Think the concept of this sounded interesting but just didn't completely work for me, maybe I just wasn't a fan of the more gruesome elements.

Brilliant book - absolutely perfect for the ya market and younger teens. The rest of the series is also awesome

I gave this book a quick try, and ultimately decided to DNF -- my tastes have changed since I requested this. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book!

I knew from the beginning I was going to thoroughly enjoy it and I did. I flew through this book and couldn't put it down I can't wait to read more from this author.

Read this on holiday and couldn't put it down. The story had me saying to everyone just 1 more chapter before we could do something other than sit by the pool sun bathing, but 1 more chapter was every chapter till the book was finished. The characters I loved throughout the story but that ending, I need more. Will be on the lookout for a sequel and hopefully thats just as good if not better than this one.

It’s pretty much Gosford Park meets Gossip Girl meets The Wicker Man. So...obviously I enjoyed it. It was fun, thrilling and super juicy.

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke. For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

Oh goodness, I had so many problems with this book, I don't even know where to begin! The first thing I'll tackle, as it was the first to pop up and continued throughout the book is the racism. The top of the food chain kids at the school, the Medievals, are openly racist to one of the Indian students, Shafeen. They say things such as ‘He’s a long, brown s***.’‘Like the ones you do after a vindaloo,’ agreed Cookson. ‘Long and brown and smelling of curry.’ I actually couldn't believe what I'd read and to make matters worse, the main character Greer, then basically downplayed what they'd said, 'The Medievals were not straightforward racists; nothing so simple...they were pretty even-handed really, in that they were quite happy to make fun of anything that didn’t fit.' Honestly, what is she even on about, that whole section made me so mad.

Then when Greer receives the invitation to go to the house of Henry, who is at the very top of the food chain, she accepts. Given that she'd just seen his friends, who were going to be at his house, being so disgustingly racist, you'd think that would be reason enough to not go. But apparently, Greer clearly doesn't care, because she's so lonely, and racist friends are better than no friends right! Then Greer has the audacity to act as if she truly cares about the plight of people of colour, 'I’d felt sorry for him all term, thinking he was being bullied with all that Punjabi Playboy stuff.' Then she feels duped because he's more equipped to handle the world of the Medievals than she is and again justifies their racism, 'But it was obviously just joshing, the Medieval version of humour...I’d been a sucker. He’d obviously been friends with them all along. I couldn’t help feeling a bit let down.' She's honestly just so awful!

I can't believe I'm writing my third paragraph on race, but here I am! So one of the Medievals, Piers, is described as dark, but I didn't know whether that was meant as in 'tall, dark and handsome' or whether he was actually a person of colour. But then later on the author writes that he puts his finger to his 'thick' lips, I mean the author could of wrote full lips, which would have been a lot nicer, but what do I know. Anyway, because of his 'thick' lips, I'm guessing that he's actually black. So then is he just a black person who hates brown people like Shafeen? And if Piers is black and a Medieval, doesn't the reason why the Medieval's target Shafeen, not really make sense. If they hate him because of his race, why do they have a black member!

Greer is an extremely ignorant character and ends up being so hypocritical when it comes to racism. She has assumed things in a racist way about Shafeen and has excused the racism against him on more than one occasion and he even says to her ‘Was that true?...He frowned. ‘Of course not,’ he said...You’re as bad as they are.' And she then has the nerve to lecture Chanel, even if it was just to distract her, about assuming that Shafeen would know the name of a seed because he's indian. ‘He’s not some throwback maharajah, you know. He probably eats McDonald’s when he’s not at school just like we do.’ I repeated what Shafeen had said to me, that first night after dinner. ‘His father runs a bank in Jaipur. You’re as bad as they are'. Greer using Shafeen's words he said to her when he was hurt, just to distract Chanel, was low and shows that she doesn't actually care.

The handling of the characters of colour really bothered me and if what I'm going to point out doesn't make you feel any type of way, then great, but this is my opinion. I didn't like the constant, almost fetishization of Shafeen's skin. Greer thinks that there may be something going on between Shafeen and Chanel, and she kept saying stuff about dark and light. And basically equated being light with being fragile and innocent,'He looked all dark and tall and masterful, and she looked all blonde and pretty and pathetic draped in his arms', 'They would make a gorgeous couple, him all dark, her all light.' This way of thinking is just really problematic to me. And then a character is introduced near the end of the novel called Tyeesha and unsurprisingly, she was black. That name is so...and if anything, it sounds more stereotypical of a black girls name from America, when Tyeesha's from London.

I liked the premise and the mystery of the book, but it wasn't as gripping as I thought it would be. There were also some inconsistencies in the plot and some very unrealistic things happened. Greer wasn't a likeable protagonist at all, she was judgemental, ignorant, naive, selfcentred and rude. She clearly had no idea what a feminist is and repeatedly said a lot of nonsense, 'I thought, completely irrelevantly, how handsome he was. Some feminist, Greer.' What has finding a man handsome got to do with being a feminist! My other gripe with her was that she kept whining about the hunting because it was for pleasure, but had no problem eating animals, even though that's technically for her own pleasure too. As a vegan, it was so annoying to read things like 'I wasn’t sure I wanted to end the life of a beautiful creature just for fun. A stag, I mean; fish are pretty ugly, so I wouldn’t exactly cry if I caught one of them.', 'the one thing worse than killing a beautiful animal would be looking like a total fool.'

In conclusion, this book was so frustrating to read as the premise sounded so good. But it was riddled with issues with race, inconsistencies in the story, had an insufferable protagonist and the writing also had its issues. Given that I had a lot to say about race, I'm pretty shocked that other readers have just ignored or completely not even noticed these issues, it's very disappointing. Even if I got past how irritating Greer was as a person, the author constantly had her make references to films based on what was going on, even spoiling a number of them, it was distracting and unnecessary. There was also a weird breaking of the fourth wall, where Greer says 'Reader, I’d started going out with him.', it was so random. The motivation for the villain was also a bit far fetched and it was quite cringe to hear them going on their rants, the romance was also quite cringey and random. As I'm sure you can tell, I will not be recommending this book, although having read that ending, I am curious as to what will happen in the next book.

I really enjoyed this YA thriller, which is set in a very privileged private school. Loved the twist at the end of the book.

When I started this book I wasn't sure what to make of it, but i got hooked utterly. Just after I finished it I found out that it is now going to be a series and I cannot wait to read more of what happens and how the school changes if at all.

Absolutely brilliant! S.T.A.G.A is a sharp and smart page turner, that has fully left me hungry for more.

I must admit I was expecting more from this book, however it had plenty of twists and turns, some I had already figured out and some I didn’t.

It was such a brilliant plot and had all the right ideas to become something more, I expected explosions, fireworks but in the end it all fell a little flat to me.

The plot of this story was completely far-fetched and it took a number of leaps of logic to follow what was going on and keep believing it, but the social commentary was spot on. The MC, a scholarship girl at an incredibly exclusive English public school, gets invited to one of her classmate's massive country estates for the weekend only to find that er classmate wasn't exactly extending the hand of friendship. This book deals with racism, classism, snobbery, old-boy networks and conspiracy theories. I think this book would work for anyone, but it will be particularly resonant if you're British.

Publisher: Hot Key Books
Rating: ★★★
Format: Netgalley EARC

I requested this because I knew D.O.G.S was right up my alley but I didn’t want to just jump in. It’s a fun (if you can call it that!), entertaining read with a fast and action-packed plot. I love a boarding school setting and it is captured really well here. I had an issue with some of the language used but it didn’t stop me picking up and enjoying the second book!

A really dark and creepy mystery thriller.

I liked the boarding school setting, it felt very gothic and really set the mood. Then the switch to the country house. Country houses are so perfect for horror stories and this vast, empty place was just oozing with a strong sense of unease from the beginning.

That uneasiness is something the book did really well. The plot unfolded nicely, though no huge surprises as what was really going on seemed quite obvious for a while. There was definitely enough to keep my on edge though, and I was enthralled.

The attention to detail was excellent. It definitely felt like MA Bennett knew the world she was talking about, with it's rigid social structure and outdated bloody hunting rituals.

A dark and compelling read.

Unfortunately I didn't finish this book, as I couldn't get into it - nothing against the author or book, just not to my personal taste. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

This was an enjoyable quirky fun read that is structured as a coming of age mystery drama read set within a prestigious school and follows the story of the scholarship student - this school is certainly quirky in a disjointed medieval creepy way!
The school is a huge power-play environment and results in blood fest competitions for survival there, so expect an unrealistic thriller narrative. I wasn't a huge fan of our principal character, so I struggled with my engagement at times. I did enjoy the retrospective narrator perspective and trying to puzzle out events through her eyes.
Overall, it's an interesting premise but lacks some delivery focus and consistency - and less film references and more action and drive. It's a fairly predictable read and I wanted the writer to be braver with some outcomes to fulfil the original set up.

Very dark, very funny and packed full of mystery and action. This was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it. I loved the characters different personalities and the world-building was immense. Captured me from the very first sentence.

I have literally just finished S.T.A.G.S and am in shock. What an ending?! I didn't know anything about the story before going into the book but I ending up absolutely hooked (pun not intended- you will get this if you have read it). It is such a unique idea! I am so excited to read the second one which I think is publishing tomorrow!. It left on such a cliff hanger!

This is everything I love in a book. I am always so here for a good boarding school story anyway and this ticked so many other boxes for me too. I'd be hearing about it all over the place and I am so glad it didn't disappoint. Its got me, this one. I am so here for it. I'll be reading it again FOR SURE.