What is your opinion?
Review
"Thoroughly enjoyed this. Being a wrestling mom and having experienced the ups and downs of this great sport I find that the author vividly depicted and caught the essence of a true champion wrestler. They don’t always worry about themselves but for their teammates. I’ve been at the Giant center and the shrill of the underdog winning is like nothing else. Thank you for writing about this great sport. . "
Feel Good Sports Story Revolving Around Niche Sport
"Near Fall is a wonderful "Feel Good" sports story akin to the Karate Kid or the Rocky movies focusing on the oft overlooked sport of Wrestling. The obvious comparison is the 1980's movie starring Linda Fiorentino and Matthew Modine (as the seminal wrestling hero - Louden Swain) "Vision Quest" that gives high school wrestling the bright spotlight it deserves. Rob "Coach Prebes" Prebish does an amazing job of capturing the fine nuances of high school wrestling and the many different characters that make up a team, such as intensely competitive and mentally dedicated main character David, freakishly energetic Booger and less talented, but equally driven Chad and Tom. The backdrop of the piece, set in rural Pennsylvania, is a perfect setting and gives the story a great sense of conflict between the suburban, well-off, and the rural, less affluent, characters. While the story focuses nearly exclusively on the culmination of the central storyline of the high school wrestling season, sub plots around girlfriend Andrea and her dysfunctional family and the difficult financial condition of David's parents as they strive to send him to college, give the story additional heart and focus above and beyond the wrestling action. As a former high school and college wrestler, I can honestly say that the descriptions of the challenges around weight loss, the struggles to prepare to compete, the anxiety leading up to a big match and the actual description of the wrestling action itself are all spot on - clearly the work of a competitor or coach that has had significant first hand knowledge and experience with this wonderful niche sport. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and appreciate Coach Prebes' treatment of and spotlight on it. It is a good quick read with the typical ups and downs of a classic sports story and a wholly satisfying end to what turns out to be an epic conflict of athletic desire and execution."
Loved it
"This is a really enjoyable story. I am glad I came across it and read it. You have set the scene in a really great manner and introduced the characters to the reader perfectly. I felt as if I was living their lives together with them and I followed them through their adventures. Nice job on making the reader care for the characters. I would suggest that you consider dividing certain parts in more paragraphs, especially at the beginning. That would make your story more readable and add to its flow. Other than that, everything is really nice and I have enjoyed it immensely."
You mdae me a believer
"I am captivated by this, right off the cuffs. The who, where, when and what was taken care of and I just wanted to delve in, I did, and totally loved it. A couple of draw-backs would be: a, A few more pronouns might have worked better instead of Dav… you know, him. And b, the chapter seemed a bit long, inkitt does have something in the guidelines about that, we wouldn't want to run into issues there. Over-all, this is destined to go places. Thank you."
Near Fall
"This was a wonderful story that I felt really captured the time and place of PA wrestling in the late 80's early 90's. Pennsylvania is the melting pot of wrestling and the story painted the picture very well. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of what practices where like, cutting weight, the anxiety and expectations of oneself. The author weaved into the story the emphasis of the town. Really setting the tone with the reader of how a cold dismal town in the middle of PA is a character in the story itself. The build up to states and the evolution of the characters was great. I thought the language was fine, but maybe a little bit to rigid as the characters spoke. Although it was very descriptive maybe more "plain talk" would be effective being they are teenagers. I felt the story moved at a good cadence and never dragged on in any area. My favorite parts were describing Hershey, the hotel, the crowds, the arena, the weigh ins. The last scene was great and I never thought David would pull out a move like that, and it sort of made me laugh. But great story, I really enjoyed it. I would love to read another adventure like this."
