Stevie‘s review of The First Move by Jenny Ireland
Young Adult Romance published by Penguin 13 Apr 23
I played a fair bit of chess as a teenager, although it was one of those hobbies that lost out to new interests when I went to university. I dabbled in online board games in lockdown and could see why other people enjoyed the challenge, but it always felt too slow compared to the in-person version, especially given that I was playing against people who are sociable in 3D but less so over email. And that’s a rather lengthy explanation of why this book interested me. Beyond the heroine with disabilities part of the blurb, obviously.
Juliet was an outgoing girl before becoming unwell with what was later diagnosed as a rare form of progressive arthritis. The disease makes her insecure about her appearance and causes her to miss school for painful treatment sessions, as well as restricting her social life due to the pain and fatigue that she experiences. Meanwhile, Juliet’s mother feels guilty about her daughter’s issues and buys her expensive gifts, mostly clothes that reveal more than Juliet is happy to show. Returning to school after the summer, Juliet worries what people will think of her, now that she is using a cane to walk, but is also intrigued by new boy Ronan, who has transferred from another local school.
Ronan was taught to play chess by his older brother, who was a talented player before getting in with the wrong crowd – some of whom were originally Ronan’s friends – and throwing away his future. Ronan hopes that changing schools will enable him to put his past behind him, and allow him more time to help his mother deal with her grief and denial over what happened. Having distanced himself from his former friends, Ronan seeks company in an online chess community, where he coincidentally finds himself playing against Juliet, though neither of them realises who the other is initially.
When not playing chess online, Ronan and Juliet are determined to act like normal teenagers, dating their classmates and going to parties. Juliet resents the time Ronan spends with one of her friends, little realising that Ronan has uncovered family secrets that Juliet’s friend had managed to keep hidden from her. Ronan is genuinely interested in people, even while covering up his own family’s dysfunction, and this is shown in the contrast between his support of Juliet’s disabilities and his willingness to learn more in order to better help her, and the callous lack of interest shown by other boys that Juliet tries dating.
Both the central characters, as well as various of their friends, develop as people through the course of this book, with Juliet in particular learning to look beyond her own issues and see what’s really behind the supposedly perfect lives of those around her.
This book showed a lot of promise as a debut novel, and I’m keen to see more from the author.
Grade: B
Summary:
Juliet believes girls like her – girls with arthritis – don’t get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends’ social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn’t just ‘the girl with crutches’.
Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape.
Juliet thinks Ronan thinks someone like Ronan could never be interested in someone like her – and she wouldn’t want him to be anyway – he always acts like he’s cooler than everyone else.
Little do they know they’ve already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think…
Read an excerpt.
