Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein Review ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ | A Moving Sister Story That Needed an Editor ✂️⚽
There are books you savor... and then there are books you accidentally speedread because your eyes start skipping paragraphs about soccer drills. 😅
Spectacular Things falls firmly into the second category for me.
Don't get me wrong—I liked the heart of this novel. The relationship between the sisters kept me invested from beginning to end. But wow... this book just keeps going. And going. And going. And if I never have to read another detailed soccer practice, I think I'll be okay. 😂
⚠️ Spoiler Warning! ⚠️
🚨 This review contains FULL SPOILERS, including the ending. If you haven't read Spectacular Things yet, this is your chance to back out!
📚 Trigger Warnings
Death of a parent
Pregnancy complications
Kidney failure & dialysis
Organ donation
Child sexual abuse (past)
Grooming
Child abuse
Bullying
Addiction
Pregnancy loss
Grief
Illness
Medical procedures
Sexual harassment
Strong language
⭐ My Rating: 3/5 Stars
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📖 Plot Summary (Full Spoilers)
The novel follows Mia Lowe and her younger sister Cricket, whose lives are shaped by soccer, sacrifice, and the enormous bond they share.
Their mother, Liz, was an extraordinary soccer player whose promising future ended when she became pregnant as a teenager. Years later it's revealed that the girls' father was actually Liz's high school soccer coach, who preyed upon her while she was still a student. That revelation completely changes how Mia views her mother's past.
Liz raises both daughters on her own in Maine, encouraging their love of soccer. Mia becomes almost a second parent to Cricket after Liz works multiple jobs to support Cricket's increasingly elite soccer career.
Everything changes when Liz dies in a car accident. Mia drops out of Yale to raise Cricket, sacrificing her own future so Cricket can continue chasing the dream their mother once had.
Years later, Cricket becomes an elite professional goalkeeper and eventually earns a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, while Mia marries Oliver and becomes pregnant after years of trying.
But shortly after giving birth, Mia suffers catastrophic blood loss that destroys her kidneys. She begins dialysis while waiting for a transplant.
The obvious donor is Cricket.
Unfortunately, donating a kidney would almost certainly end Cricket's professional soccer career.
Instead of giving Mia an answer, Cricket simply... leaves.
Six months pass without speaking.
Both sisters become miserable.
Eventually Mia collapses during one of Cricket's games and is rushed to the hospital. Cricket finally realizes she cannot lose her sister and decides to donate her kidney.
The transplant succeeds.
Meanwhile Cricket reconciles with her longtime rival Sloane Jackson, realizes she's in love with her, and the two eventually marry.
The novel ends three years later with Sloane playing goalkeeper in the Women's World Cup Final while Cricket, no longer playing professionally, serves as an assistant coach after giving up her career to save her sister.
It's a bittersweet ending built around love, sacrifice, and choosing family over personal ambition. ❤️
💭 My Thoughts
This is one of those books where I really liked the core story, but I kept wishing someone had taken a red pen to about 150 pages.
Seriously.
This book just... goes... on... and... on... 😅
There is SO MUCH soccer.
Practice.
Training.
Games.
More practice.
More training.
More soccer.
Even if you're a soccer fan, I honestly think there comes a point where it's information overload.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting there like:
"Yes yes, they're kicking the ball again... can we get back to the family drama?" 😂
Because that's where this book shines.
❤️ The Sister Relationship Was the Best Part
I always find myself drawn to books about siblings.
Probably because I don't have one.
Books are basically how I experience sibling relationships, and I always hope they'll teach me something about what that bond is like.
This one definitely did.
The relationship between Mia and Cricket isn't perfect. It's messy, complicated, frustrating, loving, heartbreaking... all at once.
Those emotional moments absolutely worked for me.
I felt sadness.
Hope.
Joy.
Frustration.
The emotional side of the novel kept me turning pages.
😬 Some Character Choices Really Frustrated Me
This is where I wanted to climb into the pages and start giving everyone life advice. 😂
I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it:
We'd all be a lot happier if we simply learned to be happy for other people's success.
Take Cricket and Sloane.
Cricket gets angry because Sloane succeeds.
And I'm sitting there thinking...
"Isn't this your friend?? Shouldn't you WANT your friend to succeed?"
Yes, I understand jealousy.
I understand disappointment.
It's hard watching someone else achieve the thing you desperately want.
But part of growing up is learning that someone else's success isn't your failure.
That lesson never gets old.
🤔 The Kidney Conflict
Then there's Mia.
I understood why she was hurt.
She sacrificed so much for Cricket growing up.
But I struggled with how angry she became over the kidney.
Donating a kidney isn't like lending someone your lawn mower.
This would permanently change Cricket's body and almost certainly end the career she'd spent her entire life building.
That's... a huge ask.
I kept wishing everyone would slow down for a second.
See if another donor could be found first.
Explore every option.
Only then ask Cricket to make such an impossible decision.
Instead, emotions escalated so quickly that I found myself sympathizing with both sisters.
🤨 One Scene Made Me Raise an Eyebrow...
The day before Mia's transplant...
...she decides to do a polar plunge in memory of their mother.
Now, I'm not a doctor.
But if you're on dialysis and scheduled for major transplant surgery tomorrow...
jumping into freezing cold water seems like a spectacularly questionable life choice. 😅
Maybe someone in medicine can tell me this is perfectly fine.
It just felt... odd.
🎯 Final Thoughts
Despite my complaints, I flew through this book.
The emotional story kept pulling me forward, even when the soccer scenes threatened to put me into extra time. ⚽😂
I loved the exploration of sacrifice, family, grief, and ambition.
I just think it would've been an even stronger novel with a tighter edit and a little less time spent describing soccer.
Still, if you're someone who loves emotionally driven family stories—especially stories about sisters—there's a lot here to appreciate.
📚 If You Enjoyed Spectacular Things, Try These
❤️ Hello Beautiful — Ann Napolitano
❤️ The Most Fun We Ever Had — Claire Lombardo
❤️ The Dutch House — Ann Patchett
❤️ Little Fires Everywhere — Celeste Ng
❤️ The Paper Palace — Miranda Cowley Heller
❤️ Remarkably Bright Creatures — Shelby Van Pelt
⭐ Final Rating
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5 stars)
A heartfelt story about two sisters whose love for each other survives grief, ambition, and impossible choices. I just wish someone had benched about a hundred pages of soccer. ⚽📖
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