"On the Devil's Court" By Carl Deuker

The book “on the devils court” is written by Carl Deuker about a teen who loves basketball more than anything. His father is a very famous scientist who has very high academic expectations for his son Joe. Joe, a redheaded basketball nut has little desire to be as great as his father is, as his father expects him. When Joe is feeling very trapped in his life he went to an old abandoned gym to play his favorite sport and made a deal with the devil asking for a perfect season in trade for his soul. Mysterious and coincidental things started happening to Joe in this extremely thrilling sports novel.

I liked this book for a lot of reasons, one being I love reading sports novels. It puts a certain energy in the book to want to keep reading the book for as long as possible. I love the thrill of a great author describing a crystal clear verbal description of the game or practice. He is an incredibly smart and talented author, and I love to read all of his books. Although this is a miraculous book, I did not like the fact that the book left you hanging with a lot of unanswered questions.

“My heart was racing. I heard a clap of thunder and raindrops pounded on the metal roof. The gym grew darker and a strange mist seemed to fill it. An eerie thought came to me: the mist somehow held the devil. I didn't want to fall under its spell so I dribbled once and took a jump shot. It was so perfect that the spin on the ball carried it right back into my hands. I shot again and back the ball came. A third . . . then a fourth . . . I knew it couldn't be just me shooting . . . With each shot the mist thickened . . . A seventh, and eighth . . . It was an incredible feeling, to be able to do it all so effortlessly. I think that's why I made the vow.” (161)