League of Strays by L.B. Schulman

When Charlotte Brody, a lonely 17-year-old student at a new school, receives an invitation to join The League of Strays, she's intrigued by the group's promise of "instant friendship." The League does provide companionship--and even a love interest--but Charlotte grows increasingly uncomfortable with its sinister mission to seek revenge against the bullies of Kennedy High. When escalating acts of vengeance threaten to hurl her down a path of remorse, Charlotte must choose between her new friends and the direction of a future she's never fully considered.

Much like one of the main characters in this book, League of Strays was addicting. I loved the mere idea of the League of Strays. I think it's super original and enables a lot of readers to relate to the book, and it's characters. The different personalities represented in the League made it so readers will able to relate to the characters on a more intimate level. Whether you're the recluse, the band geek, or any other stereotypical outsider- you'll be able to relate to this novel. However, I did have some problems with it.

I said that the book was addicting like one of the characters. While the book is a good kind of addicting, the character isn't. As you can tell from the book cover, Kade is a bit creepy. It really upset me how completely oblivious Charlotte was to who Kade actually was. When he first showed up in the book, I could already make a correct prediction of what would happen at the end of the novel. Charlotte's guillableness really bothered me. This brings me to Kade. I couldn't stand him at all. I understand how he enchants other people and I get why he is the way he is- but I just wasn't his number one fan. The characters also didn't really act the age that they were supposed to be, but that didn't bother me as much as the other things.

After I read League of Strays, I went on goodreads and browsed some of the reviews there- both the positive and negative ones. One of the most common problems that people have with league of Strays is one particular scene. There's a scene that involves the members of the group setting up one of their bullies into a situation that makes him look gay infront of his teammates. The bully ends up getting into a fight with one of the teammates because of what the teammate saw. People have a problem with this because they believe that the author is saying that the harsh behavior of lgbt people is ok. While I completely understand where the people on Goodreads are coming from, and part of me really hates that this scene is in the book, I don't think that that is what the author is trying to convey in the scene. I think this scene, along with others in the book, display things that go on in many high schools today. I liked that about League of Strays- what happened to the members of the group were real problems that teens face.

My problems with the book aside, I really do think that this is a good story. It's a book that should be out in the YA market. The characters are in no way the characters that teens should look up to- their revenge schemes are horrible. But the book is refreshingly real and the characters do what so many people want to do to their old bullies. L.B. Schulman is definently an author I'm looking forward to reading again.

FTC- ALA/Amulet books