![]() ![]() Robbie has the makings of a star hockey player, loved and adored by his parents, schoolmates and friends, but is troubled by suicidal thoughts that stay hidden for fear of dropping out of drafting position. ![]() Though the brothers have shades of the Sedin twins, the pair are anything but close. ![]() The novel follows the story of two hockey playing twin brothers, Tristan and Robbie, as they traverse high school. While Jerkbait doesn’t solve this problem, it highlights how toxic hockey’s underlying culture of masculinity - where showing weakness is shunned for being too “feminine” and sexist and homophobic language still remain staples of trash talk - affects teenagers. Shaw was eventually suspended for using a gay slur, but the incident brought hockey fandom’s inclusivity problem into the light for the whole sports world to see. Just a few weeks prior, the hockey world was dealing with the ramifications of Andrew Shaw’s homophobic comments to a referee during the Stanley Cup playoffs. When Mia Siegert’s debut novel Jerkbait hit bookshelves on May 10 of this year, the young adult hockey novel focusing on homophobia and mental illness was never more relevant. ![]()
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