Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and his failure to make the basketball team in his new school, seventeen-year-old Joe Faust finds himself willing to trade his soul for one perfect season of basketball.

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Publishers Weekly Review

According to PW , this ``absorbing reworking of the Faustian legend has plenty of relevance for modern readers. Deuker skillfully blends gritty basketball action with well-rounded characters to create a vivid contemporary morality tale.'' Ages 12-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8-12 In a well-constructed juxtaposition, senior Joe Faust fears that, like the legendary Dr. Faustus, he has made an irrevocable pact with the devil. The only child of a famous geneticist and a sculptress, Joe feels inadequate except on the basketball court. When the family moves to Seattle, Joe is eager to experience the non-conformity of public school and the competition of Metro basketball, but his parents veto nearby Loyal High in favor of Eastside, an academic private school. Joe unleashes his frustrations in an abandoned gym where the devil he's read about in Doctor Faustus seems to inspire a series of perfect shots. Desperate for success and identity, Joe vows, ``Give me a full season, give me twenty-four games of this power, and my soul is yours.'' Joe becomes a superstar, but his uneasiness is heightened as he delves deeper into Dr. Faustus in his English class. Finally, when Joe wins the twenty-fifth game, he realizes that, ``The devil's workif he had done anywas over.'' For better or worse, Joe learns that he is the master of his fate. This well-paced first novel is a clever blend of family conflict, superstition, and exciting sports action. Adolescent readers will empathize with the mind games that Joe plays as he struggles for self-identity and independence; teachers will delight in the literary references and analogies; and librarians will praise this fine addition to sports fiction. Gerry Larson, Chewning Junior High School, Durham, N.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Uneasy after his family's move and increasingly burdened by his brilliant father's expectations, Joe Faust finds solace on the basketball court, where he meets Ross, a ``high-school Magic Johnson,'' who plays on the public school team Joe wants to join. Joe's dreams of playing public league ball come to an abrupt end, however (as does his relationship with Ross), when a tabloid reporter takes advantage of Joe's vulnerability to write a splashy article about his parents, and Ross is identified as one of a group of toughs that harasses Joe's family after the piece appears. With Joe's unhappiness spilling over onto the court, even success on his private school's team seems bleak. Although it doesn't take much to convince him that the shadowy, abandoned gym where he practices is a stop-off for the devil, he doesn't think a great deal about his shouted promise to trade in his soul for one good season-- at least not until his game, his grades, and his homelife suddenly begin to improve. Despite the strange circumstances of Joe's covenant and Deuker's continued references to Marlowe's classic drama of soul selling, readers will recognize much of Joe's devil as being his own lack of confidence and will understand that it is his hard work on the court and his attempt to make his feelings known to his father that improve his life. Skillful handling of sports details adds color and excitement to a rites-of-passage portrait in which elements of fantasy contribute an unusual twist. Gr. 9-12. SZ.