Reviews

Fascinating and chilling. In meticulous detail, John Branch creates a blood-drenched parable for the hidden human toll of sports violence staged for our entertainment. The rise and fall of Derek Boogaard--quintessential NHL goon--is unlike any sports biography you will ever read., [Boy on Ice] highlights the unique power that careful journalism, combined with the unique lens a curious outsider brings to a culture, can add to a story that is already powerful on its own., As tense and exciting as a hockey game... captur[ing] the sorrow and anguish of a young athlete's career... and ask[ing] piercing questions about violence in sports., Punch by punch, pill by pill, the dread mounts in John Branch's brilliantly reported account of Derek Boogaard, a modern-day gladiator who gave everything for a career in hockey, not least of all his hauntingly short and quietly kind life., Branch captures the sorrow and anguish of a young athlete's career collapsing...and asks piercing questions about violence in sports., Anything written by John Branch is a compelling must-read. Boy on Ice is transcendent and riveting and his best work yet., Devastating... Heartbreaking because it shows us, in tender detail, a life consumed by our unholy appetites... Boy on Ice is a startling indictment of the groupthink that prevails within America's vast athletic industrial complex., A heartbreaking examination of a young man's life destroyed by the sport he loved. Highly recommended., Boy on Ice is a beautifully written and haunting journey into the jagged psychology of the modern athlete. It compels fans to examine their own roles in the spectacle and reminds us in often brutal terms that for our sports heroes, the real struggles take place far beyond the ice or the field of play.