Title: S.T.A.G.S. (S.T.A.G.S #1)
Author: M.A. Bennett
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Format: Audiobook
Narrated By: Katharine McEwan
Length: 8 hours, 37 minutes
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Publish Date: August 10, 2017
Rating:  ★  ★  ★ 
Recommend: Yes

So…. don’t get me wrong. A three stars doesn’t mean I hate this book by any means. I just didn’t really LOVE it like I have some other ones. I do recommend this one, and I’m really curious to see what happens in the second book, because it definitely is not over.

I think one of the main reasons why I was bothered by this book was that these kids were pretty damn racist. Not the main character Greer or anything, but the Medievals. They seriously picked on Shafeen (I’m totally spelling his name wrong since I can’t find his name anywhere right now) solely because he was not like them. They called him the Punjabi Prince, and were just totally rude to him. Apparently, it was worse than that, and when you read the novel, a lot of the students that were affected by the Medievals were either not rich, or not British and white like they were. I mean, even Greer mentions at the end of the novel that there’s a new girl that was having a hard time because she was the only black girl on campus. Is this still a thing in England?

Basically… yeah.

This is The Most Dangerous Game all over again, and it’s about time the prey fought back.

Since I’m keeping my thoughts on the treatment of POCs in a separate post (stay tuned), I’ll stick to some other things that I liked or didn’t like.

I felt like Greer felt guilty over something that she didn’t actually do. Yeah, she tells you at the beginning what you think you want to know, and for the most part you’re wondering when that thing is actually going to happen. But by the time it does, I don’t see it as being her fault. Well, not either of their faults (Greer, Chanel & Shafeen). I loved that she had so many movie references. She talked about Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes and I just about died. I think she even mentioned Gossip Girl at one point? Totally made me like her taste in movies and shows.

I’m glad that at the end of it all, Greer, Chanel and Shafeen had one another. In the beginning, it seemed like they were going to stay isolated forever, but they came together in the end. I think having that sense of friendship and security helped them get through this crazy weekend.

Also, do a lot of private schools in England have a weekend trip like that? I know not everyone in the school went, but it was well known. The weekend reminded me of Labor Day weekend or something like that, but definitely not as fun. Also, are there a lot of private schools in England that like to not deal with technology as much as they can? I mean these kids didn’t even use laptops to write their papers. They considered technology “savage” and if you were “savage” you were instantly not cool. I don’t know about you, but I’m not trying to get carpal tunnel writing 20 page essays by hand.

All in all, this book was interesting. Definitely a dark one and I feel like I spaced out on what happened with Chanel because I totally don’t remember how traumatizing it was. Greer even made it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. Also, now that I know that the sequel is out, I’m curious to know if there’s a certain someone in that book that makes an appearance. One that I am still not sure of their fate.