With the Olympics cancelled for a year, the next best thing is to read anything that is related to it! Having visited the Olympic venue in Berlin recently, this book piqued my interest. I would have liked more coverage of the actual 1936 Games but appreciated the backstories of the athletes. The only character I found myself routing for was Louise, the others felt a little 2-dimensional to me.

Hooper was trying to fit a lot into this book: racism, the Great Depression, sexuality and class were all jostling to be heard over the primary story of how these ladies got to the 1936 Games. It was like an 'Intro to'  book, nothing too in depth. Maybe if she had focused on two athletes instead of the three she could have explored these issues to a greater degree. 

I enjoyed reading about the 1936 Games from a different perspective and Hooper did well writing about the threat of Hitler and the Nazi's. if you want to read about a group of ladies who made Olympic history and also take a quick trip through the cultural, historical, political environment of the US during the 30s this is the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley for my ARC, this is my honest review.

Great book, such an interesting and well-told story. Enjoyed learning the true story of these female athletes and what they went through.

I have always enjoyed the Olympics, the stories of the athletes and their journeys, and this book did not disappoint. It certainly kept my interest with the different perspectives and story lines. I enjoyed how the stories were all brought together in the end. The women achieved much more than what was expected of them and I loved that! 
I would definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC and opportunity to review.

Thanks to The Book Club Girls for acquiring this title for us. Very good book about the Olympics and the first females for track and field.   If you like sports and history this book is for you.

Whoa. This book was utterly amazing.  I usually read mystery fiction books so this book was initially out of the norm of what I typically read but I am so glad I read it.  Fast Girls follows the 1936 US women's olympic track and field team through their complicated journey to get to the games in Berlin.  Hearing about each women's story was inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time.  I had no idea the struggles Betty, Helen, Tidye, Louise, and female athletes in general had as they trained and travelled to the games in Berlin under Nazi rule. Elise Hooper does an amazing job outlining the perseverance of these tremendous athletes at a time where it was difficult to be a female athlete.  I was truly inspired by this book and I could not put it down.  I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone, especially young female athletes. I have already preordered two copies of this book so that I can read it again and gift it to one of my student athletes. Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollins for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

As the mother of a college athlete (rower) and an Olympics fanatic, I was immediately drawn to this book, thinking it might be comparable to “The Boys in the Boat”, but from a female perspective. Although not nearly as in-depth, I found it to be an enjoyable, fast read that was really appropriate reading during the pandemic when I was needing something to get my Olympics “fix”. I liked reading about the various characters and situations of that particular historical period, although I would have preferred a little more detail about a few of them. The newspaper “articles” were a great way to move the timeline along without sacrificing too much content and the afterword was one of my favorite parts because I could find out what really happened to the characters (many of which were real people) after the book ended.

This book was great! It was so easy to lose yourself in the story, and kept you turning pages to see what happened next! Will definitely be recommending!

What An unbelievably heartbreaking and inspiring story.  Elise Hooper has an uncanny ability to take women who should be well known but aren’t and give them a voice.  Written as a snap shot of Olympic champions this novel is about perseverance and hope.  Absolutely loved i

I loved this book, this being the third story I have read concerning the 1936 Olympics and one of those is my all-time favorite book ever, this one is now up in my top 10 all time favorites. There are so many things about this book that just won me over, first is the way the story is written, I so enjoyed learning about the events of these girls when they were growing up, the hurdles, challenges and sacrifices they made to get to where they wanted to be and live their dream. I especially adored Louise and my heart broke for her. Betti had a heart of gold and overcame so many challenges. Helen, thank heavens she found running to be her niche. 
I find it so interesting how the three authors I’ve read describe the Olympic events of 1936 and how the athletes viewed the Hitler regime. It is difficult to understand how so many things were staged and overlooked by so many people. If you enjoy reading a great book taking you on a heartfelt journey meeting several star women athletes striving to attain a place in track and field, this is the book for you!! I cannot recommend it high enough. Great job, well done Ms. Hooper. 
And one of the best parts of the book, the way she tidies up and lets us hear the rest of the story and learn how these young ladies lived out their lives. I so appreciate when an author takes the time to do that. 		
I was very excited to be allowed an ARC from HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for my honest unbiased review. This one earns the highest 5 stars.

Elise Hooper in her three historical fiction books, has refreshingly covered people or events that aren't oversaturated in the genre. This story, while overlapping to some degree with World War II, is primarily about women participating in the first Olympics women were allowed to compete in. Instead of focusing on a single character like her previous two books, this book instead tells the story of three women from very different backgrounds and the obstacles they faced to be able to compete in the Olympics. Betty, the golden girl, has to recover from life-threatening injuries she suffered in an airplane crash. Helen has to overcome poverty and a lack of support from her father and classmates. And Louise has to overcome the endemic racism that limits her abilities to compete despite her talent. The story is fascinating, and while it's interesting to get to learn about the history of three different women, the depth of the characters falls a little flat to me. I don't know if it's because Hooper is trying to interweave three different stories, or if she can't quite draw out enough of how they felt about the challenges they faced to make the reader relate to each woman. All in all this was enjoyable, but Learning to See stills stand as my favorite book by this author so far.

I just completed reading "Fast Girls " and really enjoyed it.  This was in pre-war times and centers around women athlete runners  competing for the Olympics. I learned a lot about these times with how the girls had to be extra determined to compete in a "man's world" and some had the extra challenge of dealing with racial discrimination.  The book was nicely paced and rich with historical background.  I really liked that it was based on true characters and was exciting to learn about each of them and how they performed.  The book included telegrams and newspaper articles to help give the feel of the era.  I appreciated getting this opportunity to read this wonderful book ahead of the actual publishing date in July.  My thanks to NetGalley and publishers HarperCollins for the honor of reading this book.  My opinions expressed are my own.

As a runner, a woman, and a lover of history, I enjoyed this novel and the way that Elise Hooper brought the earliest female Olympic athletes' lives to light. I am personally indebted to the women who paved the way for me to run myself, and found their dreams to be much like my own. So in that way, I found this novel very well written and realistic. However, there were so many women profiled that it was hard to get attached to anyone. Also, the dual narrative of racism that African American athletes faced presented a secondary layer that was a bit complex. I would have loved to delve more into that story, but it sometimes felt overshadowed by all the other parts that were included. So all in all, this was an important book and one I am truly glad to have read. But it was like drinking from a firehose at times so that needs to be noted as well. It's worth the read though!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complementary e-copy to read. All thoughts are my own.

Fast paced story about about track and field female athletes, and their journey to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The story focuses on the athletes; Betty Robinson, Louise Stokes, and Helen Stephens. Each face their own hurdles as they compete to make it to Berlin, only to find that once in Berlin their challenges continue. The actual races are well written, I found my heart speeding up as I raced to the finish to see who had won. An inspirational story about these pioneers in Track and Field, and I would highly recommend.

Fast Girls was a thoroughly entertaining read, I enjoyed learning about these remarkable women. I did not know the stories of Betty, Louise, and Helen before reading this book and as I learned more found myself rooting for them throughout the chapters. Their athletic achievements in a time when women were not encouraged to be active and athletic were remarkable and kudos to Elise Hooper for bringing their stories to life. I was compelled to learn more about them after finishing and enjoyed the afterword.   This is more than just an inspirational story about female athletes; it is an inspirational story about strong women who deserve to be known and recognized for paving the way for other women to achieve their dreams.

Thanks to William Morrow/Harper Collins, Book Club Girls and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my review. 

Fast Girls was one of my most anticipated books of the summer, so I was thrilled when it was chosen as a Book Club Girl Early Read! I pretty much read it all in one go, I was that enthralled with it. 

I was on the track team in high school -- ran the 100, 100 high hurdles and was one of the first girls in my county to pole vault (not very well) and I occasionally run half marathons now so it was wonderful to read about some of the trailblazing women. (I could totally see this being made into a movie, like A League of Their Own). 

I love how Elise Hooper brought these women to life -- there were a few parts that were a little clunky, but overall she did a wonderful job of telling their stories. I appreciated the afterword with more information about these women.. When you think about it, the 1936 Olympics were fascinating with regards to being in Berlin and the political climate, proposed boycott, racial issues and I think this book showed a lot of that through the eyes of these women. 

I immediately started looking up more on these women and on YouTube there is a video of the 1936 4x100 women's relay and watching that after reading the book, I LOVED seeing these women!

Fast Girls was an enjoyable read about the first women Olympians in track & field. The characters' stories were all interesting, however, I felt that there were too many stories to keep track of, and focusing on so many of them halted the momentum of the novel. This was especially difficult with the tertiary characters and trying to remember if I had met them before. I felt I would really start to get invested in one of the women before we were onto another one's story. At over 500 pages, it was also too long - I feel like some of the mundane details of the women's lives could have been left out and some plot points seemed to serve as shock value instead of advancing the plot or shaping the women in any way. This novel did make me want to do my own research into early women Olympians and I could tell the author had done her research before writing the story. Probably more of a 3.5 for me but rounding up because I did enjoy it.

Enjoyed this book about a few women Olympic sprinters in 1920s and 1930s. Liked the details from the period, understanding what the women dealt with in terms of sexism and racism and other hurdles they had to overcome. The women at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin had to deal with Nazis and Hitler. All very interesting. Seems like much of the main storylines was based on fact which I liked.

An excellent read from Elise Hooper, Fast Girls tells the story of the real life, little-known women who paved the way for female athletes in the Olympics. I especially appreciated the Afterword that tells what happened to these women after their Olympic competitions. 
Note: rape, incest, lesbian relationships

Elise Hooper's "Fast Girls" is a wonderful and informative book.  Upon finishing the book, I googled the women that were portrayed in the novel and was amazed to see their pictures and how little I knew of their history.  Thanks to "Fast Girls" not only was I entertained with a great story, I also learned about these women's courage and determination to run and win.

At first it was hard to keep the characters straight, but after I read more it was easier to track who was who. This is an interesting story about people I had never heard of. As someone whose only knowledge of the Olympics is from the televised events, this backstory was interesting.