Review Detail

THE PACK is the first book in a new Middle-Grade series. Sadie has never fit in anywhere and has been labeled as disruptive. Then she comes to the Charm Boarding school where she discovers that some girls have an animal light inside them and she is one of them.
This book features an interesting premise and lots of quick-moving action. We follow along as Sadie learns more about what being an animal light, a leader of the pack, and a good friend is all about. She and her friends navigate through terrible attacks from a “scratcher” who is hurting students and scratching the number 13 on the victims. She gets her first crush and if that is not already a lot of interesting events, she uncovers why her new friend has terrible headaches and suffers memory loss.
There are a few interactions where the girls act a bit catty to others that I was happy to see addressed. I was a bit tired of the mean-girl interactions and clique mentality, but my child ate up the drama. Most of the girls’ studies are learning how to control their powers and to be able to pass as normal in society. We learn that there is a government organization that seizes and experiments on the girls if they are found. That is the only reason that I am ok with the theme of learning to repress who you are instead of having a theme of embracing and celebrating your differences. I would like to see this change in future books.
Overall, this book was an engaging read that even my reluctant reader was happy to stick with to the end. We used an audiobook for this story and found the narrator to do a good job with Sadie’s character. This was a good stepping stone from short chapter books to ones that are a bit longer.