Feral Youth

by Shaun David Hutchinson, Suzanne Young, Marieke Nijkamp, Robin Talley, Stephanie Kuehn, E.C. Myers, Tim Floreen, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Justina Ireland, and Brandy Colbert

Follows ten teens who are left alone in the wilderness amid a three-day survival test.

• ISBN13: 9781481491112
• Publish Date: 5 September 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon Pulse
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Free read on Rivetedlit.com Nov 2019

I really like the premise and was into this at first. But then a third of the way through, the momentum just tanked. I had days to finish it before Riveted took it down, and I couldn't be bothered to go back.

DNF'd. Kinda regret not finishing it while free, but not enough to do anything about it.

Great idea. Not executed for my tastes.

[Sam@WLABB]

An anthology, which was masterfully tied together with a compelling overall story.

"Nothing we did mattered because, to our families, we were only what we'd done to get sent here. It's all they would ever see."

This is their last chance. Each one of these "feral youth" have committed so sort of crime, and have landed themselves on the wrong side of the law. This camp is their chance to "rehabilitate" themselves, and avoid greater punishment. Anthologies are hit or miss for me, but I would put this is the "hit" column for me. This collection was very cohesive, and that common thread is what grabbed me and kept me reading. I liked that this last-chance survival group was filled with people from different socioeconomic groups, with different skin colors, with different sexual preferences, and from different types of families. I liked that diversity, because it showed that we are different, but we are the same. We all make mistakes. We all hurt. We all feel pain and loss.

"Whether a story is true isn't important if you're hurting all the same because of it."

I liked the variety in the storytelling. Some stories read like an oral history. They appeared to be a true retelling of the events, while others hid the truth in fiction behind horror, lore, and mythology. These stories were not realistic, but I could find the "truths" that were concealed within the tale.

"If you keep feeding the fire, it will grow and wait to devour you. You don't realize it until it's too late."

Two stories stood out for me. I found Marieke Nijkamp's story very powerful. It was split in two parts, and after reading the first part, I already knew what was going on in that character's life. The power was in what she said without actually coming out and saying it. It was the feelings she evoked and the sadness that wrapped around me. I also loved Suzanne Young's piece. I think I may have fist-pumped at one point, because she was saying things that I have felt for so long regarding the way young women are treated by society.

"My crime is being female in a place that values male education over mine."

There were many good, even great, compelling tales shared by the different authors, however, I attribute this really working for me because of the parts that came in-between each story. We had a great narrator, and it was the overarching story, which gave greater meaning to each of the short stories contained therein. These in-between parts are where we learned a little more about each character, and also where we learned more about what really happened. We also saw how the characters were changing over those three days during those connecting parts, and I really believe that is what elevated this anthology for me.

"I don't know how much of what any of them said was the truth, but it doesn't matter because the truth doesn't exist in our words but in the spaces between them."

**I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. Quotes are from an ARC and may change upon publication.

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