payback time

In the book Payback Time by Carl Deuker, the main character Mitch is an aspiring journalist that wants to write about very serious school topics. He hopes that it will build his portfolio to impress universities. When he finds out that he is not going to be the editor for his high school’s paper, he is very disappointed. Instead of Mitch being the editor he’s been assigned to write about the sports section. Mitch is overweight and even though he enjoys sports, being picked on about his weight kept him from participating. He decides to take his new role seriously, and do his best in the sport section.
Mitch is starting his school year by writing stories about the varsity football season. He attends one of the practices to interview the team’s MVP, Horst Diamond and Coach McNulty. While at the team practice Mitch and his photographer, Kimi, see Angel Marichal who appears to be quite the player himself. Mitch isn’t really interested in giving more attention to Horst than he has to, and when he asked McNulty about Angel, Mitch is told that Angel isn’t worth interviewing. Angel appears to have quite the arm, but he’s almost never put in the game. Mitch decides to drop the story about Horst and pick up a new one about Angel.
Mitch’s journalistic side is starting to get to him because he knows there’s a big story about Angel, so Mitch and his partner Kimi start researching. Readers who can relate with people who have body issues and get bullied because of it will enjoy Mitch’s personal story. And the football fans are sure to enjoy the play-by-plays.
Deuker has written a very interesting book which I enjoyed. What I mainly enjoyed was Mitch’s personal story. The feeling of similar life stories between Angel and Mitch himself brought his attention to Angel and sparked more curiosity about him. The climax of the story was exciting, but the ending left me disappointed.