Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Girl in the Arena
    Unavailable
    Girl in the Arena
    Unavailable
    Girl in the Arena
    Ebook297 pages4 hours

    Girl in the Arena

    By Lise Haines

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    As a modern gladiator's daughter, Lyn and her family live by the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association. But those rules can turn against you. When Lyn's seventh father dies in the ring, his opponent, Uber, captures Lyn's dowry bracelet-and her hand in marriage. To win her freedom, Lyn will do what no girl has done before: enter the arena and fight her father's murderer-even though she's falling in love with him.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateAug 17, 2010
    ISBN9781599906157
    Unavailable
    Girl in the Arena
    Author

    Lise Haines

    Lise Haines is Writer in Residence at Emerson College, has held a Briggs-Copeland lectureship at Harvard, and was a finalist for the PEN Nelson Algren Award and the Paterson Fiction Prize. She is the author of two adult novels, In My Sister's Country and Small Acts of Sex and Electricity, as well as many essays and short stories. Girl in the Arena is her first work for young adults. She lives in the Boston area. www.lisehaines.com

    Related to Girl in the Arena

    Related ebooks

    Children's Sports & Recreation For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The War

      Aug 5, 2021

      IT’S a line in boxing’s record book: April 15, 1985 - Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas - KO 3. Hagler-Hearns was marketed as “The Fight” and later became known as “The War.” The combatants, United Press reporte

      5 min read

    • Article

      CHAOS, CARNAGE, & CULTURAL COLLISION

      Apr 6, 2022

      Surfing’s Alamo, Nuuhiwa’s last stand, Apocalypse Next, Animal Kingdom meets Sodom and Gomorrah and enter the gates of Hell where surfing collided and stripped down to shed its amateur skin. This was the end of an era. A transitional period in surfin

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Real Peaky Blinders

      Jul 16, 2020

      YOU may have seen them in the hit TV show Peaky Blinders, and if you’re of a literary bent you may have read about them in Graham Greene’s 1938 novel Brighton Rock, which spawned two film adaptations. Clothed in cloth caps and wielding razors, they c

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Ones That Got Away

      Apr 27, 2023

      THIS is a story of death and Donald Trump, of fear and loathing and of the failure so often in the boxing game to make fights happen. It is the story of fights that came close to being made, fights that were mentioned, fights that were made, fights t

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Curse Of The Iron Claw

      Mar 8, 2024

      The Curse Of The Iron Claw
      10 min read

    • Article

      Dancing For Dixie

      May 11, 2021

      Dancing For Dixie
      3 min read

    • Article

      Win, Lose, Or Draw

      Apr 30, 2020

      Win, Lose, Or Draw
      4 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Mar 26, 2019

      Must See, Must Read
      12 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Nov 8, 2022

      Chalk up this volume’s relative obscurity to more recent bias against “Big Sam,” warts and all. Certainly not overlooked when published last century, The Raven earned James his first Pulitzer Prize (he earned a second for his 1937 biography of Andrew

      8 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      May 21, 2019

      Must See, Must Read
      9 min read

    • Article

      Quick Count

      Aug 3, 2023

      PRINT MEDIA MAY not be what it once was, but I’d like to think there will always be an audience for magazines—and I don’t just say that because I write for one. Heck, if it wasn’t for the copy of GQ at my local newsstand, I might actually have to buy

      4 min read

    • Article

      Time Is On Their Side

      Jun 28, 2023

      Time Is On Their Side
      3 min read

    • Article

      Whistler’s Murder

      Jul 24, 2018

      Whistler’s Murder
      4 min read

    • Article

      Heard Around the West

      Nov 1, 2021

      Heard Around the West
      3 min read

    • Article

      Baxter Conrad 1902-1973

      Jan 13, 2022

      Baxter Conrad 1902-1973
      4 min read

    • Article

      Jerk Or Giant?

      Feb 9, 2020

      The one-way intimacy between fans and stars is the fuel that powers celebrity culture. Fans continually observe the star in his or her performative settings. Eventually, they come to believe that they know the star and, for those inclined to hero wor

      3 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Jul 28, 2020

      Must See, Must Read
      14 min read

    • Article

      Before The Bell

      Dec 5, 2022

      Before The Bell
      8 min read

    • Article

      'Kill Every Buffalo You Can! Every Buffalo Dead Is an Indian Gone'

      May 13, 2016

      The American bison is the new U.S. national mammal, but its slaughter was once seen as a way to starve Native Americans into submission.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Affairs Of Honour

      Nov 27, 2023

      Affairs Of Honour
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Great Race

      Sep 18, 2018

      A Great Race
      2 min read

    • Article

      Rule Breaker

      Jan 12, 2023

      Rule Breaker
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Girl in the Arena

    3/5

    176 ratings35 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      In the very near future, gladiatorial battles to the death have become a worldwide phenomenon. And despite her pacifistic stance, teenaged Lyn is right in the middle of it. Her mother has married a succession of gladiators, each dying in the ring, and Lyn and her brother have been raised knowing little but "Glad" culture. Lyn is mocked and bullied in school, but everywhere else she's a minor celebrity. Only a few people understand her odd position: her childhood friend Mark (himself the son of a former gladiator) and her step-father Tommy, the top-ranked gladiator in the world. But then tragedy strikes, and Lyn is forced to make an impossible choice.

      The world building feels a little forced here: Lyn's life is ruled by the Glad bylaws, but why would gladiatorial fighting rules created in the 20th century have rules about women's dowry braclets, even while women fight as gladiators and there don't seem to be actual dowries or stigma attached to premarital sex (well, no more than there is today)? It seems more like the author forced random rules into the story in order to push Lyn into a love triangle. The characters themselves are great, and their relationships are the truest, best part of the story. They have fantastic conversations, each clearly coming from their own specific circumstances, with different experiences coloring how they read situations. The plot races along, pulling Lyn with it as each of the pillars of her world crumble. But near the end, the plot takes a turn for the disappointing.

      SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT




      Because Uber picked up Lyn's dowry bracelet, the bylaws say they have to marry. And if they don't, Lyn's family will lose the house and their money, making it nearly impossible to care for Lyn's disabled brother. But then Lyn decides she'll fight Uber instead, and pushes Caeser's (the owners of the gladiatorial games) to accept that as a viable alternative. All through the novel Lyn has had flashbacks to her many instances of training with gladiators--she was raised by them, after all--and we've repeatedly seen her have a ruthless killer instinct. But instead of actually fighting Uber, she decides to send in a Second Life character with her face to fight for her. (If they can make holographic projections of people, why spend all this time programming a Second Life character to look and act like her instead of just taping Lyn and using her actual body and moves? The inclusion of Second Life felt really unnecessary.) Even this would be a cool idea--I thought maybe she could use the success of the fight to convince Caeser's to use realistic holographic projections to fight instead of real people actually dying. But no, she ends up fighting Uber anyway, and accidentally runs her disabled brother through with her sword. I though maybe THIS would finally bring down Caeser's--they created a situation where a young girl almost kills her even younger brother, on live tv. But no, instead Lyn narrates a quick epilogue about how now she's suing Caeser's but nothing else has changed. She's using her increased fame and notoriety to get access to the original creator of the games (who no longer controls them). Finally, I thought, this will be how she brings down Caeser's, the company that made her life hell, killed seven of her fathers, drove her mother to suicide, tried to force her to marry her father's murderer, and is not only glamorizing violence, but actually seems to be taking over the country. And...still nada.

      So basically, despite many, many ways in which Lyn could have defeated the evil corporation poisoning the world, it ends up with Lyn embroiled in a court case and hoping to go to college someday. All the plot about her training and killer instinct meant nothing. All the plot about her growing friendship with Uber and his own distaste for Caeser's meant nothing. Even running her brother through with a sword meant nothing--despite his recurring prophecy that he would become the most famous person ever (which I took to mean outrage over his death would be the lynchpin to pull down a multinational corporation). Very frustrating! It might be more realistic, but c'mon--don't promise a "girl in the arena" in the title and then not even have her fight a gladiatorial battle, let alone win anything.
    • 3/5
      A couple of years ago this was the it book. I bought myself a copy when one of the Barnes and Nobles in the area went out of business and it's been sitting on a shelf holding on since then. Now that I'm in a read things and actually get rid of them purge type deal I decided that I needed to get this thing read. Lynn is the daughter of 7 gladiators (b/c her mother's been married 7 times not through funky genetics). Her last and most likely favorite step father has just died in the ring and Ceasar's the company that owns the whole gladiatorial sport is trying to deny Lynn and her family all of their things unless Lynn marries the guy who killed her step father in the ring (due to some arcane rule about dowry bracelets.)

      I see why this book was so popular. Lynn is strong and likeable and in an impossible situation. What she does to keep her family together through tragedy after tragedy is nothing short of heroic and miraculous. There is the hint of the ever popular love triangle even though that is not the focal part of the story even though it seems as though it should be. This story is always Lynn's though, from beginning to end.
    • 2/5
      2.5 stars. Not what I expected, but interesting.
    • 2/5
      I'm pretty upset to say that I didn't really enjoy this. I thought I would, since I loved "The Hunger Games" and this had a similar premise. Also, I'd heard a few good things about it. Unfortunately, it just didn't hit the mark for me. I actually considered stopping about half-way through, which I never do.

      I felt like Haines added too much unnecessary detail and wrote some things just to write things. I couldn't get myself attached to Lyn and I didn't relate at all with her. She just felt very...distant, like she wasn't really the main character. I wasn't comparing "Girl in the Arena" to "The Hunger Games" because that would be unfair, they are obviously two different stories and very, very different in many ways. If you go in, though, for a "Hunger Games"-esque novel, you will be sorely disappointed.

      I'm not going to say, "Ew, don't read this, it's horrible!" Because it wasn't horrible. It had some enjoyable parts and some intense scenes. Still, I think the biggest problem I had was with the amount of unnecessary, boring detail. However, I think there will be many who will and can enjoy the entire book.

      I did love little Thad. He was my favorite character, and such a doll. I loved him so much more than the other characters and actually felt like he was the only one with humanity to him.

      Overall, it was just okay. I enjoyed bits of it but not enough to convince me to buy it (as I borrowed a copy from my local library).
    • 4/5
      This book could have been amazing.
      The relationship between the main character and her family, especially her brother, was not only believable but extremely touching and well written.
      Lyn's relationship with Uber could have been explored more deeply. There was so much potential there, and the little there was managed to be compelling, but it all seemed to be set aside in favour of other developments which could have easily been omitted.
      All in all, I finished this book feeling like there should have been more to it.
    • 3/5
      Well. This was different! When I think young adult stories have been written about everything, along comes something very unexpected.
    • 2/5
      From the cover and the synopsis on the back of this book, I thought I was in for an action packed, entertaining read, with a kick butt heroine. Unfortunately, I was bitterly disappointed. This book was blah! I really liked the premise - a modern US adopting the culture of ancient Rome, but the plot didn't deliver. This book was not about a girl in an arena, it was a book about family issues. For a book with such promise, it was a real failure!
    • 2/5
      Lyn is a teenage girl living in an America obsessed with neo-gladiator culture. Her mother's seven husbands have all been gladiators, fighting to the death in an arena against other gladiators or even tigers or lions. When a young gladiator named Uber kills Lyn's seventh father in the arena, he also captures Lyn's dowry bracelet, requiring them to marry. Lyn decides she'd rather enter the arena herself and fight for a chance to be free. For such a thrilling plot, I felt the action moved way too slowly. I never really felt like I got to know Lyn as a character and I didn't really care what happened to her. The sense of time and place and the rules and technology of this alternate "modern day" America were all very muddled and the lack of quotation marks and punctuation just added to the confusion. The one saving grace was the character of Uber who I found intriguing enough to skim the last half of the book, but the elements of romance aren't enough to save this one for me.
    • 2/5
      This book fell flat for me. Fans of Hunger Games should know that of the two, Girl in the Arena is much more low key than the back of the book makes you expect. Not my favorite.
    • 3/5
      My opinion of GIRL IN THE ARENA suffered from a sort of bait-and-switch effect, which is totally my own fault. I picked up the book as a HUNGER GAMES substitute; I assumed (bad me!) that I was picking up a second-rate imitation that would have similar highs and lows. GIRL IN THE ARENA is a totally different sort of book, and it had none of the same highs or lows.

      First of all - there's very little action. Given all the talk about gladiators and the cover picture of a girl kitted out in a gladiator outfit, this is fairly surprising. There are only two fights in the entire book - one at the very beginning, and one at the very end. In the first fight, Lyn's father, Tommy, dies. The central plot of the book is really about grieving for Tommy; remembering what was so great about him, feeling his absence now that he's gone, figuring out how to forge ahead.

      Second of all - there's no love story. To be fair, there's a vague, almost-kinda-sorta love triangle. Lyn has a friend who could be more than friends, and she's considering marriage with Uber, the guy who killed her father. These relationships change and develop...but I wouldn't call anything that happens in GIRL IN THE ARENA a love story.

      Third of all - it's not quite a dystopia. The organization that controls the gladiators makes a pretty terrifying antagonist, and Lyn certainly doesn't live in a perfect world, but as far as I can tell the only real difference between the real world and Haines' world is the existence of the gladiator sport. I thought Haines did a pretty good job of explaining how the sport developed, but she wasn't as clear about how these bizarre By-Laws came to be, even though they play such an important role in the book.

      So, it turns out that GIRL IN THE ARENA is a pretty quiet story about grief. It's well written and fairly interesting, as far as it goes, even though it wasn't what I expected I read all the way through in one sitting and enjoyed it. It's just not what I expected.
    • 2/5
      I'm halfway through this and I've been reading it forever. For something that so clearly wants to be the next Hunger Games, it's horribly slow and un-engaging. It's trying way too hard to ground itself in our current reality (Boston/Cambridge landmarks, references to semi-current movies, Jon Stewart doing interviews, etc.) and makes the whole book a self-conscious attempt at satire, instead of creating this new world in which gladiator sports have risen. I'll probably finish it because I need to finish SOMETHING, but I wouldn't recommend it.

      [edit:] now I'm finished. It didn't get better. Still slow to the end, and it's hard to buy into this unique world when the author does everything she can to tell me that it's right here, right now.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book! It is set in a future world where Gladiators fighting to the death has once again become one of the most watched sports. Only this time it is televised.
      The main character, Lyn, is the daughter of a Gladiator. When he killed in the arena her life is dramtically altered.
      The book was very well thought out in my opinion. It was a quick and captivating read. I found myself on the edge of my seat excited to finish this book.

      Definitely give it a read!
    • 3/5
      An interesting story but not a very compelling one. The story makes a few good points about violence as entertainment, but the characters are very two dimensional and not very relatable.
    • 5/5
      I wish I wish there were other stories like this. The plot of the story just drags you in and doesn't ever want to let you go. The writing style is impressive for a ya novel.
    • 4/5
      This book was totally not what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I thought, but I didn't realize it was a modern book about a world where the world of WWE/whatever is actually Gladiator fighting. The story involves arranged marriages, murders and a mixed up love story. It's a decent book and I actually enjoyed it, even though it was a quick read once it got going. Definitely not what I expected, but that's okay.
    • 2/5
      Where to begin with this book? I thought the idea was phenomenal. I mean a book about gladiators!! I don't even think that's really been done before in the young adult genre...and to be honest I'm getting a little distressed and bored from all these standard vampire/werewolf/zombie teen books. It is basically the same concept and plot-line redone by different authors in every novel I pick up. It's an inescapable representation now quite overdone in the juvenile/young adult world. There were endless possibilities that could be explored with a gladiator storyline and I had hope that Haines would branch off into all these different options. However, I ended up being considerably disappointed in the lack of development throughout the plot-line and the confusion regarding several of the main characters as well as the back-and-forth philosophical point in the feminist perspective of the story.First of all, this story is not a dystopian novel as I been led to believe when I picked it up. It actually occurs in the present day time and most of the same historical events that have taken place in the current society today have taken place in the novel but some of the historical time periods have been altered to allow for the rising and structuralization of the GSA, or the Gladiator Sports Association. The Glad- games are kind of like the Ultimate Fighting Championships that take place, although these fights either end in severe mutilation or even death.Lyn is the daughter of a Gladiator and as such is expected to become a Glad- wife. In the beginning of the story, she seems to want to just forget about Glad- sports altogether and take off in hiding as she morally opposes them and wants to build a life devoid of their control. The end of the story gets a little confusing with Lyn's character though because all of a sudden she wants to become a Gladiator herself and possibly lead to a revolution overthrowing the Glad- way of life. **Spoiler** Then she takes an easy out when she is thrown into an actual competition herself though and ends up not really even fighting. I mean I expected an all out fight to the death in this book. That's what it claims transpires on the back summary, but that's not how it happens. I felt bewildered and frustrated by Lyn's character throughout the entire book. One moment, she's over-emotional and upset about something, and the next she acts cold and detached from emotion. At one point, she has a dream to become a revolutionary but then decides she only cares about herself and the outcome of her actions in reference to just herself. Then she's also between two guys the entire time. When she meets Uber, the Gladiator who killed her father in battle, she hates him for what he's done but then as the two become increasingly closer, Lyn becomes comfortable with him and starts experiencing feelings for him because she finds out he honestly regrets having to fight her father....but on the other hand, she also has Mark who is a family friend that's in love with her supposedly (but he basically ends up with somebody else at the end...yeah that didn't make sense) and she's confused about who she should choose to be with.****SPOILER****I thought that using the avatar at the end to fight in the battle in Lyn's place was completely ridiculous. C'mon and actually fight if it honestly mattered that much to you to petition the GSA to truly allow this spar. Lyn essentially uses her avatar as her scapegoat. I wanted to see her really fight and stand up for her beliefs in a passionate manner but this allowed her an easy out and was disconcerting to say the least.Also, what was up with her brother's predictions? I didn't understand why that was necessary at all in the story. And how is it even realistic or possible? If there was a reason why he had the predictions or an overall outcome to them that led to the culmination of the book, than that would have been understandable, but frankly this random idea clogged up the story to me and was completely unrelatable and irrelevant to the point that was trying to be made.The only part of this story I truthfully enjoyed was the existence of the feminist beliefs that some of the characters in the story took up. Lyn was only tolerable at those points in the book when she wanted to take up the symbol of hope for the women in the Glad- society and point them in a new direction away from being submissive and controlled Gladiator wives. I love books that stand up for these kinds of ideals and that was literally one of the only reasons I didn't give this book 2 stars instead of 3.I expected more than I received from this novel :/
    • 3/5
      I've been wanting to read this one. It looked to have an interesting premise- not quite dystopian, rather set in modern times with a few twists. Gladiator competitions have become a major sport, just like football or hockey, only in Gladiator sports, the opponents in the arena fight to the death. Not really all that far fetched. We are a vile, violent race on the whole and I can think of a handful of people, just of my acquaintance who would happily put on their beer guzzling helmets and wave their giant foam fingers while two people hack each other to bits in the name of entertainment. If you look at it like that it's only slightly less civilized than football, and perhaps a bit more so than hockey :) I'd like to clear up that even though, when one sees the title, one could speculate that this is merely a Hunger Games wannabe, but it's not. There are countless differences and very few similarities. I think perhaps the biggest difference (and perhaps the biggest plus for this novel) is that Lyn's story is entirely believable. A big multimillion dollar entertainment corporation owns and operates a sports association, profiting from all the publicity, advertising and merchandising that goes along with it. The fight to the death- not so unbelievable. It's happened in the past, and it happens today in other less demonstrative forms. I liked that. Lyn and her family lived in the suburbs, owned lots of needlessly high-tech, futuristic gadgets (just as we do and will), she went to high school and so on. I could really get into the story because for the most part, it's stuff I've seen first hand and could picture it. Except for the killing part. I got a kick out of all the Gladiator culture, with its idiotic rules and regulations, and its people who believe in it wholeheartedly. It reminded me a lot of a religious cult and it was just as ridiculous. I wasn't sold on the writing; it was rather flat. When I read I like to mark (yes by dogearing the bottom corner of the page) specific passages where the writing stands out to me, or if there's a quote that I know I want to share. I didn't find any memorable examples in this book and I was less than impressed by the fact that it took over 3/4 of the book to get to the point. When it finally did arrive at the "big event", it was rather anticlimactic. I was really hoping for a good fight. Kudos for shamelessly writing some really gross stuff- dismemberment and suicide and humans trampling humans. And even though I shouldn't have been, I was very much team Uber.
    • 3/5
      Borrowed this from my daughter when she bought it home from the school library. An interesting story which grabs the imagination - the world as we know it but a world which has embraced gladiator sport - often to the death. A world where there are professional gladiators but also where those on death row or those with terminal illnesses can petition to be allowed to fight (and probably die). The story follows Lyn, the "daughter of seven gladiators" who chooses to fight in the Arena rather than enter a marriage she is not ready for. The ending is not predictable but it does feel rushed and it is very weak. Other than that this young adult book is enjoyable and makes quite a few points about the culture of celebrity in which we currently live - and I can already see the movie version in my mind!
    • 4/5
      Okay so first, I must admit, I am a sucker for being drawn to a book by its cover, and this was enough to interest me! I love the long hair, and I love the crouching position, almost mysterious.On to the story. I like that Lyn is a strong heroine, and that she questions the standing rules and expectations. Her and the supporting characters are all well written and believable. She is questioning but she also has pride for Tommy- she is torn! I just feel for her in dealing with all of these men into and out of her life in such a tragic way, dealing with a difficult mother and a special needs brother. Luckily she does have her friend Mark and his family.For the title and subject matter, I did expect more action, but the story was well paced regardless. I wish there was about 75 more pages to better explore the ending. I also wish that Uber would have been explored a little more, and the chemistry between them even though Lyn, understandably, does not want to be forced into marriage. I love the unexpected and it sure is with him-- a hulking gladiator hero that is near blind and has a soft spot.. aww.
    • 3/5
      I have really conflicted feelings about this book. I was expecting some cheap Hunger Games rip-off, but it wasn't like that at all. This book is about Lyn, who has had seven gladiator fathers, due to her mothers career as a Glad wife. As a substitute to war, and entire Glad culture has arose, blood sport being just as common as football. Lyn's life is ruled by bylaws put forth by the Gladiator Sports Association. It is these bylaws that say she is required, through a chain of unfortunate events, to marry Uber, the warrior who defeated her seventh father in the arena. Rather than give in to these demands, she proposes an alternative: fighting him in the arena. Initially, I thought I wasn't going to like this. At first it was because I thought it was a rip-off. Then it was because the writing and formatting was odd and distracting. And then it was because I realized that the action would be slow-coming. But then, about half-way through the book, I realized I kinda liked it. Lyn, the narrator was endearing, and the writing was starting to grow on me. I stopped with the exectations and just went with the flow. By the end, I didn't hate it as much as I did to start with. The writing is not typical of a young-adult book, and that threw me off for a while. I appreciated that the author was doing something different. And I shall warn everyone right now, this book has no quotation marks. This drove me insane to begin with, and I was frustrated with the author. I mean, why couldn't she use quotation marks like a normal author? But in no time, I didn't even realize the difference. I liked Lyn. She was endearing. She wasn't a Mary Sue, yet she wasn't a stereotypical bad-ass robot. I understood her motives. But I did not understand her brother. Her little brother, who is autistic, is also supposedly a prophet/oracle. I thought this book was set in an alternative now. I don't get the whole mysticism thing. And I also didn't get how they had things like You Tube still, but also virtual living machines that can create a functioning virtual being. But I did like the whole history of GSA. That does seem odd enough to be true. Don't expect a hardcore thrilling action novel. Despite being about violence, this book had very little action. Lyn wasn't even in the arena until the final pages. I think this is misleading on the marketer's part. This book is way more contemplative than it sounds. I got bored in some places, but I was overall absorbed. I am still confused about my feeling for this book, so I apologize for the possible wishy-washiness of this review. I can see how some people hate it, some people love it. It's an odd little book.
    • 3/5
      This was a book that began with a lot of promise. The world, in which this story has been set is quite believable. The re-emergnece of organized gladitorial sport is an interesting idea. It doesn't seem that far-fetched givent he popularity of UFC and WWE. A step further, but not that big of a step.Anyway, the characters are somewhat interesting, but the story is predictable. The slight twist toward the end did not do enough considering the entire novel was building to that point.The ending was the weakest part of the novel. I finished reading with a sense of relief because the story was done. I didn't really want to know anything else about these characters.
    • 3/5
      This book was a lot different than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be in the future, not an alternate present time. I was also expecting more fighting from Lyn, but there really wasn't much. The writing style is strange. When a character talks, instead of putting "quotation marks around it", she uses -breaks. for example:Normal: "I'm reviewing Girl in the Arena," I said. "It's by Lise Haines."Different: -I'm reviewing Girl in the Arena, I said. -It's by Lise Haines.That took some getting used to, but once I did there really wasn't a problem.Despite an explanatory prologue and references throughout the book, I didn't really understand the way the Gladiator organization, Caesar's, worked. It was confusing in places, since I didn't fully understand how the rules and things worked.Okay, that was the bad, now here's the good. Haines did an excellent job with the characters. Lyn was relateable, and even the secondary characters felt real. The love that Lyn has for her brother was done very well, as was the relationship with her mother. The way the characters acted didn't feel forced or strange, and their emotions felt real. The action in it was clear and straightforward also. I wouldn't say that I loved this book, but it wasn't bad.
    • 3/5
      This is a novel with a moral in it. Enter the future or a futuristic world in which reality tv has created an association of gladiators and millions of tickets are sold to watch people fight.. to the death. (They also encourage spectators to kill each other.) Lyn is a gladiator's daughter. Her mother has married seven gladiators to be exact and after the death of the most recent one, Lyn is now in a fight with the Gladiator Association.. aka Cesar's. Cesar's controls every aspect of a gladiator's life and his wife's and his children's. They send the women to colleges on how to be a perfect wife. They tell you who to marry, what to wear, where to live. They care nothing for people and thrive on bloodshed because that is what sells the tickets. Cesar's is trying to force Lyn to marry the gladiator that killed her seventh "father" and Lyn wants to get herself and her lovable, strange oracle brother out of the Glad life forever. Lyn's mother commits the ultimate betrayal, leaving Lyn to make her own difficult choices. Lyn agrees to fight just one time in the arena in exchange for her and her brother's freedom. I lost a little respect here for her when she creates a "virtual girl" to fight in her place, but she does redeem herself. However, something awful happens in the arena that she must live with the rest of her life. I would have preferred more fighting, less drama. There was only one real fight scene with Lyn. However, the violence throughout the novel was surprising for a YA book. Teens today with their violent video games probably will not be phased tho. I did think the virtual reality or "life machine" was a bit ridiculous. Having tea with Jackie Kennedy? A bit much. This novel also gives a real nice look at what life is like with paparazzi following your every move.. May give some second thoughts to young girls thinking they want a famous lifestyle. It is not all it is cracked up to be. For ADULTS interested in female gladiator books, take a look at Gladiatrix
    • 2/5
      Fight club meets Gladiator would be a good description of this book. The story, set to feel like a graphic novel or comic book with sentence structure and character dialog, clips along at a pretty fast pace, ends abruptly and everything happens so fast it almost felt like skimming through a screenplay for a movie. In a dystopian future, blood sport streams live on global TV. Neo-gladiators are celebrities, and Lyn's mother Allison has made a career of marrying into gladiator stardom. But when Allison’s seventh husband Tommy is killed her career of trophy wife is up. Things are looking pretty bleak for Lyn as well, due to the fact that because of gladiator rules, she has to marry her last father's killer. Did I like this…..well, yes and no. Yes because I loved the concept of the story and it had the potential of a fierce thrill ride. No because the story gains no ground- depth isn’t fully reached with Lyn, or any of the characters due to the pace of the novel. I felt Haines never flushed Lyn out as a character or fully connected her to her decisions. The back and forth of her swaying emotions could be due to the fact that she suffers MUCH loss in the book, and is trapped in a society she longs to get out of. The book for the pace ran actually slow with all the build up and when we finally get to the end it’s so intense and so abrupt you feel like you’ve been cheated.
    • 3/5
      Lyn comes from a family of gladiators. In a future world, the arena fights of the Romans have been recreated as a from of entertainment. When her seventh dad is killed in the arena, Lyn has a choice: marry the person who murdered her dad or let her mother and younger special-needs brother be thrown out of their house. Always wanting to fight herself, Lyn comes up with a plan that may let her avoid either scenario.
    • 4/5
      you are immediately gripped by Lyn's courage - to support her unstable mother and care for her special needs brother - in this violent world of Gladiators that she was born into. The violence of the Glad lifestyle is the backdrop, a commentary on our society's preoccupation with suffering, pain and death. The real story is of a girl that takes matters into her own hands to save herself and her brother from the GSA, whose control of their lives seems to be out of control.
    • 5/5
      After his son died in Vietnam, one man started a back yard glatiator league to honor his memory. With safety gear and rubber-tipped swords, he never imagined that 30 years later glatiators – who now fight to the death in nationally televised events – would be celebrated celebrities, followed by the paparazzi. Lynie G. is the daughter of seven gladiators – her mother Allison likes her to say this, though, really, Tommy G., her current (step)father is the only one who has been a family man. In fact, Allison would love if Lyn would attend the local college for gladiator’s wives – but Lyn is uninterested in “glad” culture altogether. That is, until the day Tommy’s opponent Uber gets ahold of Lynie’s dowry bracelet, forcing her, by the gladiator bylaws, to marry him. But Lyn has other plans. She wants to fight for her honor. This gripping novel that follows an alternate U.S. history and highlights some of the more gruesome aspects of culture – both ancient and modern – is both beautiful and terrifying. With all the Greco-Roman influenced middle grades on the market, Girl in the Arena is a refreshing new take on the topic for teens.
    • 2/5
      I'm not sure where to start. I hate to be that person that totally bashes someone else's vision but here I go. This was one of the worst stories I have read. I was so disappointed. I don't know if it's because I expected this to be somewhat like [the Hunger Games] and it wasn't anything like it, but I struggled just to finish this. The pace was unbearably slow. There was a ton of backstory provided in the first 24 or so chapters. Despite the plethora of information provided about the characters I found them to be surprisingly flat. My favorite character was actually Thad, the mentally challenged younger brother who apparently due to a combination of his make-up and medication is able to predict the future. That doesn't say much for the story seeing that he is not even close to a main contributor to the story, although his prescence is always felt. Allison was annoying and unbelievable throughout. I found the development of the main plot to be introduced poorly. The whole storyline was quite unbelievable. I found myself waiting for the action to begin and it never did. The first interesting thing to happen that caused me to become engaged was on the second to last page of the entire book. All I can say is if you are looking for an action packed story this is not your book, AT ALL. If you are into the slow developing coming of age-type protagonist who figures out who she is along the way then maybe you will enjoy this. I hope there isn't any sequels to this.
    • 1/5
      I understand that this was given some good reviews but in my opinion, this book does not live up to them. I couldn't make it through the book! It was slow. It was boring. It had no real substance.
    • 2/5
      Lyn G. is the daughter of seven gladiators. Her beautiful mother, Allison, has made a career of sorts being married to Glads and lives and breathes according to the bylaws governing Glad wife and child behavior. Tommy G. is lucky husband number seven and has become more a father to Lyn and her younger brother Thad than any of her previous fathers. Tommy is also one of the best Glads in the business and now only has a few fights left before his contract is over with the Gladiator Sports Association. For his last bout, he's slated to face the rising-star Uber, a young Glad who is at the top of his game and who strangely enough, has the usually confident Tommy, Lyn, Allison and even Thad worried and obsessing over the outcome.As a Glad daughter, Lyn feels trapped in a life she has no control over and suffocated by a mother who only wants her to make the same choices she did. But Lyn is fiercely independent and of all things a pacifist(!) and would like nothing better than to take her family away from all the violence and the prying eyes of the media. Especially her mentally handicapped brother Thad who often makes surprisingly accurate but oh so creepy predictions but who she would do anything for. Including stepping into the one place she hates more than any other - the arena - for the chance to fight for their freedom from the GSA once and for all.Part social commentary, part dystopian fantasy Girl in the Arena portrays an America that isn't too far off by any stretch of the imagination. Chuck Palahniuk-esque fight clubs controlled by the all too powerful GSA abound and achieve higher ranking than even the NFL Over them all (and the bane of Lyn's existence) hangs the persistent, malicious media and paparazzi who make the Glad way of life impossible to escape.Lisa Haines' book is full of convoluted twists while oozing daring and character upon character that fairly leap off the pages. I do wish there had been more action scenes involving Lyn and clearer descriptions for some of the aspects of Glad culture which were a little murky but I have to look beyond them both in the face of the brilliance of Lyn's story. Against the powerful GSA and her daunting family she's honest, she's loyal and she's so freaking tough - no wonder she had Uber walking on eggshells most of the time. Parts of the action in Girl in the Arena completely broadsided me (just like it does Lyn) and all I could do was hang on, trusting Lyn to make sense of it all. I think what ultimately made me love Lyn to pieces however was her constant maneuvering of her brother, herself, her friend Mark, and even Uber in a such way to achieve some semblance of happiness for them all.