Well WOW/YIKES ... there was a LOT in here. I think I was expecting a teen sports drama with a little bit of "ouch" (ala [book:Swagger|17165938]. So um ... TRIGGER warning check if you've got them (here race/n-word also, foster system, child abuse - emotional and physical, animal death, child death, drug abuse, bullying). Honestly, it was perhaps too much? Maybe I've just had a sheltered life, but it just seemed a little much that everyone had just a sad story to tell. 

While this is more YA, and still might be too much for some bookclubs, there would be a TON for discussion here. 

It felt a little like "The Outsiders" and "The Breakfast Club" ... in fact (regarding the latter) there was a little recap of their group that not the same, felt familiar "we have one swimmer of color, a representative from each extreme of the educational spectrum, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a one-legged psychopath). They are ...

TJ: black, born into neglect/abuse, adopted by white couple. Big guy, but refuses to get into sports despite pressure to play. Doesn't like being told what to do. 
Chris Coughlin: mainstreamed special-ed, crack baby, further abuse/brain damage.
Tay-Roy: into music (school productions, band, choir) and body building
Dan Hole: Intellectual "never-use-a-single-syllable-when-polysllables-are-available"
Simon: 300 pound big fellow
Jackie Craig: Nondescript/team ghost "oh silent one" (may or may not have a voice box)
Andy Mott: junior, psychopath ... lost a leg when young

First person (POV of TJ), present tense ... although there were a couple small shifts to past tense for some memories. Sex is mentioned (it happens) but nothing explicit, proFanity (x13)

I liked the overall story a lot ...  Chris is bullied for wearing his dead brother's letter jacket (one of the cover images shows a kid in a letter jacket running, I assume that's the Chris reference) because he didn't EARN it and thems the rules so say the jocks. TJ decides it would be great to get a group of "outsiders" who DO actually earn jackets ... wouldn't that be great? He pulls together a "swim team" and they work really hard for it, friendships formed, etc ... trials and tribulations ... oh so many!

SPOILERS

Tj's early life is super sad, and he still struggles with racism in the almost all white town. His adoptive parents are both very involved in the child protective systems and have so many sad stories of their own - the father's is awful. Chris was born addicted, and then had his face wrapped in saran wrap to stop his crying ... stopped his breathing, resulting in brain damage. He had a popular/successful older brother ... who died in an accident. There is a bully who not only abuses Chris, but girls at the school as well. A horrible guy in town - poaches a baby deer after killing the mother (at least that was legal, they had a tag), beats up TJ for intervening, abuses his half-black adoptive daughter (n-word and more) ... and in the end ... wasn't really expecting that, comes at everyone with a gun, going to take out Heidi as that would hurt many, but TJ's dad gets in the way. Mott ... how he lost his leg is horrendous (as well as some of the other stories featuring the same perpetrator).  On a much more minor scale, just the treatment of the team by the school authorities (not wanting them to get letter jackets, because it doesn't represent).

There was some humor to break things up some ... "You know how he don't say much? Well, he was sayin' less than that"  ... and a whole scene where on of the boys was using another's picture to catfish (I know that, not cool and not funny, but the situation here was pretty hilarious). 

There were some sweet life lessons and good relationships too. One quote "no matter what you know, it doesn't always alter how you feel" ... too true. I think I need to re-read the section tying in the "whale talk" title, and TJ's father's discussion with him about judging the actions of others. Pretty profound.

Older book, I had no trouble getting both the audiobook and kindle copy from the library.