2,5./5 stars

As a fellow Attack on Titan fans speaking to the fans of the series, I suggest you lower your expectation for this book.

I’m a huge fan of Attack on Titan (AoT). It doesn’t matter whether it’s the manga or the anime, I loved the heck out of the series. I won’t go into full details on why I love the series but let me get a few points across so I can properly explain why this book was a huge disappointment to me. AoT has always been filled with fantastic plotlines. It was dark, bad things happen to good people, and it’s filled with unpredictable plots twist. The characters were engaging and highly memorable; it’s practically impossible for me to forget Eren, Mikasa, or Levi. The animation—especially during the action sequences—is still one of the best animations I’ve ever experienced in an anime TV show; I’ve watched hundreds of anime for me to say that. Since 2011, I’ve watched the anime from start to finish three times, I’ve read the manga from the start to the newest chapter four times; in fact, I just finished reading the newest chapter of the manga a few days ago. Garrison Girl contained none of the things that made Shingeki no Kyoji phenomenal.

The problems I had with this book came from my observation that the story that Aaron’s wrote here just don’t belong in the world of AoT. Garrison Girl is pretty much a YA romance novel full of clichés and tropes that are set in the world of AoT, it provides absolutely nothing new for the main series and should be treated as a filler; I despise fillers. The story centered on Rosalie, a rich girl who came from a rich family background. She’s trying her best to blend with commoners as she wanted to join the frontline to kill titans. Upon joining, she immediately met this jerk mentor who treated her harshly and—cue suspense music—seemed to have his own mysterious reason for the harsh treatment. Hearing this, you’re probably thinking “ah this is probably her love interest” well guess what? You’re absolutely right. This is just the first of many YA cliché in this book, and trust me that the main series is far from being cliché, to say the least.

It’s not all disappointing. Aaron’s prose—like always—was engaging and easy to read. Despite my criticism, you can rest assured that the quality of her prose to keep the audience engage didn’t change here. The action scenes—though very few—were good. I don’t doubt Aaron’s talent as an author. Her Hearstrikers series is still the most fun I’ve ever had in reading urban fantasy series. This is why I seriously think this book would’ve benefited so much more if Aaron tackled the background of one of the supporting characters from the main series instead of writing a brand new YA romance chick flick story with all new characters in this world. Shingeki no Kyojin is not a YA market book. It’s pretty much grimdark; there’s also absolutely no romance in it and the story is from being predictable.

I may sound more critical and harsh than my usual reviews for this one, but I can’t help. I’m sorry, Aaron. If you want to hear me praising your works, just check out my reviews for Heartstrikers. AoT is one of my favorite manga/anime and I expected so much more in this book than just a simple YA romance full of cliché. I recommend this book only if you’re really interested in reading a YA romance book with AoT setting; Garrison Girl is almost like an AoT fan fiction targeted for YA if I may be brutally honest. As always, let me remind you once again that YA and romance books in general very rarely worked for me; I thought a novel written by Rachel Aaron in the world of my beloved series would actually change that notion. It didn’t.

P.S: I know I’m reading an ARC and typos are not strangers to ARC; I want to help a bit. Check the word “Solider”. Instead of a soldier, the word "solider" was used 20 times in the book.

I’m not going to fangirl much because this is an Attack On Titan based novel and I’m not that much of a fan. I only watched the anime, read the manga and watched the 2 bad movies. No, I’m not a fan.

But kidding aside, I love Attack on Titan (except the live action films), I try my best not to compared this to the original story line.

Before going to my review, I would like to give a crash course about Attack on Titan (Shingeki No Kyojin). This is a manga written by Hajime Isayama.

It is set in a world where humanity lives in cities surrounded by enormous walls protecting the humans from gigantic humanoids that are referred to as titans. The titans vary in height and endlessly eat humans seemingly without reason. The wall consists of 3 main walls, Wall Maria, where all the livelihood and cattles are, The Wall Rose where most villages where and The Wall Sina, the capital and where the nobles and the king is.
Then there are 3 military division that protects the Walls. The Military police is in charge to protect the king, they are mostly inside Wall Sina. The Survey Corps are the one who attacks the titan and has the courage to go beyond the wall, it is also said the most dangerous out of 3 divisions. The last is the Garrison, they are the one who protects the wall and protect the citizens when there are titans.

Enough with the crash course, let’s get to the review!

This is a novel based of Attack on Titan and as the author build the world that was already built, and I already explored but she still did a great job making me interested in the world. She made me missed experiencing the walls and I got to see some parts of wall Sina which was rarely featured in the original.

Rosalie is part of the Dumarque family, a noble family related to the king. She was engaged since she was 11 years old and now that she’s 6 months away from her wedding, she really wanted to do something for herself and that is to be a Garrison. Her father didn’t allowed it first but she insisted and her father gave in. I imagined Rosalie as Mikasa Ackerman, she’s the female lead in the original series. They’re both brave and bad ass. #strongindependentwomanwhoneedsnoman

The most interesting supporting character is Sergeant Jackson Cunningham aka Sergeant Jax, He is Rosalie’s officer that hated her because of her nobility. He is cocky with a bad two but good at his job. BTW, he loves to read. I thought he was a typical male lead with all his cockiness but as the story goes by, he’s development is perfect.

This is Rosalie’s journey to prove everyone that she’s not just her name and her family with the help of Jax and her friend she got to know that she’s worthy than being a trophy wife and she got a chance to save the world Iin the process.

As a story based on a phenomenal manga, I have a lot of thought about this, most of them were negative but she proved me wrong, even though this a story based novel, she made it her own. She put her own details without botching the original story, and as a fan that was a great move (unlike the live action films). She made me feel the same way I felt when I first seen the anime series, the adrenaline rush from the action and the terror from the titans.

I recommend this for Attack on Titan fans, this will feel nolgastic that after you read this you’ll want to watch the anime again. and those who haven’t heard of Attack on Titan because she wrote this like it was her own and you don’t need to read the manga or watch the anime in order to understand the story.
Why 4 🌟?
She made me fell in love again with Attack on Titan and made me remember the feeling of sleeping at 3 am in order to finished the first season of the anime. She just did an awesome job, but I need another book. I ned to see them again.

i guess this is the big case of it-is-not-you-it-is-me. i didn't hate this book but i also didn't love it.

what i did enjoy is the setting. i mean it's set in the snk world, it covers the events after fall of shiganshina arc and the battle of trost district arc (the story itself is about trost district's garrison). i enjoyed references, character's little cameo and the whole POV outsider thing. i can't say how people who are not into snk will find it though, it is a little infodumpy at times, but i think it might make ppl more confused than understanding.

anyway, as i said, that was the only thing that i enjoyed. i felt really indifferent towards everything else. the plot is a very big cliche. a noble girl in arranged engagement with the wedding coming soon wants to join the army for 6 months before the wedding, her father doesn't let her but she's too stubborn, so he sends her to the front line, where the training would be the hardest, so she runs back home, except she doesnt. she arrives there and there's this dude who's the sergeant of their squad and he's surprisingly almost the same age as her and of course he hates her bc she's a noble. she starts her service there and realizes that it's not what she expected. the dude hates her even more now. blablabla. she asks the dude to train her blablabla. blablabla. they fall in love blablabbla. her father tries to bring her home in any ways possible blablabla. her fiance is the worst blablabla. and blablabla and blablabla. not disclosing the whole plot here. listen, it's just. so tropy. so cliche. it's so basic. of course, some people might enjoy it, but i did not. i have nothing against cliches, there are a lot of classic ones, but i like when authors put some creativity into them. here it's some basic plot wrapped up in the snk universe. it's not bad, it's not good, it's just mediocre for me.

honestly, i didn't really care for the characters. they're, too, very basic and mediocre for me, there's nothing outstanding, nothing i would remember about them. i liked them, but i absolutely didnt care what happens to them. i didn't like the romance too, it felt so unnesessary and out of place, i wish this novel was romanceless.

so, what can i say. if you like snk, you might like this book or at least enjoy the snk related part (there's some fun titan fighting scenes). if you don't know anything about snk, you also might enjoy it, but it also might be very confusing.

my final rating is 5 out of 10 because it's neither here nor there.

I used to be a big fan of the anime and manga series Attack on Titan and still enjoy it to an extent (I really need to catch up…) so I was pleasantly surprised to see a tie-in YA novel being released from Quirk Books. So bear in mind that this review is coming from someone already familiar with the source material! (If you haven’t watched the anime, the first season is on Netflix UK, so I would recommend it if you like the sound of this book.)

Attack on Titan is set in kind of an alternate historical version of our world, where most humans have been devoured by Titans – humanoid giants with a taste for flesh. Humans retreated behind three massive concentric walls – Wall Maria, Wall Rose and Wall Sina – and lived this way for a century, before the appearance of one “Colossal” Titan caused the fall of the outermost wall, Wall Maria, and led to more slaughter.

The anime series – and this book, which is set during the first season – picks up five years after the fall of Wall Maria. Garrison Girl is about Rosalie Dumarque, a rich girl who wants to join the garrison who patrol the Wall Rose and keep an eye out for Titans. It’s kind of your standard “I don’t want to get married and do my duty” rebellious princess trope, but it works quite well here – mainly because it differentiates from the series, which focuses on a bunch of kids from the outer walls rather than the rich centre.

It’s a very trope-y book. There’s the grumpy male lead who at first looks down on the “spoiled princess” Rosalie – and I’d mark for spoilers if it wasn’t so obvious what was going to happen. Forbidden romance, anyone? However, even though it’s completely predictable, it’s very sweet, and ends up tying directly into the overreaching plot, causing drama all round. As if man-eating giants weren’t enough to worry about!

Don’t worry, it’s not romance all the time. There’s plenty of Titan-fighting (including one particularly visceral scene where Rosalie ends up in a Titan’s mouth) and it soon becomes apparent that a conspiracy is afoot.

For fans of the show, there’s a nice Eren Yeager cameo – that’s all I’m going to say! But if you haven’t watched the anime or read the manga, you’ll still be able to enjoy this – Rachel Aaron does a great job explaining the world of the Titans and describing their horrifying forms in detail. There’s something uncanny-valley about the weirdly proportioned Titans in the show, and she manages to translate this into text form. Everything is explained well – I don’t think the author left out any of the basics.

While predictable in many ways, this was a very enjoyable read and the world of Attack on Titan translates very well to YA fiction – honestly, the show is about a bunch of teenagers fighting monsters, and I’ve read plenty of YA books that are just as graphic in their gore and horror! I was glad it didn’t cross over too much with the events of the series (one scene in particular near the end will be recognisable to fans of the show) and focused on brand new characters, allowing Aaron to expand the world a little bit and give us a different view of what’s happening within the walls. The romance will appeal to anyone who likes that “bickering turns to kissing” trope (I definitely do) and the cast features some fun new characters – the other members of Rosalie and Jax’s team add some much-needed humour to the dark story.

If you’ve read or watched Attack on Titan, you’ll likely enjoy this (if you don’t mind a bit more romance than the show/comic). If you’re a fan of YA fantasy with a sprinkle of horror (those Titans are GROSS) then this should be right up your street – I don’t think it matters if you’re not familiar with the source material. It seems to be setting up for a sequel, so I look forward to more Attack on Titan YA!

3.5 Stars

This is just gonna be a short quick review.
Garrison Girl follows Rosalie, a rich girl with noble blood, into the wall Garrison.
She faces hardships of being accepted because of her money. The Garrison is full of commoners.

This takes place during the event of the anime actually.
It takes place after the first time the colossal titan appeared and during his second attack. The book was very will written and the romance was actually quite believable. It was just a little boring. Nothing about it really kept it going. But even though it was quite slow, it was a nice read.

The end was the only fast part, it was full of emotion, something I think the start of the book was lacking. I also LOVED when it brought up characters from the actual manga/anime. I was freakinngg out. And Eren made an appearance! He was a titan, but he was still there!

Overall. Nice read, would recommend if you loved Attack on Titan and are looking for a different look at the world.

I love attack on titan, so to have come across a novel set in that world made it an imediate must read for me. I throughly enjoyed this, the characters were engaging, the story line kept me hooked and i truly felt i was transported into the middle of attack on titan.