Catherine Gilbert show more Murdock|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1223175025p2/361963.jpg] really threw me through a loop when she threw so much on DJ's table in this book. The best part of this series, obviously in my opinion, is that DJ doesn't just wallow in depression when hard things happen in her life. She deals with it. She deals with life. And that quality is contrary to a lot of YA literature out there in which the main character cannot get over their parent's divorce or moving to a new town or having no friends.

As one of four kids, I really appreciate reading books where family dynamics seem realistic--especially those between siblings. I'm trying to figure out what it is about this series that just makes me happy and I think it's just that the entire Schwenk family and their town are good, hardworking people. I kind of hate when people refer to "small-town America" and that value system but, in the case of this book, it kind of applies. I like the idea of a community rallying behind a family and of farmers helping each other when trouble arises. Now, I know this can happen in the suburbs (or even in urban areas) but it just feels so much more...likely in a small town.

I was ecstatic when DJ came into herself near the end of this one.

*I listened to this an an audiobook. The same person narrates the entire series which is awesome. She does a fantastic job. Especially with the Bob the Duck voice:) "Hey baby, check out this winnngspan." show less

"The Off Season" almost feels like two books, because the focus of the book abruptly makes a 90 degree turn about halfway through.
The first part is mainly a continuation of "Dairy Queen." D.J. Schwenk, the girl who plays linebacker on the high school football team, and her romance with Brian, the quarterback of the rival team.
Then, suddenly, halfway into the book, D.J.'s older brother, Win, who play college football, suffers a serious injury during a game. He may never walk again. The entire focus of the book goes to that story. In a literary sense, this bothered me. The injury wasn't foreshadowed, it just came out of the blue and changed the aim of the book. But then I thought, maybe that was the point. Because in real life, when some show more devastating event like that happens, of course it is always out of the blue. And it totally changes the course of the life of the injured person, but also that person's whole family. So maybe it was just as it should be.
D.J. is a great narrator. A strong, but sympathetic character. show less

I read and reviewed the previous book in this series, Dairy Queen, not long ago, and I wasn't a wholehearted fan. However, enough people recommended that I continue with the series that I took their advice. I am SO happy I did, because I absolutely loved The Off Season!

DJ, with her down-home, farmgirl sensibilities, is delightful. Even though I was never a big sports girl, I love that DJ is strong and athletic and that she's proud of it. DJ feels like a real person, and she has this deadpan way of speaking that cracks me up. A favorite quote (just so you'll get it, Doing Something Stupid is what gets you pregnant): "...and while I hadn't Done Anything Stupid, I wasn't sure where exactly I stood on the whole subject. I mean, it's not show more that I wanted to do anything Really Stupid, but I wouldn't be so against doing something Kind of Stupid- something A Little Silly, maybe."

I felt like The Off Season had a lot more substance to it than Dairy Queen. This is due largely to an accident that befalls one of DJ's family members. As the family starts to deal with the changes that have befallen them, they all start to grow up a little, and actually deal with what's happening, even if they can't talk to each other. It's a Schwenk thing. This story really dealt with a lot, while still being light-hearted overall and maintaining a PG rating.

So, good characters, strong writing, entertaining plot.... definitely recommended. show less