S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett / Review by Elise Reed
S.T.A.G.S.
By M.A. Bennett
Delacorte Press
$18.99
ISBN 978-0525578468
Publication Date: January 30, 2018
Book of the Day
S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett is a fantastic new YA novel. It has everything that a reader could want: An exclusive boarding school in England, the privileged class (the ones you really love to hate) and of course, the heroine–the poor scholarship student who really just wants to show everyone that she is just as good as they are. But, there is a twist to this tale, one that makes is so much more delicious...
Greer MacDonald is new to St. Aidan the Great boarding school, better known as just S.T.A.G.S. She is an outsider. She is not one of the snobby blue-bloods that boast multigenerational ties to S.T.A.G.S. And she doesn't' want to be... well, not really. But when she receives an invitation to spend the weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt for some with several of the most wealthy and popular students–she feels like she has made a breakthrough. But, it's not her social life that hangs in the balance at this get-a-way.
The is a really well-written book. The premise may not be completely unprecedented, but it is one of those stories that even if you have a good idea about where things may lead-it's the journey that makes it worthwhile. The world that the S.T.A.G.S. students inhabit is so far removed from the life of the average American teenager (even one that has attending boarding school) that it's like a fairytale. A very demented fairytale. Greer is well developed and could hold her own amongst most of the adolescent protagonist in the genre. She is a bit of Katniss and a bit of Bella. And Henry... he is every girl's dream and nightmare rolled into one. This is a great stand-alone book but could lead to a series.