This story was fast paced and full of action. The chapters were short and I easily finished this book within a day.

The premise is really good and compelling, and the political power dynamics made me turn a blind eye to the love triangle (which I wasn’t exactly a fan of). Love triangles kind of ruin the whole romance aspect of a book for me and I really do enjoy a good love story, so this felt like a bit of a bummer.

The premise of the Growns was a-mazing! The world building did really hook me in, and (almost) made up for my gripes with this story.

I’ve got to give it to the author that she really did keep me guessing. The plot wasn’t predictable at all and the plot-twists managed to keep me on my toes the entire time.

All things considered, I think this book was very fun to read and I thank Netgalley together with the author and publisher for the eARC!

ENGLISH

It is an intriguing and somewhat strange book, bizarre in some ways and interesting in others. It's between Hell Followed With Us and The Hunger Games for me! If anyone likes both books, I think this will be a very interesting read and you will love it.

It's got intrigue, gore, political/teen romance drama, and LOTS OF PLOT TWIST!
I'm not going to lie, I would have liked to know more about what happened in the Before or to show us some more specific things about the moment when the adults became monsters and the world began its apocalypse but I think that is a plus.
It's understandable that the protagonists did not want to relive those moments.

What intrigued me most about the story was the psychology behind the Moore High kids. While everyone at Jefferson takes it very literally, the characters at Moore High try to survive the disastrous events using a kind of fantasy mask to cope with them. At first the terms they used bothered me, but as I read and understood their ideology, I realized that these kids needed to believe it to not go crazy. The author, in my opinion, explored that side of the story very well.

On the other hand, the romance between Kay and Bricks or Kay and Leo did not catch my attention too much, I would have loved that kind of drama where there are love triangles in a dystopia years ago but I have read so many that now they do not catch my attention. Mind you, reading Kay's POV was refreshing because honestly, that girl is a mess and made me worry about her many times.
Overall it was a good read and I do recommend it 👌🏻.


ESPAÑOL
Es un libro intrigante y medio extraño, bizarro en algunas cosas e interesantes en otras. Está entre Hell Followed With Us y The Hunger Games para mí! Si a alguien le gusta ambos libros, creo que este será una lectura muy interesante y les encantará.

Tiene intriga, gore, drama político y de romance adolescente y UN MONTÓN DE PLOT TWIST!
No voy a mentir, me hubiera gustado saber más sobre lo que pasó en el Antes o que nos mostraran algunas cosas más especificas de el momento en que los adultos se convirtieron en monstruos y el mundo empezó con su apocalipsis pero creo que, dentro de lo que cabe, es comprensible que los protagonistas no quisieran revivir esos momentos.

Lo que más me intrigó de la historia fue la psicología detrás de los chicos de Moore High. Mientras en Jefferson todos se lo toman de forma muy literal, los personajes de Moore High intentan sobrevivir a los desastrosos eventos usando una especie de mascara fantasiosa para poder sobrellevarlos.
Al principio me molestaban los términos que usaban pero conforme fui leyendo y entendiendo su ideología, me di cuenta que estos chicos necesitaban creerla para no volverse locos. La autora, en mi opinión, exploró muy bien ese lado de la historia.

Por otra parte, el romance entre Kay y Bricks o Kay y Leo no me llamó demasiado la atención, esa clase de drama donde hay triangulos amorosos en una distopía me habría encantado hace años pero he leído tantas que ahora no me llaman la atención.

Eso sí, leer el POV de Kay fue refrescante porque, honestamente, esa chica es un desastre y muchas veces me hizo preocuparme por ella.
En general fue una buena lectura y sí la recomiendo 👌🏻.

"The Merciless King of Moore High" is a ya dystopian novel written by Lily Sparks.

In the small town of Brockton, Connecticut, all the adults have suddenly turned into bloodthirsty monsters and the teenagers, unaffected, live barricaded in their respective schools trying to survive. Eighteen-year-old Kay, one of the members of the Student Council at exhausted Jefferson High, tries to keep her classmates alive, until she learns a secret dangerous to the institution's already fragile balance of power. Dragged out in the middle of the night, left for dead in the middle of town, she is unexpectedly rescued by a raiding party of cheerleaders from cross-town rival Moore High. Escorted to their facility, she discovers a society as prosperous as it is violent and quarrelsome, based on a fantasy feudal system inspired by a once-popular video game and ruled by the ruthless and vengeful King Max. If Kay wants to survive, she must be granted asylum at Moore, which means slaying "dragons," following the rules, not asking the wrong questions, and navigating the rival factions, political intrigues of the court, and more. However, when she discovers a deadly secret that extends all the way to Jefferson, both schools and everything they have created are in danger of burning to the ground.

"The Merciless King of Moore High" is a book with super interesting premises, which unfortunately did not fully convince me in its development.

The setting, which winks at "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, is the element I enjoyed most. Dark, wild and at times truly brutal, it intrigued me a lot.

The story proceeds quickly and dynamic, full of action, deceptions, subterfuges and power plays. The captivating writing, the simple style and the presence of short chapters made my reading easy and smooth, so much so that I arrived at the end without almost realizing it!

The characters, unfortunately, seemed shallow, flat, and nebulous to me. There are several first person povs, including Kay's, but none conveyed anything to me. Even the romance, potentially interesting, left me indifferent gee whiz! And then let's not talk about the secondary characters, for me undefined shapes in the background!

All in all this is a book with very good premises, a fascinating setting and a compelling story, which unfortunately disappointed me in terms of the characters!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

TYSM to NetGalley and North Star Editions for this ARC!

I had a really great time with this book! I didn't know what expect going in and was pleasantly surprised by the layered plot of political intrigue (seasoned with a heavy dose of teenage drama, of course)

I enjoyed how the large cast of characters in their various factions showed the many ways people might react to an apocalyptic event like this, especially in complete isolation between schools. On the note of different schools, would loooove to see how the other schools in town have handled everything in future books! The characters each had their own distinct voice and point of view, so the conflicts that arose made sense and genuinely seemed difficult to resolve peacefully due to their fundamental differences in worldview.

I'm not typically a love triangle person and the whole forced-Leo-dating was a liiiittle contrived for me, but all around I didn't mind (and sometimes even enjoyed!) the romance between Kay and Brick. Good for them!

Also I'm sooo excited for the messiness next time Nirali and Merlin see each other hehehe

All around would def recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions for the ARC!

Thoughts I had while reading :
this book is CRAZY I need a sequel now.
- I loveee how this started I feel like a TON of dystopian/fantasy books start with exposition and I really enjoyed how we jumped right into the interesting part that’s in the synopsis
- From the dam to the beach, Brockton will be free 🍉
- The love triangle is boring I’m way more into the political lines drawn between rooms and cliques and such !! Wish that got more (all) the page space
- Using food as a scare tactic yup !
- Re: love triangle every interaction between Kay and Leo or Kay and Brick is soooo cliche and I roll my eyes !!
- Let teenagers swear ! Especially in an apocalypse!!!
- Merlin the girl wizard is gay, yippee !!
- Genuinely idk who to trust or who is a “good guy” and that hasn’t happened in a book in a long time
- This plot is so BUILT. it makes sense. It’s linear. Genuinely it’s complicated but so smart and well done.
- There’s so many characters but they feel different. I remember who they are. That’s pretty big for such a large cast
- Kind of obsessed that this author will straight up kill her characters ! Props for that
- EPILOGUE? No. I need another book

Final thoughts
- I actually,,, kind of like the love triangle now. Because it’s not a love triangle. It’s a political mess and I’m here for it
- I’m dead serious about needing a sequel and genuinely I wish I could beta read for it or at the very least get the next one as an ARC too

One of my favorite books I’ve read this year

This book is profound. It is a beautifully twisted look at society and the different turns it can take. The world that the author created is mindbendly amazing. The characters are bold, vibrant, almost too bright to be real but they are. The emotional rollercoaster that you are taken on can shake you to your core. The plot with all the twists and backflips, fighting monsters wherever they be found, truly touches you. At the end of this story, I was left craving more, dying to know what would happen next in this world I have become completely enmeshed in. I can’t wait to see where the story will go next.

I really enjoyed reading this, it had a strong concept overall and that had everything that I was hoping for. The characters were everything that I was looking for and thought they were perfect for the setting. Lily Sparks has a great writing style and left me wanting to read more from her.

Review: This was an interesting dystopian/YA/SciFi (lol) read despite the failed character development. What kept me tuned in was the writing. Flow was really nice with regard to scene development and the movement therein. The author lost a great opportunity to imbue the novel with bold characterization coupled with the pace. Other reviewers echoed the same disappointment with the characters. Most stated that they were flat. Although I agree in presentation, I think the author kept the characters consistent with the event that occurred. With YAs you most likely would get a Lord of the Flies situation where the constant threat of death keeps you in a survival state without room for developing behaviors. But, this is entertainment so allowances are made for changes outside the box of reality.

I do not think the author overlooked anything, just kept it as real as possible while adding unrealistic YA hormonal output. In an unrestricted juvenile society you would find more rape etc. Not, glowing skin, twinkling eyes and sniffing body scents.

Quite the novel of mixed messages and rampant polarity. If the author gets her shjt together and picks one path, watch out.

Rating: 3.6/5

The Merciless King of Moore High merges the cutthroat fantasy politics of The Cruel Prince with the post-apocalyptic high school setting of Netflix's Daybreak. Sparks lays out twist after twist like a winning hand of cards, turning the story on its head every time you think you've figured it out. Breathlessly tense, unpredictable, and a heck of a lot of fun.

This book is pure chaos and I LOVED it!

Lily Sparks can have the most unhinged plots and craziest group of characters and nails the execution perfectly EVERY SINGLE TIME!

We follow two rivaling groups of teenagers, when their Connecticut town becomes home to monsters. All the adults have changed into grotesque and bloodthirsty monsters and all the kids take up residency in the schools… Kay has been exiled from Jefferson High, just left behind by her people. So she makes her way over to their rival, Moore High, where their King Max rules with a vengeance.

The characters in this book are just freaking wild! They are so over the top and simultaneously, incredibly realistic. The shenanigans they get up to are just mind boggling, but what would you do if EVERY adult was a monstrous creature? Their systems of politics and hierarchy and so intricate, which cracked me up.

I had to keep reminding myself that these are just kids, and that some of them long for their parents and the way things were before. There is fear of the inability to sustain life. There are all of the major contenders to think about in any post apocalyptic situation, like food!!

There is such ingrained humor to this book, while still giving you high stakes intensity. We get secrets, betrayal, romance, and TONS of action. This book is pretty epic! I enjoyed myself through every single minute.

I don’t normally read this kind of book, but Lily Sparks, the author of one of my favourite series, The Teen Killers Club, wrote it, so I thought I would give it a chance. I ended up really enjoying it, and I hope there will be a sequel.

This book was strange, intriguing and magnetic. I was so giddy with the the “what the actual hell?!!” feelings it gave me. One of my favorite genres of media is an apocalyptic / lord of the flies / end of the world type story. Not sure what this says about me, but all things aside this book is ALL OF THAT WRAPPED IN A BIG BOW.

In the town of Brockton Connecticut, all of the adults morph together into bloodthirsty monsters and all of the teenagers are holed up in their high schools trying to survive. One of the schools is on the brink of starvation while the other has flourished into a shocking royal hierarchy with a king, dukes & wizards. Our story starts when one character crosses over into the opposite world causing a chain reaction of events (read: every single twist and turn is CRAZY)

This was my first read by Lily Sparks (and my first ever ARC!!) and it did not disappoint!!! I want to read all of her books now!! So grateful for the chance to read this one!

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.

I really wanted to like this as the concept sounded fun. But if I didn’t get this as an arc I would have DNFed.

The characters all felt fairly one-dimensional and flat. I really didn’t like Kay, who is the main character. She was whiny and disliked by those who she lives with. But nothing about her personality made her an underdog that you could root for. Rather I was shocked she was still alive with how childish and reckless she was.

The book got mildly better when we got other POVs, but the motivations behind the other characters made little sense, especially Nirali. She is meant to be a very intellectual character and one of the more mature ones, yet her actions at the end of the book are incredibly short sighted and frankly stupid.

The book did have good tone differences between our POVs and their personalities (what little we got) was clear in their chapters. I also think the idea of the Growns was very cool and honestly a horrific monster. I was the most intrigued by the Growns and how the world got that way. I would have liked more background/world building as that’s where a lot of the potential was.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Not gonna lie, this book was bizarre. It took some intentional suspension of belief for me to track with the plotline (what entire school of teenagers, after an apocalypse, would be totally on board with a guy crowning himself their king and styling their lives after a medieval video game?), but once I allowed myself to buy into the premise, this was a wild ride and... I liked it? A lot?

Fast paced with lots of double-crossing and secrets and conspiracies, it kept me guessing/totally unaware of where the author was taking things, which was a total blast.

I'm ready for book two!

The Merciless King of Moore High takes place in a modern day Connecticut where adults have morphed into terrifying monsters (called Growns by the kids of Jefferson High, where we begin our story). Kay, Student Council secretary, runs afoul of the school's current leadership and is abandoned in a nearby town, where she's scooped up by cheerleaders from Moore, another local high school. Moore feels like a paradise to Kay, but things are far more sinister than they appear on the surface.

This had so many unexpected twists that I felt like I had whiplash, in a good way. Rather than leaning on the usual "love triangle during the apocalypse" approach that is common in young adult dystopian science fiction, this was more political than romantic. These are teenagers, so it's not surprising there's some relationship drama, but it's more Lord of the Flies than The Hunger Games. I was so wrapped up in what would happen that I binged it in just a couple of days. Definitely recommended for fans of this genre.

It's a very interesting YA dystopian book and the theme and drama is light-hearted enough so I think it will fit young readers nicely. Love the angst and all the settings. However, I do wish for a little more insight going in? Like maybe more background story because it was kind of confusing in the first few chapters. But overall, it was good!

First, thanks to NetGalley and Flux North Star Editions for the free eARC in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

A beautiful cover got me started on this novel, which combines horror, high-school politics, and budding love in a dizzying, suspenseful, and entertaining concoction.

Something happened last year. Something really awful that took out all the adults and left in their place large conglomerate monsters with a murderous hate for their former students, children, fellow humans. The kids at Jefferson High barricaded themselves in the school building when it happened. The Student Council have been working to keep things together, but food is getting short, and class secretary Kay Kim just can't keep a secret.

Which is how she ends up with her wrists zip-tied, outside the school, at the mercy of the "Growns." But Jefferson is not the only high school with survivors: Moore High, one of the rougher schools in Brockton, Connecticut, seems to be doing great: they have food, light, a plan for expansion, and the skills to kill what they call "Dragons." They also have a king, and he allows Kay to come to Moore, but she and her inability to dissemble are on a collision course with more trouble.

This novel was a pure delight for me: wonderfully novel monsters, a sort of Lord-of-the-Flies flavor with believable young people trying to do the best they can in choosing their own form of governance, action, double-crossings, a variety of romantic entanglements, and an ending that we can hope hints for a sequel...

When the adults of Brockton, Connecticut, morphed into gigantic, bloodthirsty monsters nine months ago, the students at Jefferson High barricaded themselves inside their school.

This is a really fun Y.A. dystopia/sci-fi book. The world-building is really well done and the characters are great. Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book so much! I flew through this book and I was so upset when it was over. The plot was fast paced but not much which is what I really enjoy. I am obsessed with the characters and can not wait to read more by this author. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends and family.

The Merciless King of Moore High by Lily Sparks is the Ren-Faire love child of the Netflix shows Daybreak and The Society.
It is an apocalyptic survival story, rom-com, and action/adventure with equal parts teen-drama, politics, and body-horror. If that seems like a lot of proverbial plates to keep spinning, fear not- Sparks handles them all masterfully.
The novel starts out in media res after all the adults in town (and presumably the world) have dropped dead and melded into bloodthirsty monsters leaving only teenagers stranded in their high schools. The action and intrigue kick off right away with the protagonist, Kay, being rescued after her exile from Jefferson High. I was immediately hooked, and my interest after meeting the cheerleaders, Brick, and the titular King Max, did not lag.
While the entire premise of all the adult corpses morphing together like a rotting megazord that brings about a Lord of the Flies-esque apocalypse is fantastical, and that one school was able to create a “Spring Break” paradise on the ashes of civilization is, dare I say it, less likely, there were moments within all the zany fun that rang true to me. Kay and Nirali especially had real moments of grief for the people that they had lost before the world as they knew it ended, and I wish there had been more glimpses of that.
It is, however, refreshing for a dystopian novel to have a main character who isn’t naturally gifted at everything after one training session. Kay has her skills, but is not enveloped in plot armour. She is relatable, and a character I found myself rooting for. In fact, all of the characters were multifaceted- the villains weren’t comically evil, and the heroes weren’t incorruptibly good- which made all the reveals along the way surprising, and kept me wondering who we could really trust.
There are some topics, like murder, starvation, familial death, and suicidal ideation, that might be upsetting for some readers, but I have still pre-ordered it for my library and will be promoting it with the same fervor I promote Teen Killers Club.
If you liked Lily Sparks’ Teen Killers Club trilogy, this is a departure from that, for sure, but still has a lot of “Teen Killers” heart shining through. All I can say is there BETTER BE A SEQUEL!