We Loved to Run
About the book
Author: Stephanie Reents
Publisher: Hogarth
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)
My review
I’m a hobby runner who loves to follow the niche sport of women’s pro running, so when I heard Hogarth was publishing a novel about a women’s college cross-country team, I was all in. I’m happy to report this was just what I hoped it would be: a poignant, intense examination of girlhood that uses the sport as a powerful means to its ends.
Told in multiple POVs — and even, regularly, in a sort of choral voice of the whole team — We Loved to Run shows us that for women, the emergence from childhood into early adulthood is both all about the women around us and also intensely individual and lonely (just like cross country). It’s about friendship (the support and the competition of it), perfectionism, and pretending you’re strong in the hopes it will become true. Be aware that there are some very heavy events and themes here, including eating disorders and sexual assault — but also, you can’t really have a book about girlhood on a college campus any other way.
You don’t need to be a runner or a fan of the sport to love this book, but if you are, you will love it even more.
Content and trigger warnings
Eating disorders
Body dysmorphia and fatphobia
Rape
Gaslighting
Alcoholism
