Knock Out
A lively thriller featuring a tough amateur boxer, Knock Out is about friendship, survival, and determination.
In Jaden Noble’s inspiring novel Knock Out, a woman who is desperate to escape her violent past must outwit a malicious blackmailer.
When she is thirteen years old, Zena is left homeless after escaping her abusive father, Ralph, who had planned an arranged marriage for her. Matt, a gym owner in rural Canada whose daughter was killed by a gang leader, offers her a room in exchange for cleaning up the property. Zena and Matt bond over their troubled pasts, and Zena takes up boxing under his tutelage.
Years in the future, Zena is an amateur boxer and university student. A girl who picks a fight with her at school proves to be a worthy foil and reveals a major twist, but Zena also benefits from a close circle of friends and from Matt’s continued support. Her boxing abilities propel her into a novice match that garners newspaper publicity. She still worries that her father will find out where she is, though. When someone begins extorting her in exchange for their silence, Zena fights to keep her life intact. With the help of a hacker, Zena closes in on her tormentor, even as Ralph draws closer.
Zena is a sympathetic heroine with tangible reasons for her trust issues. Her love of boxing is well conveyed across several intense fight scenes. A rewarding activity, it’s about more than just the ability to defend herself: “I don’t see boxing as conflict; I see it as confidence and strength. Two things I have been searching for.”
The book’s flashbacks are set off with boxing glove icons but are otherwise ill-distinguished. Indeed, the narrative is jumpy and nonlinear, diminishing its suspense. It weaves between the past and the present with abandon, encompassing both Zena’s traumatic childhood memories and her present life. Grammatical and typographical errors also mar it.
In the end, the central conflict is backed into rather than presented head-on: The blackmail scheme is kept vague until multiple unwieldy flashbacks hint at Zena’s dilemma. The story is also complicated by the emergence of a secret that could change Zena’s life for the better. Still, as it moves toward Zena’s inevitable clashes with her blackmailer and with Ralph, the book holds attention.
In the thrilling novel Knock Out, a hurt girl becomes a fighter, rises above her pain, and faces down her abusers.
Reviewed by
Peggy Kurkowski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
