“The Favorites” by Layne Fargo has been described by many critics as a combination of “Daisy Jones and the Six” and “Wuthering Heights,” but centered on ice-skating. The novel is filled with passion, jealousy, scandals and harsh realities of competitive sports. It reads like a soap-opera in many chapters and kept me interested through all of the 437 pages! The story felt real and also touched my heart in the end.
The setting for “The Favorites” is a decade in the life of aspiring ice dancer, Katarina Shaw, whose story begins in Illinois, and takes her to California, Europe, Japan, Russia and more. Kat’s dream has always been to win a gold medal at the Olympics in ice dancing, and she has her best friend, Heath Rocha, as a partner. There are so many twists and turns on their journey! The drama! And this novel highlights the corrupt dark side of competitive sports as well.
“The Favorites” is told through Katarina’s point of view, but interspersed are documentary interviews with many of the main characters in the novel. (I loved reading the interviews and trying to decipher who was hiding secrets!) There are many toxic personalities in the novel, but I enjoyed discovering who was just jealous, and who was actually evil! I loved the character of Katarina, despite all of her faults!
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