vagasker
Written on Jan 27, 2016
- ISBN10 0062295195
- ISBN13 9780062295194
- Publish Date 9 September 2014
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 24 September 2022
- Publish Country US
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc
- Imprint HarperCollins
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 416
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.com.au/9780062295194
Reviews
liz089
Written on Jan 25, 2016
STANDALONE or SERIES.
Standalone, unfortunately.
WHY this book.
I was looking for what to read next.. and a friend of mine recommended this a while back on Goodreads. The plot sounded interesting and something different, with no fantasy or supernatural beings in it for a change. So why not !
FIRST THOUGHTS.
I really liked this book !! It made me sooo angry and frustrated sometimes !! It was a very addictive read and I finished it in no time ! I’ve been reading mostly fantasy books lately, so this was a nice change as well. No looking out of monsters, or at least, a different kind of monsters. It was really exciting too, very mysterious and intriguing. I kept rooting for the main all the way through !!
PLOT.
I really enjoyed the plot, some things were a bit predictive, but I got surprised a couple of times as well. It had a good pace, not too fast, but not too slow as well. The more I got towards the ending, the more intriguing it became. I did not know who was good and who was bad, and I kept second-guessing. Love that in a book !!
I really appreciated that it was not only about the way the military is very biased about females, but because of how those men have a strong sense of how things are supposed to be, a lot of other people are being discriminated too. Like gays in the military for example. It gave a good picture about how things should be modernized.
SETTING.
It was set in a military school, which I do not read a lot about.. But it come across very real ! A lot of terms were thrown around that I didn’t know very well, but the writer explained almost everything. Turns out, that the author has been to military school herself ! How awesome is that ! And it really showed, because everything seemed so realistic and true ! Mainly, all the rules and protocols, the way you bond as a team.. it seemed like I was right there with them and suffering among them, just amazing !
And not just school with military stuff, but the whole secret society was very cool too ! It kept me wondering who was in it, who to trust, who not to trust.. very exciting !
ROMANCE.
Yes there was romance, some tension filled scenes, but it kept more on the background. As a first-year Worm, our main character was the lowest of the lowest and not allowed to date. It could be seen as an easy way to climb up on the ladder, which is against all regulations. And our main really wanted to obey the rules and succeed, so except for a couple of kisses not a lot happened. But that was okay ! Because it fitted with Sam’s personality and her motivation to make through the year.
EMOTION.
I felt so much with this book, so much ! Most of it being anger (stupid men and their stupid prejudices), but also a lot of frustration that they didn’t give up. She tried so hard, she did better than most of her platoon, she proved herself so many times and still they wanted her out because she is a female. So mean !!
Some swooning too, over her drill.. *sight*..
And I loved the comradery, how the guys in her platoon started out disliking having a female, but the further they got, she did probe herself to them and they accepted her. It felt so great she had allies !!
CHARACTERS.
I LOVED the main character. I know her name is Sam, but I think more of her as Mac though. And Mac is everything a strong independent woman should be like. She was always thinking of the greater good, kind of stubborn, but not in a way that got herself almost killed (oh well.. yeah but that was not because of her stupidity). She knew when to give in and let others help her because she needed it, not because she was weak, but because she could not make it otherwise. She kept to her principles, and damn, I would have kicked the hell out of those guys for treating her that way. She had an aspiring amount of self-control.
Some characters that I liked in the beginning, betrayed her, and even though they made up in the end, I could not like them again. Only the ones that were there the entire time and didn’t stop protecting her. Like Ritchy and the other guys from her platoon.
I LOVED Drill. Like Mac, he put his principles before the possibility of a romance and I respected that.
I HATED Matthews with the fire of a thousand suns. He was so mean, evil even. He put her through so much, because of what ? The stupid society didn’t like females ? Screw that, she is a human being, and you don’t treat people that way. Especially at the end, what he did was unforgivable. He should have been punished way harder !! And Evers is an asshole too !!
THE BAD.
I really loved this book, but I did not like that, to me, it feels like it is not finished yet. What is going to happen in the next year ? I have questions !!! Some things were left kind of open and I dislike that.
FAVORITE QUOTES.
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are an ocean in a drop.”
.
“Alpha, lower your left hand onto the hand of the recruit buddy to your left. Lean your shoulder into him. Let him support you.”
And just like that, Drill is there, a rock to lean against. I lean into his shoulder, easing some of the pain. I support Nix to my right, his body heavy on my shoulder. We all shake, we all sweat, including Drill, who did every exercise with us tonight.
“Now listen to the words of the song. You are Alpha. You eat together, breathe together. You live together and you die together. Never forget that. Feel the weight of your recruit buddy. Know that you are holding him up. Feel the weakness in your own muscles. Know that you would not still be up if your recruit buddy wasn’t helping you. This year is all about you becoming a unit.” His last words about unity echo the chorus of the song.
My eyes sting, and Nix, who never cries, no matter how bad the smoke shows get, sniffles to my right. I’m not alone in this moment and Drill is fully responsible.
“Thank you,” I whisper as the music fades.”
FINAL THOUGHTS.
I had a lot of fun (and frustrations) reading this book. It taught me some new things and I always like that. It was different and exciting and full of mystery. I would totally recommend it to you, it is a great read if you like some mystery and feeling angry haha. I have a big sense for injustice and it kept feeding me throughout most of the book. But when she succeeded I had also a big happy feeling, like HA SCREW YOU SHE DID IT ANYWAY !!! So yeah, I would like to give this book 4.5 Freyja’s ! I’m keeping half a Freyja because I missed some closure at the end.
Amber
Written on Dec 7, 2014
What I Was Promised:
* Fantastic female characters who take matters into their own hands
* Hot romantic happenings
* Exciting military training
What I Got:
* A fairly bland main character in the form of Sam McKenna. I was ready to be wooed, I truly was, but Sam failed to keep my attention. I didn’t find her enticing at all, although I did appreciate at least some of her characterisation, like how she suffered under the rule of her military father and, later on, her fellow students at the military school, and how she still held her ground. Unfortunately she was unable to captivate me because she was so damn boring. What was her personality? I still don’t know despite having finished the book.
* A romance that was neither hot nor romantic. I don’t know, I just didn’t feel the chemistry. You might argue that this book is more about Sam than some guy, which is kind of true, but if romance has to be included then I want it to be steamy. This thing between Sam and that guy (whose name I neither learnt nor cared for) wasn’t steamy. In fact, I was falling asleep when they were together, especially since all of their kissing (almost or otherwise) scenes were described EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. There is only so many times that I can read about someone being pinned against a wall and (nearly) kissed before I grow bored, and this is coming from someone whose favourite kink is Wall Sex.
* The military training was also the most boring thing. It just kept on happening and I really didn’t care for it. Reading about the way the guys treated Sam was disturbing, and was almost enough to make me care, but the rest of the training bits were dull.
* Oh, oh, and can we talk about how Sam forgives a guy who treats her like absolute shit and goes along with the bullies, and yet she tells a girl who’s been sleeping with the opposite team to basically fuck off out of her life forever? What is this bullshit. They both deserved to be excluded from Sam’s life but nooooo, this guy is apparently her best friend forever and so very trustworthy. Ugh.
Rites of Passage was not the book that I was expecting, clearly.
shannonmiz
Written on Sep 21, 2014
Where do I even begin? Okay, first, you need to know that I know nothing about the military. I don’t understand its rules or hierarchy, or culture in general. I have one friend in the military, but I zone out when he starts talking Army.
Anyway, the reason I tell you that is because it didn’t matter. The way Joy N. Hensley writes, you feel like you could be tossed into the Denmark Military Academy at any minute, and you’d totally understand. There isn’t info dumping, or excessive descriptions, just the absolute perfect balance of terminology and explanation.
This is one of those all-encompassing, book hangover inducing, “crap, I am now stuck in this world for months” books. Plainly put, it sucked me in. I couldn’t stop reading. It wasn’t even just a typical page-turner for me; it was more that I felt so enmeshed in the book that it felt like my temporary reality. I felt every imaginable emotion so strongly during this book. When Sam was being treated unfairly, I was so incredibly angry, I felt like punching someone. When Sam felt broken, I felt broken. The connection I had with her was remarkable.
The characters were amazing as well. Sam was just a true heroine. Yes, she was a strong girl from the beginning of the book, but the transformation she made during the year was just lovely. She is tough, but still so very human. She is absolutely one of my favorite female characters of all time.
The supporting characters were also extremely well fleshed out. Let’s just take a minute and swoon over Drill Sergeant Stamm. He was just amazing, in every way. There are some fellow recruits who stand up for her and protect her, but they are the minority. Not only do some of the other Academy members not want females in their school (or the military in general, from the sound of it), but a generations-old society isn’t accepting the girls either. The “good old boys” will stop at seemingly nothing to get Sam and the other females out of the DMA as soon as possible, and sadly, I don’t think this is terribly exaggerated. It is infuriating and heartbreaking to read, but cheering Sam and her small band of allies along is a treat. Of course, with a secret society behind the push to remove her, it is hard for Sam (and the reader!) to decipher who is trustworthy.
This book made me cry, yell, laugh, swoon, and cry some more, and it was absolutely stunning. The gut-wrenching twists and turns and the exquisitely real characterizations made for a book that captivated me and one I am sure I will never forget.
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Aug 7, 2014
What kept this from being five cups of coffee was the ending. While the main issues are mostly resolved, it was also open-ended. Rites of Passage needs to be a series. I need to go back to the Academy and see what develops from the remaining threats to the romance.
Copy received from publisher and full review posted at Caffeinated. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Linda
Written on Aug 4, 2014
Very creepy, a little bit with a Lord of the Flies undertone.
This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews
Ashley
Written on May 25, 2014
Rites of Passage has me a bit torn. There were definitely pros and cons with this book.
Things I Liked
For the most part, I LOVED Sam as a character. That girl is tough as nails! She gets an insane amount of shit thrown at her at the Denmark Military Academy, but she never backs down. There were tons of times when I wish she'd stand up for herself more, but that's just not military style, so I understand why she didn't. If I were her, I probably would have punched everyone in the face 5 times instead of standing there and taking their shit.
The whole military aspect of this book was REALLY interesting. I'm so not a military person and I know very little about it. But reading about a hardcore military academy was pretty cool. This may seem weird, but Rites of Passage gave me the strongest urge to go to the gym. I read all about Sam running 5Ks, doing 5 million push ups, running through obstacle courses, etc. I wanted to jump up and get in on that! ...I'm sure I'll feel differently by tomorrow.
However, the shit the recruits got was insane. It was crazy to see how anti-women some of those guys were. What fucking century are we in? Sam beats half the guys in the training exercises, but the guys don't get shit for it—Sam does.. just because she's a girl. So even though she rocks, she's "not cut out for this". Whaaaa??
What I Didn't Like
This book was long—416 pages. But the thing is, I don't feel like it needed to be that long. There were a few times where the book felt slow. There was a ton of build up, but then nothing was happening, or there would be long periods where the plot felt like it was stalling. I think it could have been cut down.
I didn't hate the romance, but I feel like it wasn't developed well. At the beginning of the book, Sam actually has a half romance with a different guy.. this "half romance" went on for so long that I actually had to go and reread the synopsis, because I remembered it saying she falls for her drill sergeant, but this "half romance" was with someone else... It just had me confused. Then when the romance with the drill sergeant finally came into play in the second half, I LIKED it, but I feel like it never came off the ground. It wasn't the focus of the story so I guess it wasn't intended to be super heavy/detailed, but it still felt really awkwardly half developed (especially by the end).
And finally: the ending. Rites of Passage had A TON of build up. The hazing gets more and more violent and brutal.. then I feel like the end was really abrupt and not super satisfying. Without spoiling it, the ending was sort of like: the war isn't over, but we've won the battle.. but actually, even that's generous. It's more like: the war isn't over, but the bad guys don't feel like taking bad PR so they're letting us win this one battle. I was hoping for a lot more. Mostly, I wanted Karma to kick Matthews's ass but it didn't. The guy can still stay at the school! Also I wasn't pleased with Sam's brother's role. He was a total asshat to her the whole time, then at the end he was just like, "I couldn't let them know I was onto them. That's why I was an ass. I didn't mean it." Seriously? That's it?
Overall
I enjoyed a lot of Rites of Passage. It was interesting and felt different from other YA books just because of how military-heavy it was. Even other military books I've read have nothing on this one. Rites of Passage is more like: a day in the life of recruit. It's very cool! If only the romance and ending were a bit better, then thiss could have easily been a 4.5 star book!