The Kings Are Already Here

by Garret Weyr, also Freymann-Weyr, Garret Freymann-Weyre

Phebe Knight has always wanted to be a ballerina. But now, one year away from joining the Company, her mind begins to wander. To clear her head, she decides to visit her father, who lives in Switzerland. There, she meets Nikolai Kotalev, a teenage chess champion, who is looking for the legendary Stas Vlajnik, the teacher who will show him how to be a grand master capable of both grace and speed. Phebe organizes a search across Europe to help Nikolai find the elusive Stas. And all the while, Phebe and Nikolai study each others' obsessions to find the lives they want. What are they each willing to pay for perfection and beauty?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Teen, Realistic Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2003

About the author

Garret Freymann-Weyr (rhymes with 'I'm on fire") is a novelist and teacher whose seven books have been banned, translated into a multitude of languages, and included in college curricula. She is a Printz honor award recipient and her short stories have been published in the Greensboro Review, the now sadly missed Christopher Street, and the anthology Starry Eyed. Her next book will be published under the name Garret Weyr (Divorce. Painful. Don't ask.)

She is a native of New York City and now lives with a large cat and a sweet dog. She reads too much, drinks too much tea, and loves listening to readers talk about their passions. She is studying Spanish. Has anyone else read "Buenas Noches, Luna?"

Reviews

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The nice cover (a chess king beside the figure of a graceful ballet dancer), the fact that it is hardbound, cheap and with the killer blurb--

"When the obsessive worlds of chess and ballet collide, they illuminate each other and transform two lives."

made me buy this book. But it was youth and mediocrity which I found colliding here, illuminating my mind and making me realize that not all books with chess in it deserve five stars.

The author, perhaps too lazy to do research, could not even get her chess right. Describing how a game is won, she writes:

"The pieces all move according to their own rulles and have different point values. The winner is the person who, finally, either checkmates the other king or winds up with more points on the board."

Wrong. There's no such thing as winning a game of chess on points (unlike, say, in boxing). You win a game when any of the following occurs:

a. when your opponent does not show up for a scheduled official tournament game;
b. when he dies or becomes incapacitated during an unfinished game;
c. when he resigns (seeing that if the game continues you will be able to checkmate his king in the end);
d. when you checkmate his king; and
e. when your opponent's time runs out.

Then the unbelievably insipid prose! some portions look like diary entries of a five-year-old:

"Jasper ignores everyone but Nikolai. Nikolai follows Jasper everywhere. How nice they have each other."

Or:

"I don't believe in God or anything like that, but someone is in this building. Someone besides me and the people visible to my eye."

Oh, what I do for the love of chess

[JL Salty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think i was expecting more story. This seems more... ethereal? Above it all? Which I suppose for ballet and chess, two super competitive worlds that sometimes seem very separate from the real world, makes sense.

Phebe’s decision made me sad, somehow, she did not go into it with joy, as I wanted for her.

Honestly, I think this is not a YA book. It feels more adult to me, even tho’ the characters are teens. Their thought processes and decisions are detached, somehow.

I finished this with a vague feeling of discontent.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book a looooong time ago from Emery and just dug it up from my mother’s house in my search for short books to read before the end of the year.

I love the dynamic in this book. There’s a chess player and a ballerina – two professions you wouldn’t consider very similar – but the book plays up their similarities and differences and makes you realize that it could have, almost as easily, been about any two subjects that take intense concentration, talent, and practice to master.

I love the idea of this book. But I find it difficult to like the characters. None of them stuck out as particularly loveable to me. I didn’t like Phebe or Nikolai in particular, and Phebe’s parents weren’t much better. They were likeable enough, I suppose, but I didn’t feel a deep enough connection with either of them to actually love them.

It’s well written, the plot is a bit predictable, but interesting, and the theme is fascinating. But I need strong characters to really love a book.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting juxtaposition of themes—ballet and chess both used as vehicles to explore passion and grace and skill and talent and calling and the question of what constitutes success. It ends up being far more about chess, as Phebe is trying to figure out whether it's time to make a graceful exit from the ballet world and has largely ceased to care; Nikolai, meanwhile, is entirely consumed by his devotion to chess.

Not as engaging to me as I would have hoped, though I'm not sure if that's due to the heavy emphasis on chess (my interest is limited) or because I didn't connect terribly well with the characters. They're all a bit lost in their own worlds, and although Phebe in particular makes an effort to visit others' world, for the most part their focus remains pretty firm. I'm left wondering who they are outside their passions, and if indeed they could be separated from said passions.

[Kricket · Rating 3 out of 5]

phebe is a dancer trying to decide if she wants to dedicate her life to ballet. nicolai is a chess-player, escaped from his tyrannical father but abandoned by the teacher who promised to help him. phebe comes to geneva to spend the summer with her father, who is acting as something of a guardian to nicolai. they both must consider what it means to give their lives over to these singular passions, if chess and ballet are really what they believe in above all else.

ehh. 2.5 stars rounded up. freymann-weyr writes so beautifully, and each sentence is a lovely piece of art. but the actual story was so very, terribly boring. and kinda pretentious.

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, I think I liked this because there were adults taking teenagers seriously. There was also ballet, and while it was a pretty standard ballet plot (will she leave ballet or not?!) with no surprises as to where it led, it was done a bit differently than normal. By which I mean at least she didn't turn to modern dance, as so many other girls in ballet stories do. Overall, I thought the characters and their interactions with each other were quite interesting, and I liked the thought processes that the author explored.

[Meaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I thought the plot was very original, I had a lot of problems with this book. Both narrators' voices sounded the same to me, and I found it hard to grasp the reasoning behind their actions. I’m also not really clear on just when this book was set—sometime during the Cold War I think, but during the sixties, the seventies, what? This was, however, an intriguing glimpse on the inside of both chess and ballet.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the only reason I liked this book was because of the ballet theme. It wasn't a bad book, but the mystery/suspense part of it didn't really grab me. I guess, in addition to the ballet, the book's saving grace was the well-developed main characters, although I'm not sure how believable some of their behavior was.

[elissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My least favorite of her 4 books, but it's still very good. Since her most recent book is my favorite, I'm expecting more very good books from this author. There is a lot of interesting thinking in KINGS, but not quite as interesting a story. I'd probably give this 3 1/2 stars if I could, but I'm rounding up.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a bad book, the writing is pretty good but I guess it just wasn't for me. The main topic is chess and even though that didn't totally put me off, it wasn't very interesting either.
I highly recommend My Heartbeat by the author, I liked that one a lot more.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid book. Chess-playing boy and ballet-dancing girl tell parallel stories to good effect. Freymann-Weyr can really get inside the heads of the serious kids, and make a compelling story out of what she finds there.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took a few tries to get into, but once into it, Freymann-Weyr delivers as always. Interesting characters, lovely dialogue, good story.

[Alexa Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quiet book about two rather European pursuits: ballet and chess. Explores the author's usual themes of far-flung families and pursuing your individual talents. Good but not great.

[Debrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very formal piece about two serious (and seriously scheduled & determined) youngsters, a ballet dancer & a chess player. Okay, not all that engaging. Too much in the head, I thought.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious. I never saw a reason to care about either character.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot seemed slightly lacking, but I found the characters and lots of the lines very intriguing.