Fast Girls is both a heartwarming and heartwrenching story based on historical events, focusing on 3 women who battled through societal, racial, gender and sexual biases of the 1920s and 1930s in their attempts to compete as runners in the Olympic games. The personal experiences of the 3 main characters and their ability to face the many obstacles of this time period were the highlight of this book for me, their characters developed as beautifully as the story line, which built up quickly in the second half of the book to a crescendo of anticipation as the 1936 Olympics drew near and foreshadowed historical events that we all know too well as well as many details that I wasn't aware of but enjoyed learning about in this format. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review - the one thing I would recommend is to include an "About the Author" section as I always enjoy reading about the author and how their own life relates to the story.

Fast Girls is a thrilling account of the first 2 Olympic games where women were able to compete in track and field events. I enjoyed following each woman through her struggles and victories. Well written! Loved the Afterword section which highlighted the factual information on each athlete, as well as the author's additions for the sake of the story. I look forward to reading more from Elise Hooper!

In 1928, Betty Robinson of Chicago is the All-American girl next-door. She is petite and pretty, but also fast, representing the U.S.A she takes the gold in the 100 meter race at the Olympics that year. Reading all about Betty Robinson in the papers makes 10-year-old Helen Stephens, of Missouri, want to be a great athlete like Betty someday. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, 15-year-old African-American, Louise Stokes has no idea that she herself is a runner, but by 1936 their paths will cross as they all head to Berlin for the 1936 Olympic games. These three athletes faced many obstacles and discrimination, and through their strength and determination they made it possible for women of all races to compete.

Elise Hooper explores the tenuous world of female Olympic athletes during Hitler’s reign. Three extraordinary U.S. female runners are spotlighted in this exquisitely written and highly entertaining work of historical fiction. The story depicts each of the women’s stories as they come into their own as athletes and finally meet together to join the 1936 Olympic track team held in Nazi-run Berlin, Germany. The women struggle to be their gifted selves and be accepted into a man’s world of athletics. Along with the excruciatingly abundant sexism that they all face, one must deal with overt racism as well.

I can’t say enough good things about this. Like Liac Girls and the Tattooist of Auschwitz, this is a story that desperately needed to be told. This women were incredibly talented but had to sacrifice and endure so much in order to make their marks in a “white man’s world.” Not only was this a great story, but the writing is excellent - a definite page-turner. I predict that this will be a huge summer hit and will be especially popular with book clubs. 5 well-earned stars!

A fantastic fictional story based on the lives of three women preparing to compete in track and field at the 1936 Olympic Games. All three of the athletes came from vastly differing background and overcame many obstacles including poverty, injury, sexism and racism to even get the opportunity to compete in the hotly contested Olympic Games. This book will have you spring with each women’s triumphs and in tears over their setbacks. The Olympics are my absolute favorite sporting event and this book truly represents the spirit of the Games and the heart of those athletes that give all they have to compete.

If you liked Cool Runnings, you'll love Fast Girls. Admittedly I wasn't sure about it at the start, but as I kept reading I got completely hooked until I finished it well past midnight. It's impossible not to root for Betty, and Helen, and Louise!

The 1936 Summer Olympics are famous for many reasons. They were also only the third modern Olympics where females were allowed to participate in Athletics events, what we now call Track and Field. Betty Robinson, Louise Robinson, and Helen Stokes were all part of the team representing the United States. Fast Girls is a novelization of their early lives and their journey through the Olympic cycles of 1928 to 1936. Hooper skillfully raises the tension in pivotal scenes, and has the reader thoroughly invested in the women’s stories. I would recommend this book to readers of Pam Jenoff and Martha Hall Kelly, with the caveat below.

For all of my engagement with the story, something just wasn’t right, resulting in the three star rating.It’s difficult to articulate, but I think the closest I can come is that the author treats the women as characters in her story, not as historical figures with their own stories. In reviewing her comments about the inspiration for the characters after the end of the novel, I questioned some of her decisions and wondered why the deviations from reality were necessary. It’s true that the lives of these women are nowhere near as well documented as those of male athletes of the time, and the demands of creating a narrative require some of those holes to be filled in with speculation; however, I would have preferred that the story contain more holes if it left more facts intact. I also hope that a bibliography or resource list, even a limited one, is included in the final version of the book, to help those who want to learn more about these women.

Final recommendation: As a story, it’s a good read. As a piece of biographical fiction, I’m less convinced.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this! I love historical fiction and this is a perspective I really knew nothing about, and I found it so interesting! I especially liked the inclusion of the newspaper articles. I don’t know how much of those were actual articles and how much was fictionalized but it really reminded you of how women were looked at during that time period.

This novel set in 1936 at the Olympics in Berlin was an absolutely wonderful novel. I have read several articles about that particular Olympic in Germany, that of Jesse Owens, the female Olympians and, of course, Hitler. I will say you learn more reading this historic novels than you do in school. Excellent and highly recommended. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for my ARC of this wonderful novel. This is the story of three very diverse women making their way onto the 1936 Olympic team; a time of uncertainty as the Olympics were in Berlin and women were not considered to be true athletes. I found each of their stories fascinating. These women had many hurtles to overcome. The writer shares their stories in such a way that you feel as though you truly know these women. I also appreciated the Afterword giving a synopsis of each character’s future as well as explaining some of the areas where the author included some of her own creativity. I highly recommend this beautifully written novel about very strong women making a difference in the world of women’s athletics. I would highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Book Club Girl's Early Read Program for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

I'm not a sports enthusiast, neither a participant nor spectator, but I found this to be a fascinating novel describing a lesser known story of women athletes during the 1930's. It's historical fiction based on several real women runners competing in the 1936 Olympics. Some of the sports names most people will recognize, but the novel focuses on the experiences of a few young unknown women. Short chapters alternating points of view between the main characters are interspersed with news articles to tell the story of these women and how they developed their running talent leading up to the Olympics. The author's research was detailed and realistically described the time period: married women couldn't teach high school, running was thought to make women look too masculine, athletics were considered damaging to women's health, and the racism during this time was appalling.

The climax of the book is the 1936 Olympic competition in Berlin. Author Elise Hooper skillfully creates tension between the threatening Germans and the track competitions as the different events unfold - Who will compete? Who will be sent home? Will injuries sideline athletes? Will the Americans win the gold medals? This should be required reading for high school and college history classes. And I highly recommend it for you!

I loved this book. It was fascinating to see how women got into competing in the Olympics. It was also very sad to see the problems women and African American women faced trying to compete as well. I really enjoyed this book.

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