Review of ‘The Scapegracers’ (Scapegracers #1)

Synopsis

An outcast teenage lesbian witch finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process.

Skulking near the bottom of West High’s social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she’s had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now–unbelievably–Sideways’ best friends.

Together, the four bond to form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude the fundamentalist witch hunters hellbent on stealing their magic. But for Sideways, the hardest part is the whole ‘having friends’ thing. Who knew that balancing human interaction with supernatural peril could be so complicated?

Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series.

Review

I’m someone who makes an effort to finish every book I pick up. The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke was not one I could finish.

It has been a long time since I’ve put a novel on my did not finish pile, and that is because I usually hold out hope that the story is going to get better. This novel did not and about halfway through it, I faced facts: I would not be finishing this story.

The biggest issue with this novel is the two-dimensional writing and static dialogue. These characters have no substance to them; they flounder in the story that has virtually no plot. There are lackluster personalities and a pitiful attempt to make the novel something good. It has a great premise to it but the dialogue is choppy at best.

It feels as though this story was written by an adult who has no idea how actual young adult talks. The dialogue is dated and fails even more with the poor pacing and lack of personality. There is nothing to draw the reader in, nothing to make the reader invested in the characters.

Then there is the plot or lack thereof. It is not clear what the plot of the story is. It had a good beginning, but it was thrown out, it seems by trying to build up the feministic approach of the story, by the idea that girls need to stick together. A promising idea but it should not have taken away from developing what could have been a great arc to explore. The story is left undeveloped, as it forgets about what happened in the first chapter and waits until half the novel passes to circle back to it.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, The Scapegracers was just not a good novel. I wanted to like it, I loved the premise, but the shallow, two-dimensional characters just failed to keep me invested in the story.

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About the Author

Cynthia Bujnicki graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has always loved to read since she was a child. A contributing writer for YA Fantasy Addicts, she is also the Editor-in-Chief for Cyn's Workshop. She lives in sunny South Florida with her husband and son and their two cats, Mr. J the Kitten and Nyx.