A review by frantic_vampire
The Scapegracers by August Clarke

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Holy crap, The Scapegracers was such a good book! I was a little unsure going into it, but it grabbed my attention almost immediately. It’s got a gritty neon hazed weirdness to it, reminiscent of teen horror movies. And weirdness is something that I absolutely love in a book.

I loved Sideways and the rest of this magical girl gang! Daisy is absolutely unhinged and I loved that about her. Yates is the sweetest person ever and she deserves all the hugs she could ever want. Jing isn’t quite what I expected. She’s a little cold, but loves her friends and would do literally anything for them. And Sideways... damn, I really loved her. She’s so freaking relatable and she’s a huge bundle of contradictions. She’s a social outcast, she doesn’t take shit from anyone and will start a fight, she’s soft and sweet, she’s anxious. And she will do anything for her new friends. I just can’t get enough of these girls and their magic!

Another thing that I loved about this book was that Sideways’ parents were actually involved in her life. Their interactions were so loving and sweet. They gave me hope for other YA books to actually have good parental figures.

If I’m being honest, I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t like about this book. It was such a fun ride all the way through. I loved the blatant lesbian rep, the sapphic rep, the queer rep, the bisexual rep, the gay rep. All of it was so nice to see explicitly stated and not have it floating in some nebulous “are they, aren’t they” space. The Scapegracers is getting a solid four and a half stars from me and I can’t wait for the next book!
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