Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Scout's Honor

Buffy meets Stranger Things and add in some major PTSD and anxiety and you’ve got Scout’s Honor. It took me awhile to get into this book, which is typical when I’m reading a main character’s pov and they have anxiety (I can find that to be triggering). Once I got used to Prue’s voice, I was really able to dive into this one and enjoy it.

I wasn’t a huge fan of The Beast at first, but she ended up being my absolute favorite character. The baby birds were all unique and made a great team and I loved seeing Prue changing the way she trained her scouts. I did not like how no one in Prue’s family, not even her father most of the time, seemed to care that she was clearly struggling with her PTSD and anxiety. It was hard to read at times, but emphasized the found family aspect a lot.

All in all, I thought this was a great book and I always love to see a badass female main character. I do think this book being tagged as LGBTQIA is a stretch as the queer side character is only mentioned a couple times, but there was tons of other diversity amongst the characters.

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is marketed as a cross between Buffy and Stranger Things, and that absolutely hits the nail on the head. Anderson has crafted this incredibly creative world, where Ladybirds fight monsters that appear because of people's emotions. I loved that they mentioned things like Girl Scouts, and the Ladybirds used groups like that as a cover for the fact that they go out slaying these monsters every night instead. That concept is just so fun and it was executed, for the most part, really well.

There's a lot of great discussion in here about gender, about the way society separates us out by gender, and the ways that women are kind of supposed to be emotional guardians. Prudence decides to leave the Ladybirds because it was too much of a reminder of the death of her friend, but in training new recruits, she's able to see that maybe she could make a change to some of the more probelmatic aspects of the organization. Her character arc and emotional journey is a satisfying one, and she makes a great narrator for the story.

I will say, this is tagged as LGBTQ, but there's really only one side character who is a lesbian and it's not mentioned very much. I do kind of wish this was more present in the book because there were so many opportunities for it, but oh well. I still loved the way this book fought against the patriarchy and worked to say that you can go out slaying monsters as much as you want, but your emotional health is just as important as your physical health. Not enough fantasy books talk about that!

All in all, this was a fun read that fans of any kind of monster hunting I think will love. And the narrator for the audiobook does a fantastic job!

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notalightbulb's review

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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ednam0dewannabe's review

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Unfortunately I don't have enough free time to continue this reading.... And I have to return the book to the library tomorrow! 😭 I hope I can get another chance to read it in the near future.

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imstephtacular's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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kaitplusbooks's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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