teen fiction (short stories combined into one arching narrative; "troubled" youth). I liked this ok, esp. as it seemed like it was going to have some diverse characters, but had trouble getting into the short stories. By the second story I figured out that I wasn't really enjoying it, so I returned it to the library. ( )

The book starts at Zeppelin Bend, an open air training program intended to show pained youth the estimation of difficult work, participation, and sympathy, ten adolescents are left stranded in nature. The group is a rather differing bunch who originate from varying backgrounds, and they were totally sent to Zeppelin Bend as a last opportunity to get them to turn their lives around. They've quite recently gone through about fourteen days of survival training and now their educators have dropped them off eighteen miles from camp with no nourishment, no water, and just their packs, and they'll need to battle to conquer their tremendous contrasts on the off chance that they would like to endure. During their camping trip, they each share their stories of why they are innocent and how they shouldn't be at this camp, but are they really telling the truth?

4.5 Stars

“THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS AN OBJECTIVE TRUTH ANYMORE. IT’S ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU BELIEVE. BELIEVE SOMETHING HARD ENOUGH AND – TO YOU AT LEAST – THAT’S THE TRUTH FOREVER AND EVER, AND FUCK ANYONE WHO TRIES TO TELL YOU OTHERWISE.”

I love anthologies and retellings so this was a perfect combination for me. The narration is fantastic – dark, humorous, honest. The transitions between stories are great, and I really liked the different character dynamics we get to see. Feral Youth follows 10 troubled teens who are left alone in the woods and must make it back to their camp. To pass the time, they decide to tell stories, and what we get is engaging POV stories from different authors reflecting the different characters. Feral Youth is a story within a story - we see into these characters lives, and see their truths, or what they present as their truths, and we see their growth. It’s such a unique and fun reading experience!

Things I Liked
I loved the narration and Gio as the narrator. It was blunt, honest, and biting. I loved the candor Gio spoke with and the humor we got from all the characters interacting. There were many stubborn personalities, and their clashing provided excellent entertainment. I love that Gio presents himself as truthful, but he is still an unreliable narrator.

I also thought the transitions between the character stories and the narration was done very well. The lead-ins to the character stories flowed naturally from the situation or from character’s conversation, when they easily could have been clunky or abrupt.

The character’s stories themselves were fantastic! I loved that we got a mix of personal/biographical stories and ones that were fiction. It was a nice balance, and even the non-biographical stories were personal to the characters and showed more about them. I like how Gio says that stories aren’t about truthfulness, but about the belief and intent of the storyteller. It becomes their truth, and thereby the truth.

I liked seeing the character growth through the 3 day trek through the woods. We see the characters learn more about themselves. We see them examine how they are viewed by society and others, what expectations are placed on them, how people interact with them and how they interact with the world around them. All the characters learn something that impacts them. Which is best shown in this quote:

“Our parents and teachers and all the other adults in our lives might have seen us as animals, as feral youth, determined to destroy our lives and the lives of those around us, but we weren’t. We were people, and we would not be ignored anymore.”

Favorite stories: “Jackie’s Story” by Justina Ireland & “Self-Portrait” by Brandy Colbert

Things I Didn’t Like
I don’t even think you can call them chapters really, but the sections sometimes felt a little long, and I found myself taking breaks in the middle of a story. So I wasn’t as invested as I would have liked to have been during parts. This is purely a personal preference, as I tend to prefer shorter chapters and sections in books. And as this majorly focuses on characters, I feel like being invested is needed for me as a reader.

Least favorite story: “Big Brother, Part 1” by E.C. Myers (I did like Part 2!)

Feral Youth is a love story to the downtrodden, misguided misunderstood, and disrespected. We see these characters, who for some reason or another, are shunned as “troubled” and “bad” by those around them. This is their story and their truths. This is a band of misfits coming together and embracing themselves and their experiences. I loved basically everything about the story and I will definitely be reading more from all of these authors in the future!

Trigger Warnings: self harm (“The Butterfly Effect”), rape (“The Chaos Effect”)

I received a copy of the book from Simon Pulse via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. ( )

We have once again found a book that is inspired by “The Canterbury Tales”, the medieval tome that I have not read. Even though I was excited about “Feral Youth”, enough so to highlight in on this blog, I was a bit worried that I would miss key components because of my ignorance. But I still went ahead and picked it up, and I’m glad that my self doubt didn’t discourage me. “Feral Youth” is a strong collection of short stories from a number of talented YA Authors, some of whom I loved before, others of whom I am now interested in pursuing.

As the description says, the premise is that a number of teenagers at a program for troubled youth are on an eighteen mile team building exercise hike, and tell stories to each other to pass the time or provide distraction. Each author of the collection has written a story for each of the teenagers, and created some insight into their personalities through the stories. As a whole the collection was pretty strong, with a few excellent standouts and a couple of clunkers. I’m going to talk about my three favorites here.

“A Ruthless Dame” By Tim Floreen: Cody is a closeted teen in a religious family. He starts up a romance with Mike, the boy next door who is visiting from college, and has a passionate, yet brief, love affair. But after Mike goes radio silent, Cody feels like he’s been used. When Mike comes home the next break, Cody finds out that Mike not only has a girlfriend, but a number of photos of underage boys on his phone… Cody included. Cody decides to follow the footsteps of the femme fatales of his favorite noir movies to get his revenge. This story was a pure revenge fantasy piece, and I greatly enjoyed Cody and his manipulations. While in many ways he has been victimized by Mike, he doesn’t take things lying down, and is brilliant in his scheming. I was cackling as I read this story, but also always had a sense for the tragic existence that Cody is living and why he loses himself in noir films.

“A Cautionary Tale” by Stephanie Kuehn: C.J. Perez has found himself in the role of Student Safety Escort during a college’s Avalon Festival. He meets Hollis, a sophomore who pulls C.J. into an urban legend and conspiracy theory about a serial killer, or something worse, that kills students at the school in cycles. While C.J. is skeptical, he and Hollis find out that things may not always be what they seem. This story was the one that pulled the rug out from under me, plot wise, and I expected nothing less from Stephanie Kuehn. You all know how much I love her books, and this short story is just another triumph of hers. The suspense builds and the behavior of various characters simmers in unsettling ways, so this combined made for an intense and shocking read. Man, I would love it if Kuehn would do flat out horror in her future works, because this story shows that not only could she pull it off, she could create something fabulous.

“Self Portrait” by Brandy Colbert: When Sunday moves to a new town and new school, she befriends Michah and Eli, two brothers. Michah and Eli have a tumultuous relationship, and Sunday finds herself in the middle of their low simmering feud. But she never could have imagined that she would find herself betrayed so fiercely by one of them. Colbert was the other author that I was very excited for, and “Self Portrait” didn’t disappoint. I feel like Colbert knows how to build up the feel of YA melodrama without ever crossing into the ridiculous, and Sunday’s story continues that theme. It was one of the quieter stories in this book, but it still packed a real emotional punch at the end of it.

The stories are strung together through interactions between the characters on the camping trip, and it was interesting to try and parse out who were reliable narrators and unreliable ones based on those moments. But all in all, it ultimately doesn’t matter if these stories are ‘true’, at least within the context of the story. The point is that they shed insight into those telling it, and with all these different authors telling these different stories it does feel like a group of unique individuals. If I missed anything because of my lack of knowledge of “The Canterbury Tales”, I didn’t notice it. It stood on it’s own two feet well.

“Feral Youth” was an enjoyable collection of short stories that showcases some good writers. If you want a taste of some of these authors, this is the place to start! ( )

** I read an e-ARC of this book that I received from Edelweiss **

A very enjoyable compilation of stories about a group of young people dealing with issues who end up at a camp for troubled youth. The stories are written so that you can't, for the most part, determine how much of each story is true. They are told by the characters themselves with little or no background information and leave much to the imagination of the reader. It isn't until the end that you discover what really did and didn't happen and even then, some things are left up in the air. My favorite was "A Violation of Rule 16" about a teen girl who decides to fight against the unfair (and unofficial) dress code at her school. I loved her character and the story! This is a wonderful book for young adults and is definitely recommended for teen book clubs and school libraries! ( )