Name: One on One
ISBN: 9780451179814

Tabitha King

Two high school students--Sam, a born leader, and Deanie, a rebel--fall in love, in a bittersweet coming-of-age story set in a rural town in western Maine

One on One

b.andherbooks

Basketball superstar of a State Champion winning team decides to make sure the girls' team also wins a State Title but ends up lusting over (and loving) a girl called "The Mutant." Deannie, "The Mutant," comes from an awful family. Her step-dad verbally, physically, and sexually abuses her, her mother is in a drug-addled stupor, and she barely has enough to eat. She doesn't trust that Sam actually might like her, nose ring, face chains, tattoos, and all. 

This book made me uncomfortable, but I think in a good way. VERY sexual, but not really in a sexy way, and very frank. Deannie was used to sex as a means to end, a punishment, something to check out during. Sam wants to please her (good for him). A lot of this book deals with sex, a lot with basketball, and a lot about family. This book made me think of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, but a far uglier and grittier version of that tale. 

A bit overly long with an anti-climatic ending for me, but still an intriguing read and a great example of an adult book that would probably be marketed as YA today (originally published in the 1990s).