Author: Shannon Price
Date: 05 Nov 2019
Publisher: Macmillan-Tor/Forge
Book review
San Francisco isn’t the safest place to live since the time the first gang called Herons appeared on its streets. The richest people of the town were leading the town, and no one was able to stop them until the new group Boars were formed just to stop them. It was their main purpose in the end but with the time they lost it and became even more dangerous to the city. They started the dangerous game Wars.
With the years the new gang came to the city. No one knew who they are exactly and on which side they are. Some say they are the most dangerous ones, but no one knew the truth. They are called the Stags.
On the day of the 18th birthday of the people living in the city. The gangs could recruit them to take part in the Wars for a year. If you are in, you cannot leave, that’s the main rule. The Wars are dangerous, and everyone knows the cost of taking part in it. It also gives you a house and the money that a lot of recruits need.
Valerie for the last years planned to join Herons because of what happened to her brother. She was looking for revenge, but the police couldn’t identify the person who killed her little brother. The only way to find the guilty person was joining the Wars. When she turned eighteen one of the gangs found and recruited her. The only problem was that it wasn’t the group that she wanted to join. She wasn’t sure if she should do it but when the leader of the group promised her to reveal who murdered her brother, she didn’t hesitate any longer. She became one of the Stags.
My thoughts:
I cannot find words to describe how much I enjoyed this book. It was brilliant. The story, characters and their history together made the book perfect. I honestly couldn’t put it down. I wanted the story to go on and never end. I wish the author will write a continuation of the story because a lot of things were not explained, and I want to know what happens to everyone in the future.
Besides being a great read, the book was also heartbreaking. I look back to it and most of the characters were broke inside and there is nothing that can fix what happened to them. Valerie is one who will never be the same girl as she was before she lost her brother and the Wars. It’s not possible to recover after it. For some reason, she annoyed me in this book but it’s only because she was scared to lose more than she already did. She was very determined. Even if she was scared, felt alone and out of place, she still stayed and fought to reach her goal.
Jay is a very complicated character in the book. He makes you love him and hate him at the same time. He went through a lot and I feel like a lot of people disappointed him. That’s why he wants to do everything his way so it will never happen again. He trusts only his close friends/gang members and maybe his mother, but I think it’s more complicated between them.
I think Micah is my favorite of all. He is a friend/boyfriend everyone wishes to have. He is caring, kind and down-to-earth. He didn’t let the Wars change him. He was the one who wanted to leave it the most. He didn’t want to leave his friends and that was the reason why he wanted the Wart to finally end. I wish he could play a bigger part in this story. He deserved better than he had.
I don’t know if you also were fans of fan fictions when you were younger, but I loved them more than books when I was 13-14. My favorite ones were the ones about gangs and dangerous love. When I read this book, it takes me back to this time. It’s very similar but ten times better and much better written.
The last thing I would like to talk about is the short love plot. That’s the part I was a little bit disappointed. I wished it would develop more and we will get more stories about it but as fast it came the same way it was gone. I need more of them. As much as I like the ending, I want to change it. I don’t even need a change I just need a happy end for them.
Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I would like to thank NetGalley, Shannon Price and Tor Books for providing me a digital copy of this book. I was more than happy to read it and review it.
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