The first thing I have to say about this book is that I disagree with the comparative titles listed on the Goodreads blurb, which are 'Looking for Alaska' and 'The Hunger Games'. Yes, there's a boarding school, but it's an ancient (well, medieval) English one full of class divides and privilege, and doesn't resemble the one in 'Looking for Alaska' in the slightest. And yes, there are teens being violent towards other teens, but in a secret, old-fashioned way that looks nothing like the highly televised public world of 'The Hunger Games'.

It's like they just chose two YA books at random that had a single element in common with this. And more than that, two American ones, which seems an odd choice: this book is very much set in England, and wouldn't really work anywhere else. It certainly wouldn't work in the States. You've got a school that is literally medieval (founded in the 630s which... okay sounds dubious but fine) and a lot of aristocratic heritage and the very obvious class divides that still pervade our country. So please, give it some British comp titles. And some books that actually resemble it. Not that I can think of any; my best point of reference is that it's KIND OF a British, YA analogue of The Secret History, though it's got a very different vibe and that's quite an imperfect comparison. Fits better than those other two though.

ANYWAY. I wasn't sure if I'd like this; I feared I'd find it uncomfortable and frustrating. I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, but the frustration was definitely there. The main character, Greer made some bizarre decisions that seemed to lack any logic whatsoever, and I found it hard to put myself in her shoes when I think the first way in which we differed was that I'd never have gone to S.T.A.G.S in the first place, because it sounds horrific. Why would you choose to go to an odd, esoteric school full of crazy-rich aristocratic teenagers when you could, like... not?

(It also had a really bizarre-sounding uniform that I honestly couldn't visualise in the slightest, no matter how hard I tried. I could've done with an illustration.)

From taking up her place at St Aidan's, Greer continued to make increasingly odd choices. Why WOULD you sign up for a weekend of blood sports when you've never done it before, and when the people doing it have mostly ignored your existence, or worse? But I guess I've mostly never felt the urge to fit in that seems to dictate so many characters' choices -- I spent my school years being deliberately and defiantly weird -- so I wouldn't get that. Also latent romantic feelings aren't exactly my style.

Overall, my feelings were mixed. I enjoyed the book more than I feared (after how frustrating I found 'The Secret History' and other books like it, I thought I'd given up on books about spoilt murderous rich kids), but I still found it and Greer's choices somewhat infuriating.

(This is my Goodreads review. I may write a longer review on my blog in the near future, but I'm not sure.)

I genuinely thought I was going to thoroughly enjoy S.T.A.G.S. because I requested in during the same period I was watching this brilliant BBC mini-series called, wait for it, “Stag”. The concept was similar and being me the idiot I am I thought it was a sign from the gods to read it. In “Stag” a group of men go on a hunting trip on a friend's stag night. Then one by one they get killed off. My kind of thing if you know me! In “S.T.A.G.S.” a group of kids who attend a very posh boarding school is invited on a hunting trip by the very elite of this place. Soon they realize somebody is trying to hurt them. What was brilliant in “Stag”, the suspance, the mystery, the splattery murders, the character development and the backstories, was what lacked in “S.T.A.G.S.”. This last one tries too hard to be a thriller and a YA novel and it shows. It feels like it dumbs down the mystery as not to bore the reader but what it achieves is quite the contrary. Every now and then the chapters will end with a foreshadowing that always assures the reader that a murder is about to take place. In its place though we get long descriptions of places and a useless romance, then when we’re ready to deal with the juicy bits they’re rushed and left underdeveloped. The villains are one-dimensional and won’t appeal to the reader at all (view spoiler) .The main character is an annoying young girl who loves movies and never shuts up about it. I thought that this element would have served a purpose plot-wise but was just a quirk of hers. The ending could have been brilliant had it been built upon solid foundations, having been the overall story quite simple and pretty uneventful it just felt like a last attempt to throw in there a witty plot-twist/cliffhanger which will perhaps open the doors to a possible second instalment?

Maybe I didn’t like this book the way other readers did because I had raised the bar way too high (when it comes to gory murders the BBC is always a cut above us all!) so if the genre appeals to anyone who’s reading this review I’d recommend not to be completely put off by it, give it a chance and see for yourself!

I have mixed feelings about S.T.A.G.S. Broadly it was an easy read, that I finished comfortably in a day and that is typically a good sign, books that take me ages are usually a slog for a bad reason.

The story is about bullying, a conspiracy at England’s oldest private school, and the class divide. It starts out making a bold claim about the main student’s and to avoid spoilers I won’t go into detail, but that claim, I felt, doesn’t really come to fruition. Which made the ending a bit of a disappointment, although there was a somewhat predictable twist right at the end.

It’s a simple plot that’s easy to follow with pretty engaging characters, I liked the scene setting too, although the first 15% of the book reads very bizarrely. It’s almost like a shopping list. I think it could have done with a further edit to make the description flow better.

The main character was likable, and the constant references to films could have been a big risk – a cheat for metaphors and description, but actually, I quite liked how the character viewed the world and compared it to movies.

Overall, this was an okay book. It was a good, quick read, with characters I liked to hate, but it didn’t blow me away. That being said, I probably would read another book by this author.

Entertaining fast-paced thriller set in an elite boarding school with archaic traditions aimed at keeping the elite well-removed from the riff-raff. Misfit Greer is surprised when she receives an invitation to spend the weekend at the country house of charismatic head boy Henry de Warlencourt. Ignoring her misgivings she joins more misfits for a weekend of blood sports hoping it will be her pathway to fitting in with the popular kids. The final third of the novel needs quite a big suspension of disbelief and some readers will struggle to follow the plot but all in all an enjoyable light read with some good characterisation.

Although aspects of this book were very good, with a likeable narrator, an irreverent sense of humour, deliberate flagging and self-awareness of the ridiculousness and slightly farcical nature of the book, there were a few things which dropped it down from very good to just good for me.

Greer is a likeable, believable, funny narrator. A scholarship girl at a posh school, she’s naive enough to trust the Medievals, but worldly enough to figure out, once she gets to Longcross, that something very strange is going on. I particularly liked that the story was told as if Greer was discussing it with the reader after the fact, so little addendums increased the humour of the situation as narrator Greer flagged up aspects of her own past character which were, well, dumb.

I also liked the setting, which was firstly an old school, St Aidan the Great, or STAGS, followed by Longcross country estate, in the Lake District. Big points for making the settings sound believable, but adding in that incredulity which comes when one views the archaic nature of the British aristrocracy through fresh eyes.

Thirdly, I liked the plot. Verging on the ridicculous, the idea of these misfits being taken to Longcross to be hunted and mocked was at once twisted, hilarious, and thoughtful at the same time.

However, I had several complaints and irritations about the book as well, so they dragged down the rating.

The book took too long to get going. Perhaps I’m just bloodthirsty, but when the blurb flags the fact that they end up going on a hunting trip where they’re the prey, I wanted it to happen almost immediately, but instead we had to go through pages and pages of Greer explaining how lonely she was, and how she deliberated over whether or not she’d go, and too much backstory about how Greer had gotten into this posh school. It was all tell tell tell, no showing, and I got bored quickly.

I also (and this is a personal difficulty) took issue with the word Savage being used as a negative. Firstly because it was capitalised every time (why…?), but secondly because savage, in Irish slang, is a really good thing. So the mental disconnect for me between savage as a compliment and Savage as a derogatory term was difficult to get around.

Greer’s is big into film. I mean really, really big into it. So her internal narration is absolutely packed with film references. Which, okay, is fine, but I am not into film, and I didn’t get half of the references. The only ones I did get were the disney ones, and even then, when Cinderella was referenced, it took me ages to figure out that perhaps it wasn’t either of the disney versions being referenced, but perhaps the Rogers and Hammerstein version, starring Brandy and Whitney Houston. But even still, I don’t remember the particular scene which was referenced, so almost all of those references flew right over my head. They also, I think, will date the book quite badly in years to come.

There’s little to no diversity in this book. I mean, as an upper-class British boarding school, it’s expected that the majority of the students will be snooty, but even still there was zero diversity here. The one PoC character was referred to as the Punjabi Prince. And okay, this is noted in the text as being extremely problematic, but that’s really the only nod to how homogenous this school and its students are. Greer’s supposed to be somewhat aware, so even an internal comment that it’s strange not to see any LGBT students wouldn’t have gone astray.

My last complaint was that the book was kind of predictable. I mean, the blurb gave away that the misfits were the prey, and the start of the book confirmed who survived, and one person who definitely didn’t, so there wasn’t actually a whole lot to figure out as you proceeded through the book. Even the final reveal was something of a let-down, and I had copped it several pages before Greer herself did.

There was a lot of potential in this book, some very funny parts, and a darkly funny twist behind the writer’s mood-setting. But there were a lot of weaknesses as well, which made this a relatively forgettable book in the end.

From the opening chapter I knew I would read this book in a heartbeat. 

We're immediately told and expecting a murder by the end of this book. We don't know how it happens or why, just simply that they were murderers. 

We meet Greer, a pupil at the well renowned boarding school known as S.T.A.G.S where technology and all modern etiquette is replaced with old traditional practices. Greer came to the school to avoid having to stay at her Aunt's while her Dad travels around the world filming for TV documentaries.  A school taught by Friars, students attending dinners and dances, and of course the high society students who keep the school running are the one's in charge. Little does Greer know that they're in charge of pretty much everything. The day she receives an invite saying "shootin', huntin', fishin'" from the wealthy and popular Henry de Warlencourt at his home in Longcross she can't quite believe it, but doesn't decline out of respect and curiosity. Greer soon realises that this is an exclusive event, and that only two other students who have recently started are invited too. Together they uncover something quite extraordinary about the school and these prosperous students.
I absolutely loved how this book had very much a mystery/thriller spark to it. At times it was quite disturbing and yet I really couldn't put it down. At first all seems normal (other than the old buildings and traditional outlook on things) until we reach Longcross and clues are uncovered as to why the three students are invited on a weekend to take part in old and dangerous sports. Greer is only confident and trusting in the two students by her side, despite her small love interest in Henry. 

For anyone who loves mystery and psychological thrillers this is the book for you. Its one of the best young adult books I've read in a long while!

A frightening concept - huntin', shootin' and fishin' anyone who is different.. I initially could not believe that it could really be happening. It seemed too surreal. The ending was even more unexpected - I assume the tale continues. I really enjoyed this time and feel it will appeal to pupils who have enjoyed The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. Well written and pacy. I loved the descriptions of the house and servants a real step back in time. Interesting comments on the use of technology and social media.

This was intensely gripping from start to finish. although the morbid person in me would have liked to 'huntin' shootin' fishin' to have started sooner.

The only con...

This would have earned a 4 star review if it hadn't been for the ridiculous amount of movie references. I'd maybe understand, in a book that related to movies somehow but it didn't.
Half of the references I didn't understand or referred to films I hadn't seen and so I had to Google them in order for the reference to even have the desired effect which dropped the pace as fast as the elevator in Speed.

(see my point)

Not only that but theyll also date the book IMMENSELY overtime.
I probably wouldn't have minded one or two references every few chapters but there seemed to be one on almost every other page. And not only that but if you have to rely on references to get your point across that much then...well.

Movie references aside, I thought the book toed the line on some issues but overall the book was darkly enjoyable.
Like a wolf prowling around your house, the Medievals were lethal but you couldn't help but let them in anyway.