Verdict:

Lauren Muchmore, age 15, is one heck of a basketball player.  She’s so good that Coach Danny Krum from rival school St. Agnes, personally comes to her home to recruit her to play for him.

Lauren’s dad—a strict and sometimes violent man—is obsessed with his daughter’s hoop potential, so much so that Lauren is forced to change schools in her sophomore year where Lauren faces intense pressure.  The other players are older than she, and more established and when she’s made point guard over a senior, things just go from bad to worse.

Little by little, Coach Krum offers quiet encouragement, which grows into personal compliments, a drive home, and an offer to have her tutor his young daughter Skylar, ending with the Coach and his young charge home alone.

Lauren is inexperienced with boys and completely overwhelmed by her Coach Krum’s looks, prestige and maturity. They begin acting out certain hoop plays and things get out of hand quickly, ending with an encounter of the Coach’s couch. Pregnancy results.

“Little 15” is told in the first person as a confessional, but it also reads as a plea for understanding how and why the encounter took place. Because of this perspective, the reader never fully understands why Lauren’s father is so brutal to her mom or so obsessed with Lauren playing basketball, nor do we grasp why Danny Krum would risk his career and marriage—his late night phone calls and notes in particular are careless and stupid—for an immature fifteen-year old.

While there are no surprises in the story, “Little 15” provides insight into how a teen can become totally enthralled by an adult power figure, making it, unfortunately, quite a timely read.

Reviewed by Joe Del Priore for IndieReader