Maybe I didn’t like this book the way other readers did because I had raised the bar way too high (when it comes to gory murders the BBC is always a cut above us all!) so if the genre appeals to anyone who’s reading this review I’d recommend not to be completely put off by it, give it a chance and see for yourself! This was in itself an interesting premise: Primarily a YA book Stags is an Elite boarding school steeped in tradition and elitism.

Honestly, this book made me angrier than I thought was possible. And it wasn't because I didn't enjoy the book (which happens!) but because this book LIED to me. It's like that episode of Bob's Burgers:

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Greer is newly obsessed with Harry, understandable considering her involvement with his death; but he’s suddenly now romanticised - she’s idolising him and wishing he were there with her: hello, he tried to kill you! He tortured you and your friends! I did like the writing. It was very easy to read. The characters are fun, a bit annoying at times but interesting too. I don’t know what it is about this series, but I find it utterly addicting. I was up till 2am reading this, unable to put it down until I literally had to force myself to stop and go to sleep. I feel like this would translate amazingly into film or TV - and the setting would be all the more breathtaking. Think Skins set in Downton Abbey with a dash of Mean Girls. Hate is a strong word. I don’t use very often in my life, I don’t think I’ve ever used at all when talking about books, except maybe once and I don’t like to use it at all. But S.T.A.G.S brought out that emotion in spades and I hated every single moment of this miserable nightmarish experience. If I could take away the memories of reading this book out of me, I would. I hated it that much.

About Olds's poetry, one reviewer for the New York Times said, "Her work has a robust sensuality, a delight in the physical that is almost Whitmanesque. She has made the minutiae of a woman's everyday life as valid a subject for poetry as the grand abstract themes that have preoccupied other poets." Another issue I had with this book was that it was really crazy and pretty ridiculous. You really have to suspend your disbelief reading this book. Dapo Adeola, Tracy Darnton, Joseph Coelho and Chitra Soundar are among the 19 authors and illustrators longlisted for the Inclusive Books for Child...D.O.G.S begins where S.T.A.G.S left off and the second half of the autumn term with seventeen-year-old working class northerner and film buff, Greer MacDonald, and her fellow outsider friend, Shafeen and Chanel (Nel), preparing to face their final exams (Probitiones). And with Greer aiming for Oxford and two-thirds of her overall drama mark dependent on directing a play written prior to 1660, for once her encyclopaedic knowledge of films is no help. Short on ideas and with charismatic Henry de Warlencourt of the first novel still intruding on her thoughts, the convenient arrival of a handwritten manuscript for Act One of a tragedy entitled The Isle of Dogs under her dormitory door provides the answer. As Greer reads the first act she is drawn into a dark yet accessible Elizabethan allegory that seems to provide an incisive commentary on Tudor history and Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. What she does capture are the bizarre corners of divorce--how she wants to comfort him for the pain he's feeling for leaving her in "Last Look" The good ones weren’t that better. Their characters were flat and one dimensional and didn’t peak my interest for a second. But let’s just say that the main female character is the worst of them all. She was dull, stupid and easily manipulated. Like what the hell was she thinking most of times, behaving that way even though it was abundantly clear that something is wrong with the students that invited them. No, she actually doesn’t care about that, not when the main villain is so handsome and his eyes are so deep and beautiful and he makes her feel so pretty. I mean what she is doing for heaven’s sake. She knew how bad he was and she has a very solid proof on all the horrible things he’s done but he’s actually look pretty good and concerned so to hell with all the dirt she has on him. He can’t be possible that bad and that handsome, can he now. I swear that girl has the intelligence of an empty chair. And to see her disregard her friends worries for him and putting their lives in danger because she’s just that infatuated with him. I can’t even with her. I just can’t It is different from standard YA releases and the concept is great. The problem is in the execution. Greer is a fish out of water as a scholarship student at this exclusive school for the extremely wealthy. Largely ignored by her peers, she finally feels like she is being accepted by the elite group at school when she receives an invitation. Greer is thrust into their world of privilege, but comes to realise things are not what they seem. She just gets worse and worse and worse. She constantly talks about how she's a bad feminist because basically every time Henry even glances at her, she loses brain function. And uh, yeah. You're right to worry. But this isn't bad feminist in the Roxane Gay essay kind of way. It's just... bad.

Greer herself seemed easily swayed by a pretty face in spite of the mountain of evidence revealed to her here. It is the autumn term and Greer MacDonald is struggling to settle into the sixth form at the exclusive St. Aidan the Great boarding school, known to its privileged pupils as S.T.A.G.S. Just when she despairs of making friends Greer receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed upon on it: Huntin' Shootin' Fishin'. When Greer learns that the invitation is to spend the half term weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at STAGS, she is as surprised as she is flattered. Seriously? I've not even touched on some the things I really hate about this book yet. Oh no, I've not even started. This was kind of fun, if far fetched, but I have to mark it down because I was so uncomfortable with certain elements: Poor Chanel a classmate of Greer's seems to get it heavily from these snobs mainly because her father is new money which is apparently worse than just being working class or a scholarship student.How does your main protagonist, Greer, develop through the series, and her romantic interests in the novel, Shafeen and Henry?