Branded was the last book I read don 2021. I found it thanks to NetGallery and the summary seemed too good to be true. A guy finding out secrets about his past, secrets that bound him to a parallel dimension that mixed magic and sci-fi. That combined a lot of things I tend to enjoy.
Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. The world built by Humphrey was amazing. The logic, the rules, how the people interacted, and society were amazing. Work spectacularly done. But I couldn’t quite connect with the characters. The narration lacked personality to feel anything towards them. The constant use of the protagonist's parents as a way out of every situation wasn´t my cup of tea. The characters' lack of empathy and links among the four of them actually connecting them was palpable. And most of all the assumption in which the new information was almost treated as known to the reader. One of the few things that can happen whit worldbuilding, is being so sure about what you know that you assume everyone does. The boor well … It just didn’t cut it for me. The twists were nothing but predictable (except for a few ones). And if I must be fully honest, I didn’t have a good time going through it. But judge for yourselves. That I didn’t like it doesn’t mean that nobody can.

I couldn’t put this book down! When I had to stop reading I picked it up as soon as I could. This book is about a young boy named Henry and his best friend Charley. They find out that our world is not quite what it seems. They have to find out what is going on and put an end to it with the help of Henry’s parents.
Henry is an average teen boy, focusing mostly on baseball and school but everything goes kind of off one day when one of his classmates comes into the classroom screaming. The teachers the next day have no clue what happened and the adventure takes off from there.
The author does a great job of describing the emotions and details of the story. I could feel Henry and Charley’s fear and panic in parts and their happiness in others. The book is amazing and I highly recommend you give it a read, it’s an awesome story.

I feel that this was pretty flat and one dimensional. I really wanted to like this but it would have been better classified as middle grade

this is classified as a ya but it's honestly more for around middle school ages. the language was definitely in no way for teenager-to put it properly, it's what someone from a different generation thinks teens sound like. the characters all fell flat and i didn't care for any of them. the plot sounded promising but the way it was executed was very disappointing, there left no room for character development at all.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked parts of the book, but it didn’t feel like a cohesive whole. The book kept feeling like it was wrapping up and then kept going several times. The first half of the book and second half felt like different books to me. The pace was slow and a little difficult to get through.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Branded

Author: Joseph T. Humphrey

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 2/5

Diversity: MC in Foster Care and Orphaned

Recommended For...: young adult readers, urban fantasy, fantasy, monsters

Publication Date: November 16, 2021

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Recommended Age: 14+ (bullying, abelism on mental health, drugs mentioned, violence, gore slight, parent death)

Explanation of CWs: There is bullying shown in this book. There are some comments made about mental health that are abelist. Drugs are mentioned. There is violence, including gun violence, and slight gore. There is also parent death mentioned and shown.

Publisher: Intrepid Pen Publishing LLC

Pages: 494

Synopsis: Henry Murphy’s parents never told him he was from another realm. They couldn’t, because they have become as unaware as Henry. Everything was forgotten—memories siphoned away by the dark force that stalked them. For the last seventeen years, Henry has been living a lie.

All those years of hiding have been compromised. Henry’s parents fled as refugees after stealing the location of the furnace—a source of power that would have allowed the Nekura uncontested rule over all life. But with their memories silenced, the Nekura have closed in on them unnoticed.

The first warning was the screaming girl. After she broke into Henry’s high school classroom and screamed for him to run, she was hauled away and disappeared. The only friend Henry finds to help him is Charley, a strong-willed orphan girl with a fractured past.

Henry is thrust into a reality he never knew existed and must fight against sinister creatures he cannot touch for reasons he doesn’t understand. What he doesn’t know can still hurt him, and it is hunting him down. Their only hope is the Light—a legendary force that bestows intangible power for those connected to it. Henry must uncover the shrouded memory of his family’s past and race to find the furnace before the Nekura tear his family apart and destroy both worlds in the process. Henry will learn the heartache of the forgotten, the joy of the reclaimed, strength beyond himself, and the unbreakable ties that bind family together.

Review: I thought this was an ok book. The book did good with multiple POVs and the character development was well done. The book had an intriguing plot that kept me going throughout the book and I felt that the book had a decent story.

However, the book feels a bit underdeveloped. I think there’s some good stuff in the book, but the book is fast paced and confusing. The pacing doesn’t help the reader get used to the elements in the book and the writing doesn’t develop the world building or the magic system beyond a couple of plot points. I got severely lost in the book and it felt like nothing was well explained.

Verdict: It was ok.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

A fresh breath of air. I love me some fantasy ya.

The world building really stood out to me, and I found myself thinking about the book after I finished it. The story stuck with me.

And that’s would be one of the highest praises in my books, a story that leaves the readers remembering it long after the final page has been read.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Intrepid Pen Publishing, L.L.C. for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book more and I had high hopes for the story after reading the description and the beautiful cover. The story has a lot of potential and a great plot. There were some very intense and exciting points in the book that kept me reading. The premise of the book was very interesting but I'm afraid that is all I can say I liked about the book.

I think it is labeled incorrectly. It's labeled as a YA but I feel that it's geared to a more younger group. This book has a lot of twists and turns which I think was too much. They were kind of thrown at you one after the other. I hate saying this but it seemed to have too much "action".

I feel that middle school grade would love this type of book.

This story had so much potential. The plot itself was interesting and there were bright spots that made me excited. Henry's struggles with coming to terms with his true nature, Charley finding purpose. The parents remembering and explaining the truth of their nature. But the book was laddened down by lectures of tell instead of show. It was to the point of being preachy rather than poignant.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I had high hopes for it going in. I really think that it has potential but it needs more work.

Thank you to #NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

DNF - I couldn't stay interested enough to get through more than a chapter at a time and unfortunately did not finish.

The premise was quite interesting and I think the story tried to reach what it should have been but unfortunately, it felt all over the place and not very structurally sound. The twists and turns were quite predictable and the fight sequences weren't anything new and felt repeated.

This book really did not meet any of my expectations. First off, it should not be classified as YA. Although the protagonist is 17, that's about the only thing that might fit the criteria for a YA novel. The writing and plot are much more suited to a younger audience. Speaking of the writing, it needs a lot of editing. Ideally, some good developmental editing will help to pare down on what ends up being published. The book as it is is like a rollercoaster - but all the ups and downs are predictable and pretty much even of the same height.

When it comes to the premise, it seems interesting. A race of creatures that lull you into a world of illusion from which you might not be able to escape? Sign me up! Thing is, that gets pushed aside most of the time in favour of action scenes. The whole concept of being made to forget only gets shoehorned in when necessary to further the sparse plot. I wish it were thought about and fleshed out more.

I really wish I had something nicer to say about this book. Honestly I quite like the involvement of Henry's parents. All too often, younger characters are left in the lurch with no guidance or information. It's typically done in coming-of-age stories for, y'know, coming-of-age purposes, but I was forced too grow up too soon as a child so some flipping of the script was nice. Just, in this book it seems very superficial and vain.

Tl;dr the book is trying to pull off Percy Jackson but mostly failing.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for a honest review. 2.5 stars. I feel like this would be a good book for people who really like this kind of genre but it really just wasn't for me. Because I wasn't a fan of the genre it made me bored and found most of the story confusing because of that. The only other problem was that this book seemed to be so fast paced that I found it hard to keep up. Other then that I though that the writing style was great for a debut and that the characters were interesting enough for me. I feel like this book would be great for some people but not for me.

1 ⭐️

This book was a wild ride to get through. I think the base plotline was amazing but it was developed the best was. This is classified as a YA but most of the language used isn't very typical for characters of that age. I was very excited to read it but I found that it did not at all meet my expectations. The characters felt bland, the storyline at most points was repetitive and boring all and all there's a lot to improve here.

Branded follows a young boy named Henry, whose world changes abruptly one day. The catalyst for this change? When his friend, Rachel, bursts into his class screaming, looking as though she has had a run-in with a pack of wild dogs. The problem is that no one, save his best friend Charley, seems to remember or care about this. Cue a bunch of crazy monsters hunting them down, in search of the very thing his parents fought to protect (and subsequently gave up their memories for).

Unfortunately, overall, this just wasn't my cup of tea. I feel as though this would be better categorized as middle grade fiction, based off of the prose and general story. I personally felt as though the characters fell flat, and the writing was a bit clunky. This was ultimately the result of a heck of a lot of telling, and very little showing. We were given a play by play of actions and emotions, rather than a vivid landscape of what was happening. Often descriptions of the action would read like, "Henry walked to the door, and opened the door." (And let's not forget excessive adverbs and unusual verb usage.)

To me, it lacked interest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Intrepid Pen for providing me with an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Just lived this book! I absolutely enjoyed reading it! Thank you so much Netgalley for selectecting me to receiv an advanced copy to read and review in exchange for my honest review. The main character, Henry, is raised by parents whose memories were wiped clean, so they have no idea who Henry really is or their past life. It is not until Henry reaches 17 that he begins to discover the shocking truth. As the story unfolds we follow Henry and his only friend Charley through a series of adventures to save two worlds and uncover his parents past. An exciting tales of adventure, full of fantasy band paranormal. I look forward to the next book in the series and highly recommend. Five starts for this one!

Solid debut, but I think I would've liked it more if it had been categorized differently and therefore adjusted my expectations. The level of development of characters, world, and plot was more suited to middle grade than YA, and you could easily replace the Light with God and call it Christian—I wasn't sure whether that was intentional though. The chapters are really short and the writing is simple, which makes this book very approachable. However, it wasn't overly deep and the only 3D character was Charley. The similes were super funny—Henry is "like a maddened and half-blind ostrich."

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. posted on goodreads

This just wasn’t it for me. The story was all over the place. Lots of twists and turns and although I love a good twist most of them felt forced or were predictable. Also every action/fight sequence felt the same as if the same template was used over and over again. Despite an intriguing premise, it just didn’t deliver.

I would probably give this 3.75 stars if there were half/quarter ratings. It isn't something I would normally pick up, but I liked it overall. Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC for me, and I wish the author the best of luck with this series!
This was a fun, fast-paced read. It kind of has that Percy Jackson/Harry Potter vibe where the hero isn't aware of the magical world he is part of until something really dramatic happens. In this case, a student goes missing and monsters are suddenly attacking.
Henry is a compelling hero and main character. His parents are also really supportive and sweet. I enjoyed their family dynamic.
Charley, Henry's best friend and sidekick on this whole adventure, wasn't my favorite at first. I didn't like how she was initially portrayed as whiny and uptight, the typical "I can't help you I have to study" female character who cries after facing one monster. However, I grew to like her and the character development by the end of the book. She and Henry were a good team.
The sentences were a bit short and sometimes read as choppy, especially during the action scenes (of which there was a lot). It seemed like one close call after another, fighting monsters and being constantly on the move. It was a bit repetitive at points.

Humphrey painted a wonderful world that quickly pulls in the reader and transports them to another world. The pace is active to keep the reader engaged. Characters were relatable. I look forward to future stories from this author.