Fight Game

Wild’s debut novel, the first in a planned series, introduces 15-year-old Freedom Smith. Freedom has a preternatural talent for combat, an ability apparently inherited from a prizefighting ancestor, and one that comes in handy since he’s often harassed for being a Gypsy. After Freedom spars with some skinheads who have been bullying his family, one of his assailants is hit by a bus, and Freedom is to be arrested. He’s spared his fate when he agrees to go undercover. His mission: to investigate Darcus Knight, a filmmaker suspected of operating an illegal fight club that employs underage fighters in an unending high-stakes fight (“They don’t question it because they are born into it, and some of them die in it, having never known anything else but the fight, day after day”). At times, this fast-paced novel struggles under the weight of several plot lines, including a scheme to create a race of fighters from Freedom’s blood and the search for a missing youth. But Wild imbues her roguish hero with an appealing voice (“Adrenaline and chili are my two addictions”), and despite the far-fetched elements, the tension produces some authentic thrills. Ages 9-12. (July)