We Ride Upon Sticks

A Novel

By: Quan Barry

Narrated by: Isabel Keating

"We Ride Upon Sticks . . . is for the kind of adults who watch Stranger Things and still have, somewhere, an athletic award inscribed on a paper plate." —NPR

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR • TIME • BOOK RIOT • LITHUB • KIRKUS REVIEWS

Acclaimed novelist Quan Barry delivers a tour de female force in this delightful novel. Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts, where the accusations began that led to the 1692 witch trials, We Ride Upon Sticks follows the 1989 Danvers High School Falcons field hockey team, who will do anything to make it to the state finals—even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. In chapters dense with 1980s iconography—from Heathers to "big hair"—Barry expertly weaves together the individual and collective progress of this enchanted team as they storm their way through an unforgettable season.

Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza (whose bleached blond “Claw” sees and knows all), the Falcons prove to be wily, original, and bold, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport and, more importantly, friendship.

©2020 Quan Barry (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

2021 ALEX AWARD WINNER

“In the great chasm that is 2020, this book was a huge bright spot for me . . . This was the shake-up and downright weird and nerdy book that put my reading back on track while quarantined.” —Cassie Gutman, Book Riot (“Best Books of 2020”)

“Psst. Hey you. Yeah, you. If you’re looking for a good time, call . . . your local bookstore and ask them to set aside a copy of Quan Barry’s We Ride Upon Sticks with your name on it. This novel, in which a high school field hockey team turns to the dark side (well, sort of) via a pledge penned in purple in an Emilio Estevez notebook (it’s the 80s), is almost too much fun to be allowed. I haven’t snickered so much reading a novel since I was a kid, but it’s not just slapstick, or the pure goofiness of the time period—the pleasure comes from Barry’s ludicrous, masterful sentences as much as it does from her ludicrous, over-the-top characters. Truly a delight in every way.” —Emily Temple, Lit Hub Senior Editor

A fun, easy ride.

This book is chock-full of nostalgia and quaint references. It's also a wonderful, collective retelling of teenage memories and the way they shape us. I'm surprised to see it's almost 15 hours because I felt like it flew by.

It's wonderful, lighthearted read if you're looking for something magical without the darkness. A great October read for sure.

The Modern Coven

Loved the story - takes a much different spin on the idea of witches, but was original and the characters were amazing

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

If Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens and Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires hooked up, they would have created this story of Chicks With Sticks. We Ride Upon Sticks is an 80’s spoof of girls field hockey, Emilio Estévez, Burn Books, witches, prom, and basic teenage debauchary. This book was REALLY FUN but it felt unnecessarily long. LOVED the 80’s musical references and nostalgic highlights 🙌🏻🎶❤️

Coming of age with a roar

I thought this was a YA novel at first, and perhaps it could be. Mostly it's just a fun romp through female coming of age in the late '80's, and these girls are roaring with the energy that can only be conjured by a group of girls focused on a purpose. It's fun seeing young women discovering and owning their power. Great if you like field hockey. And, oh yeah, witchcraft.

Field hockey+witchcraft = surprisingly enthralling

You know when you hear about a really weird food pairing and you think "what the holy aioli is this person's damage?" but you try it anyway (because you're nice and afraid of confrontation) and it's actually the best thing ever and all you ever want to eat or talk about ever again when you realize you've become the weirdo that you judged so harshly so now feel obligated to take a big bite of humble pie? That is the best way I can describe it. It's pineapple and olives on pizza.

Field! Field! Field!

HOCKEY! HOCKEY! HOCKEY!

This was a great story that was entertaining, had a message of team spirit, acceptance of differences, and the promise of what working together towards a goal can bring. It brought me back to my High School experience though I graduated in 84. And though I'm not from Massachusetts, I have family there and visit often, especially Salem/Danvers area. I loved everything about this story but I won't mention specifically because spoilers.

Fine story, not my cup of tea

DNF @ 51%

I went into this book with the wrong expectations. I was hoping for a dark and funny satire with either an imaginative fantasy or twisty is-it-or-isn’t-it plot. Instead this book cares a lot about field hockey, leans heavily on 80’s nostalgia and snark, and the plot is a light farce about teamwork and confidence. I wasn’t able to get deep enough into any character’s life to care about them, because as soon as things got close, the thread jumped to another character.

A perfect book

This book was funny, and smart . It hit all the points of bigotry and sexism that marked the lives of those who grew up in the USA in the 70s and 80s without anger or excuse, just a , recognition that we didn’t have the knowledge or compassion we have now for those who are different than ourselves. There is hope and and humor in these pages
I did laugh out loud and cheered for this team like a proud classmate!

Middle of the book was fun, hated the ending

Pros: The middle of the book was a fun, quirky coming of age story. I found the characters really enjoyable. The narrator did a good time differentiating between characters, if listening while doing other things, it is easy to know who is supposed to be speaking.

Cons: The first three hours of the book are slow, making it a bit hard to get into. The author sometimes discusses more serious topics like consent, race, sex but it’s often mentioned very briefly. I was left feeling unsure what the book was trying to say about these things exactly, this made me feel uncomfortable. The narrator has an accent I’m not very familiar with, some words were pronounced in ways I wasn’t used to which for some reason agitated me at times.

I honestly hated the ending and found it anti-climatic and very annoying. The end of the book starts to drag a bit then right as the big ending starts to happen, you’re jarringly ripped away to present day. The last hour of the book is spent with the team being about 50 years old. This ruined the world that had been built. I typically do like books where the end is all tied up and spelled out. This was too far for me though, I would have liked to speculate how the teams life turned out (and other side characters). I hated being told, it ruined the magic of them being teenagers on the brink of adulthood.

The rest of my review below spoils the entire ending of the book. I’m going to give more details on why I didn’t like the ending. Please don’t read if you don’t want to know the ending.

In addition to what was said above, I do have some more serious issues with how the book ended.

1. I hated how all of the women had super impressive prestigious six figure+ salary jobs (famous actress, weather woman, lead realtor of a fancy firm, wolf of Wall Street, doctor, college professor, owns successful business, famous YouTuber even though except for like Rhett and Link there are very few influencers that are 45+ etc). I know girl cory and her mum didn’t but being an ex WAG (I’m using the term loosely) is also unrealistic. I also feel the gave cory so many kids to “justify” her being a stay at home mom, when it’d be fine if she even had 1 kid.
2. I don’t understand what the book was trying to say about Mel having sex with a teacher. The plot seemed tropey. Also, I felt the take away was it is okay because they stayed together their whole life, are in love, have granbabies, and what’s the difference between her being 17 vs 18. Though then there was the brief mention of maybe teachers shouldn’t have sex with students due to power dynamics. Then the book starts taking about 12 year olds being jailed and having sex with Zach from Saved by the Bell. It was mentioned in a vague way like you should know what the authors talking about but I had no idea what she was referencing or what her point was. Also, the team laughs multiple times that they thought coach mullen was old not 24, I just found this odd.

Anyway, I don’t care if Mel was 17 or 18. There is a big mental difference between some who is in high school and lives with their parents vs someone who has finished college and has started their career. Also, teacher with student isn’t cool and they should have waited until graduation. Idk, I just feel the book normalized this is an unhealthy way.

I had more issues with the ending but feel that’d take too long to explain in detail. The ending just felt chaotic and like a let down to me.

Stroll down memory lane

I went to HS at this same time and knew girls on the field hockey team who could easily have been the inspiration for these characters. It’s a good book and I enjoyed it.