Escape and Reverse

by Chelsey Johnson

High school wrestler Jake Persson is living on vitamins and diet Mountain Dew as he fights to make weight at the height of championship season. In the small mining town in northern Minnesota's Iron Range where Jake lives, this is the most exciting thing that has happened in years. During his last meet, Jake confronts his future and the unnerving sense that his own body and desires are starting to betray him. Chelsey Johnson writes a gripping story about hunger, control, and wrestling down desire.

Genres: Sports, Short Stories, Queer, LGBT

41 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 27, 2012

About the author

Chelsey Johnson is the author of the Stray City (Custom House/HarperCollins, 2018) and her stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Ninth Letter, The Rumpus, and NPR's Selected Shorts, among others. She received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford. Stray City is her first novel.

Reviews

[ReadAlongWithSue recovering from a stroke★⋆. ࿐࿔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story. A coming of age story where the youth has many mixed emotions. Yes, growing up is like that any way. But this young person has more dilemmas than some which has to come to terms with.

He suppresses his food and his sexuality.

I’m a great believer in that no one, not anyone should make a person feel bad about themselves. To accept a person for WHO they are and WHAT they are.

I’ve been gravitating to YA on occasion and there are some really well written books for youth. This is one of them.

3.5 stars from me. Enjoyable read

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this short story - it includes sensual and lush descriptions intermixed with the cutting and painful realities of adolescence. I wish I could read more about Jake and his challenges, ranging from the repression of his food intake to the suppression of his sexuality. Highly recommended for those who want a unique coming of age story.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the post apocolyptic light of the "fifty shades of grey" phenomenon, this story was a true relief. Jake's tale is full of forbidden desires that have nothing to do with a "red room of pain", but with emotional needs so thick you can lap them off the page. His needs and frustrations gripped me, I was him, I was starving and scared and needy. This story really takes you there.

[V.S. Kemanis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story stayed with me for days afterward. The characterization and language are vivid and the pain of adolescence is very poignantly portrayed. We see the subtleties in human behavior that Jake does not yet understand and we see where he is going before he gets there, yet we experience it all intensely through his eyes and from his point of view every step of the way.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no other high school wrestling story necessary. This is the best one possible.