I have enjoyed books by the author previously, but sadly this didn’t connect with me at all. It seemed to lack depth I would usually expect and the world building felt off to me, I’ll definitely be reading more by the author based on books I read in the past, but this one wasn’t for me

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I enjoyed this book! It was a good read for the summer with hard hitting themes, made me consider things and think deeply, which you don't always get from fiction.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. Other readers may enjoy it more, but I could not get into it and ultimately did not finish it.

The premise of this book intrigued me but I have to say, I truly wish I had never read it and wish there was an option to rate a book zero stars and less, sadly there isn't on sites such as Goodreads so take my one as zero.

Whilst yes, you can understand that the main character is beyond jaded it became offensive for offensive's sake. As though you're being forced to be shocked by her actions, and crass way of speaking constantly to the point the only reason I finished the book was because I refused to DNF it and had hoped we would see a lessening of slurs, shaming of women etc but I was sadly disappointed.

The concept of Three Bullets could have given you an outstanding, thought provoking book that shook you and made you think. Whereas I was letting how a publisher agreed for it to make it to an editor never mind shop floor. It is horrific.

The plot is lacklustre at best and absent and reliant on jokes about sexual assault, Body shaming, racism, oppression, transphobia, ageism... (I could go on) which made me feel dirty reading.

Please don't bother with this book, especially if you are LGBTQ+, your blood will boil.

Brutal, frightening look through trans eyes at a dystopia that feels too close for comfort.

An unlikely and unlikeable narrator/hero(ine), a country turned inside out with religious extremism and violence. A mission. A journey through the bleak, dangerous and frightening landscape of Britain as it could be, with Marti as our guide.

She's honest in her loathing, amusing in her putdowns, and hard to dislike really, despite everything.

It sounds like a typical plot - young person has access to some vital technology that could make a difference to the 'war effort' and must travel through danger to deliver it to those that can make use of it. But this is Marti we are talking about, who doesn't care for anyone but herself and getting to Amsterdam for sex and drugs. Not even her little brother (the whiny creature) or fanciable best friend Maude.

Marti shows us the hellhole that Britain has become, with different groups of radicals attacking the country, with those who aren't straight and white on the run as refugees, with 1984-esque brainwashing and microchips. It's visually quite startling in its descriptions, and watching three teenagers/children navigate it is hard to read and follow.

Burgess has never shied away from graphic detail, whether sexual or violent, and warning - he doesn't here either. It's alarming, upsetting and bound to cause a stir, especially with race and gender issues mixed into an already explosive mix of a plot.

Brutal to its characters, Burgess refuses to go easy on us or them, and I know I looked up from the pages feeling relieved it was all contained within. Powerful and memorable characters, it deserves to be a mini-series.

Not an easy read, and one for older teens really, who are prepared to have their ideas about 'happy endings' shattered.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

I did not like this book at all. However, the emotional way in which transphobia and racism were at the forefront and treated with respect. I did not like the characters, feeling that they could have been developed better than they were. It made me aware of how horrible people can be in today's society.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for giving me this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Marti is a mixed race trans girl and when her house gets bombed, killing her mum, she goes on the run with her toddler brother and Maude - a young woman her mum took in. Marti has some software on her phone that could help the fight against the bloods but it needs to be delivered into the right hands. Marti states from the beginning that the reader will not like her and at times her selfishness is astounding but as her struggle goes on you do start to see a different side to her. Overall enjoyed this one

Set in a UK that has fallen apart, is war torn and overrun by various factions with strong beliefs against different races and sexual orientation. Growing up in this environment, our 'hero', Marti, who is mixed race and trans, has strong self-loathing as a result and comes across as selfish and very unlikeable. Marti doesn't give a good impression of any of the other characters either. With so much negativity, I found it hard going and wasn't able to finish the book.
As you would expect of Melvin Burgess, the language is close to the knuckle and is the main reason I will not be buying it for our library. It would not be suitable for the majority of our readership which is KS3.

It was certainly fast paced and action packed...
But. The main character was flawed, unlikable, and so far from the author (white man vs black trans teen), never really stacked up with the depth I’d expect from this kind of thing.
In a dystopia with so much going on, the world building is shallow.
I’ve loved other books by this author; but for me, this missed the mark.

I really couldn’t get into this book and I loved the whole premise of this book and was hopeful of the themes it could explore such as racism and transphobia but it really let me down.
I understand that the author wanted to describe his main character, Marti, as self-deprecating and selfish because she is living in a war zone where she is effectively the enemy. The main aggressor are the ‘Bloods’ whose manifesto is based on bigotry and zero tolerance for anyone different from that; Marti is mixed race and trans.
Marti’s dream of running off to Amsterdam to enjoy her teenage dream is opposed to her moral need to deliver her father’s important research to those fighting against the Bloods; everything a great dystopian YA needs at its core. However I found the whole book so uncomfortable; there are frequent jokes about kidnap and r/pe and the whole narrative felt insincere with a main character I didn’t feel grew that much from her experiences.
I will say I loved ‘Junk’ by Burgess but this one really didn’t hit the mark for me and I hate to say that about any book but despite an original plotline I just wasn’t convinced by the end story, just not for me.

I was curious to read another Melvyn Burgess book, having read Junk many years ago and rereading it just recently. For me that book is one of the stand out books of its time and instrumental in the birth of the YA genre.
This book has slightly missed the boat for me. Set in a dystopian future with a far right movement taking over Britain by force. It obviously draws on current situations around the world but I found the main character pretty unlikeable and I wasn't really a fan of the style of writing, with the MC talking to the reader.
It was ok but not another Junk.

Three Bullets is another thought-provoking and compelling read from Melvin Burgess who always manages to write books that keep you hooked and make you think because of the issues and subjects covered within the story, and this was no different.

I bumped this book up my TBR list because I was so excited by the prospect of it. I fan girl over Melvin Burgess with Bloodtide/Bloodsong being some of my favourite books. Having grown up reading his books (and regularly revisiting them) I was excited by the prospect of what this book entails.

I'll admit that I'd read into the book before I started. I went on the website discussing the three books all set in the dystopian future and so knew what I was reading about. Lucky I did because I think if I'd gone in there blind I'd have been even more confused. The book itself feels like it's trying to be clever by being so dismissive of the main character, but it creates a feeling of ingenuinty that I really didn't enjoy. Mari, our main character, doesn't really like herself, and she already knows from the beginning that you're not going to like her, it's true, you won't. She doesn't have a lot of redeeming features, and this isn't the type of book where you're surprised at the end by a character transformation, or at least I wasn't.

There were some really great parts of this book, parts that made me cry, parts that made me gasp in shock. There were parts I really liked, but as a whole, this wasn't the best read. The topic is a great one, it's something we need to have more conversations about. There's a real risk that as a society we're firmly heading in the wrong direction. But perhaps the tone that it was presented with was not right. Too flippant? Too.... I don't know. I just, I wanted to love this book, I was so excited about it, but, yeah, ultimately, I was disappointed.

This is a dystopian novel, set during a civil war in the UK in the not-too-distant future. The main character, Marti, is a mixed race trans girl, who really is not very likeable. She is blunt and shocking and makes no apologies for her decisions. I found her impossible to relate to, having said that, I imagine my young adult children would really enjoy reading Marti’s story and revel in her directness. This is a story that shows a brutal future for humanity.
I found the story hard to follow at first as there are so many factions fighting for supremacy: sexism, abuse, racism, fascism, indoctrination… all addressed with hard-hitting bluntness.
Following the bombing of her home, and the apparent death of her mother, Marti plans to leave England for Amsterdam. She is keen to abandon her little brother and ‘adopted’ sister, Maude, to follow her own dreams. Marti’s father has disappeared and left her with some precious software that could change the future and reverse some of the changes that ‘The Bloods’ have programmed into those that don’t ‘naturally’ follow their cause. However, Marti’s selfishness means that the software is in danger of never being delivered to its intended target.
It is only due to Maude that the three children set off on a journey across the country. Their journey is full of violence, hardship and cruelty. Perhaps my dislike of Marti allowed me to continue this journey with them?
The title of this novel is important. The three bullets are perhaps a chink in Marti’s persona. When she explains their intended purpose, and how she actually uses them, it is clear that there is more to Marti than you tend to get to know.
At the beginning of the novel, Burges tells you that this is part of a triptych and I’m mildly curious to read the other two to see how they fit together. Honestly, so much of this book is difficult that I’m not sure I can – but I suspect young adult readers will avidly consume all three titles!

This has raw emotion bursting from the page, just what I'd expect from this author. It is uncompromising and yet somehow manages to be uplifting - Marti really is a good person deep down, but a victim of circumstance. As ever the research is meticulous, the author taking time to talk to people who have been there.

Direct and disturbing account of an England that is beliveably set in what might not be a too distant future.

Marti is a mixed race trans girl at the centre of the story, her story is tainted by love and violence and while the reader might have sympathy for her plight, she isn't that likeable a character, which helps stave off some of the true horror of the narrative.

If anything the book is trying to deal with just too many issues, with racism, homophobia, fascism, you name it. Jarring and insistent, the book gives a lot of food for thought and is a cautionary tale against where none of us want to end up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really wanted to love this book - Burgess is one of my favourite YA authors. However, I think it may have been just too difficult for him to pull off the viewpoint of a black, trans girl. I think the aim of exploring a dystopic Britain also almost gave the plot too much to do - it felt like very heavy lifting at times and almost like he was giving us vignettes rather than an overarching plot. The series is an interesting topic and I'll be intrigued to see the others, but I think this one falls a little short.

Melvin Burgess is a unique voice in YA literature but I’m not entirely convinced he has hit the right note with this one. Set in a dystopian England, where The Bloods are in charge and as right wing Christian fundamentalists, you can imagine there are a lot of people they don’t like.

Marti is a mixed race trans girl and when her house gets bombed, killing her mum, she goes on the run with her toddler brother and Maude - a young woman her mum took in. Marti has some software on her phone that could help the fight against the bloods but it needs to be delivered into the right hands. Marti states from the beginning that the reader will not like her and at times her selfishness is astounding but as her struggle goes on you do start to see a different side to her.

This is a book I will purchase for the school library but I’m not expecting it to jump off the shelves but it may just get into the right hands.

Set in the UK, but one being ravaged by a brutal civil war, this novel tells the story of two teenagers and a toddler who flee from Manchester. It addresses many difficult issues: race, gender, family, violence and is not an easy read. It is, however, thought-provoking and original and I certainly found it compelling.

Not too sure this book was for me! I enjoyed the background to it but didn't quite connect with the development and characters, specially with the fact that the author is a white cis man.