I'm not exaggerating when I say that hockey is my entire life, but I guess that's bound to happen when your father is a fucking superstar. The old man had my future planned out when I was still in the womb - learn to skate, learn to shoot, make it to the pros, the end. Phil Graham has a reputation to uphold, after all. I mean, just think about how badly it'd reflect on him if his only son didn't grow up to be a professional hockey player. Yes, that's sarcasm you're detecting. And here's a confession: I hate my father. No, I despise him.
-- Garrett Graham (Chapter 6)

Importance: In Chapter 6, Garrett's bitter monologue offers the reader the first unfiltered glimpse beneath his confident, easygoing exterior, revealing a young man whose entire identity has been shaped — and in many ways hijacked — by his father's ambitions. His sarcasm functions as both a defense mechanism and...