Young Blood

by Alyssa Sheinmel

The official prequel novel to the hit Umbrella Academy series on Netflix, starring a teenaged Umbrella Academy in an original, darkly comic adventure written by New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Sheinmel.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy

320 pages, Hardcover

Published July 9, 2024

About the author

Alyssa Sheinmel is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels for young adults, including A Danger to Herself and Others and Faceless, as well as the adult novel Such Sheltered Lives. Alyssa grew up in Northern California and New York, and currently lives and writes in New York. Follow her on Instagram @alyssasheinmel or visit her online at www.alyssasheinmel.com.

Reviews

[alina · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest, I initially had low expectations, but the book somehow still disappointed me. 

Firstly, the vibes are very different from the show. I expected the narration to depict the atmosphere of the Hargreeves' family, like keeping the humour, characters' personalities, etc. Nevertheless, unfortunately, I did not get the vibe or feel the characters. Some heroes act out of character; even Reginald does not seem like Reginald from the show. The author listed a few stereotypical characters' personalities and stuck to them instead of exploring them in more depth. Allison is not only a girl who rumours everyone, but her chapters are only about that. Why not show her from another perspective? To be honest, all characters get the same treatment except Ben. He was pretty complex here and was explored relatively better than the others. Maybe, because he was not explored well in the show. However, the characters' issues were generally overlooked and not mentioned. Their interactions are so dumb sometimes. For instance, Ben asks Allison whether it was that hard not to use her powers for one evening when he was pretty successful in not using his. Man, your powers are tentacles; of course, it will be easier for you not to use them in a party full of other people. What would you even use them for? A go-to party trick? 

Additionally, I want to mention Allison and Luther… Why? Just why? You could easily get rid of this incest, and all of us would simply say thank you. Or you could mention it once, and we would move on. But no, every chapter from Luther's POV was filled with glances and thoughts about Allison. It was simply disturbing and disgusting. I wish we had the same energy in showing the real thoughts and personalities of the main characters, but whatever.

The narration is very abrupt and random. Some siblings in other siblings' POVs are simply forgotten and abandoned until they are either needed for something or until they are given the chapter from their POV. The narrator, in general, is also quite annoying and sometimes mentions many apparent facts. For example, the narrator, for some reason, explains that they do not wear the same uniform as they did when they were kids because they grew up, and the uniform is now tiny for them. Please, authors, stop making your readers look dumb; we know people grow out of clothes. And I would let it slide if there was only one moment like this, but there were so many, as well as the overuse of brackets with obvious information. Also, there was a lot of over-explanation. I assume the fans of the show would read this work. Thus, these over-descriptions were unnecessary since they just repeated information everyone already knew. However, at the same time, if one thinks that non-fans who have never seen the show read it, these explanations were not enough to fully understand the lore and background of the characters. There are also many repetitions. Once again, instead of showing and not telling, there were a lot of repetitions of the same takes. Yes, we know that Viktor never felt like he belonged to the Umbrella Academy; no need to mention it every time in his chapters. We could assume that simply by the description, not by directly mentioning the exact words every time. 

It is crucial to mention the overall plot as well. The story is so dumb, the overall 'lesson 'is very primitive, and the plot twist in the end makes no sense either. The story chosen is disappointing and is not canon. Why did the siblings never acknowledge it in the show, then? The events that happened are pretty crucial for the plot. They suddenly saw kids like them, when in the show they never even mentioned seeing them before Laila. Even though I try not to care about plot holes and primitive plot twists because it is fiction, and the show itself has many plot holes, it was even more annoying here. How did no one at the party know them? They are super popular. Of course, teenagers in a university from the same city would know the Umbrella Academy. They were even telling their real names. Did nothing ring the bell? Okay, let's assume they were pretending not to know who the siblings were, but how did the siblings not think about coming up with fake names at least? Or how they did not find it weird that no one recognises them? The book made me have 1000 questions.

Also, there were a lot of factual mistakes. I do not want to mention all of them, but for example, let's look at the quote from when the narrator was describing the sibling's superpowers: 'Diego could wield knives with extraordinary precision'. We all thought so during the first season, but season 2 and the others showed that his power is much more than just throwing knives. Also, Diego's powers, in general, were not explored; Viktor was listing how siblings could use their powers in any sphere and then about Diego, he said, 'he could be a world-class chief'. Excuse me, but how is it even connected? Did not know that chiefs throw knives at food to get it done. 

All in all, I felt like I read mediocre fanfiction rather than official content. I guess many fans would want to read it, especially after the show's ending, but to be honest, fans' speculations about the teenage characters that I saw were more interesting than this. Plus, this novel was very poorly written and edited. I spotted so many mistakes that are inadmissible in a published novel. A very weak work with a very weak story.

[Liv Delinicolis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3🌟 LOVED THIS!!! Alyssa fully embodied how each of the characters feel from watching the show, this was hilarious, hectic, thoughtful and so much fun!! I miss these chaotic siblings x

[Raaven💖 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know me, you know I’m a huge umbrella academy Stan. Like this was a part of my entire personality a few years back. This series has a special place in my heart. I was so excited to see a novel prequel for the show since the 4th and final season is coming out soon.

Im not going to get nitpicky on how canonical the story is. I felt like the personalities in the different POVS fit very well. I missed seeing Five but it would make sense he’s not there. I liked the villain and felt like it was a perfect challenge for the siblings. It was also interesting to see how they dealt with the threats and the aftermath. I loved how much Ben is given a voice. We don’t really see much of him in the show in this way and seeing him as a teenager was refreshing. I love him so much and felt so bad for him.

This also made me remember I hate how Luther used to be before his development. Season 1 Luther was the worst and this is just like that again. Actually, everyone had traits that were a bit selfish and annoying but you can’t really fault them for it because they are teenagers and are so sheltered. In the end I enjoyed this for the way it explores the sibling’s childhood and teenage years.

[thwipy · Rating 3 out of 5]

“But if we and the rest of the October first kids had never been born, there would’ve been nothing to contain at all. […] do you ever think maybe the world would be better off without us?”

benerino…

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hargreeves, as in Reginald Hargreeves. As in their mother who’s a machine, their butler who isn’t a human being, their house that isn’t a home but a training facility.

I’m a huge Umbrella Academy fan — truly, don’t get me started — so of course I preordered this book. It’s a young adult prequel novel, officially tying into the show and set during their teenaged years as a waning superhero team, after Number Five’s disappearance but before Ben’s death.

Since it’s YA, the plot is fairly simple: the seventeen-year-old kids want a fun evening out and to pretend to be normal for a night, so they sneak out for a college party only to run into more trouble than they expected. The prose is straightforward and not very complex either; it gets the job done.

But I loved loved loved the characterisations, and thought Sheinmel nailed it even with such a large set of rotating narrators: each team member’s quirks and strengths and weaknesses, their differing attitudes towards each other and their forced roles as superheroes-slash-child-soldiers, the way the academy’s once-sterling reputation is fading in the limelight, the love and support they all have for each other even as they bristle and argue and grind on each others’ nerves. It’s especially nice getting so much more insight to Ben and what he’s like and how he ticks, since we’ve seen so little of him in the show.

Most of all, I appreciated how you have this sense of their future fates looming over their heads, the way they’re sorting out who they want to be and what they want from the world, plus the ticking countdown timer as you’re aware that the Academy can’t (and won’t) contain all of them forever.

There’s also some good LGBTQA rep retained from the show, with Klaus being so openly pansexual, and I appreciated the disclaimer at the beginning that the book was written with the assistance of Elliot Page and other trans consultants for Viktor’s depiction as a young trans man still figuring out his identity. I think my only question mark is that there’s mention in the narration of “Viktor” being a name that was foisted on him by Mom, when clearly it’s actually talking about the deadname Vanya, while I feel like Viktor was in fact the liberating name he chose for himself? But I’m obviously not an expert in these issues so I defer to other readers; overall, though, I thought it was a thoughtful and respectful depiction.

I also just love all of these kids. Luther and Allison and Ben are pretty much my unabashed favourites, and I thought they were so well-done here. Luther in particular is a complicated character and I think even the show did him a disservice in season three, dumbing him down to just goofy himbo, while this book actually hit the important parts: his fierce love for his family, his role not just as arrogant team leader but as genuinely caring protector and tactical strategist, his dependable loyalty to their father and how that can be so easily manipulated. I’m very picky about how he’s depicted because he’s an easy one to get wrong, but this was great.

4.5 stars (rounded down), because I’m incapable of being unbiased about this canon, and it was such a treat to me personally. I randomly picked it up at midnight when it appeared on my e-reader, and it actually helped bust through a reading block I’d been stuck in, and I blazed through it in two days.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was kind of fun at first, but it became very repetitive and was absolutely littered with typos throughout the book. I didn’t feel like it added depth to any of the characters, and there were lots of moments that were confusing or straight up made no sense. Overall it just felt like some basic (kinda boring) fanfic.

It might still be better than season 4.

[Elena Meneses · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hace mucho tiempo me había empezado la serie y recordaba poco de los nombres de los personajes y sus poderes, pero el libro sirve como una excelente introducción porque los presenta de manera rápida y eficiente🤩

La trama es bien sencilla: estos seis chicos con poderes, acostumbrados a solo ser héroes, que quieren pasar una noche como adolescentes normales, pero es obvio que no sale como esperaban🔥 está súper entretenido sobre todo si les gusta el rollo más de superhéroe y gente con poderes, y más si se vieron Umbrella Academy💕

Son 6 protagonistas que comparten puntos de vista, todos bien distintos entre ellos. Mi favorito es Klaus obviamente🤩 y Viktor, y Allison también me generó empatía🥺 aunque de repente se ponía pesada ella solo quería hacer amigas.

Es bien liviano y entretenido de leer😊 se los recomiendo un montón si se quieren introducir en el mundo de la serie💕

[Georgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, I really did enjoy this, even with the typos that somehow got past the editors at Abrams (if you need an editor intern, I'm your girl!). It may be just because the show just ended and I am still mourning it (wtf was that season??!). Anyway, the author captured their voices perfectly and the book was fun.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think they embodied the characters really well, Viktor kept complaining about how he felt alone and the main thing about Diego's and Luther relationship was then bickering about who had the best leadership qualities and who should be number one, like no one cares mate.

[Bardiya Ghasemzadeh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This entire book was seemingly written by someone who watched the trailers for season four and read some wiki entries about the tv show versions of the characters.
It is a young adult book mainly because it has some words that would be questionable in actual children’s fiction, and the tone of the setting feels so far off that you can’t exactly place it anytime before the mid 2010s either (it is supposed to be set in 2007 but reads more like 2017, although the year it is was never even mentioned in the book, rather it is inferred by the TUA members being 17 and born in ‘89.)
The main thing this book has done for me is stop me from ever referring to the siblings by the first names they were given. I feel like the author thought if they weren’t mentioned by their first names every single time they say/think/do/look somewhere the audience would forget what they were reading, even when the chapter is from that character’s perspective.
In fact the words
Luther/Diego/Allison/Klaus/Ben/Viktor show up a grand total of 647 times in a 310 page book, where the prose is so uninteresting that you can’t even discern whose perspective it is when it’s not mentioning a particular character’s favourite thing. It’s not only distracting, it also makes the words themselves stop meaning anything.
It tries to juggle 6 different perspectives, but never really use it to any meaningful effect, every one just has surface level character traits.
The thing with number 7 is understandable all things considered. But he’s not the sibling that got the shortest end of the stick.
Somehow not a single person involved in this bothered to check where number 6’s tentacles came out of. I well and truly do not understand how this can happen in an official tie in novel. Who is this book for?
Then there’s the fact that number 4 has simply become a ‘haha-aren’t-drugs-cool?’ type of character.
Number 3 is just as manipulative as the show counterpart, and for some reason the book tries to downplay what she does to the ‘popular girls’.
Number 1&2 are caricatures of themselves but that is to be expected, considering they did the same to them in the fourth season.
I well and truly don’t understand who this is for.

[harakiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars, but only because I’m a massive fan of the series and thus willing to give a lot of things a pass I wouldn’t otherwise.
I should also preface this by pointing out I’m not at all the intended target age for this book.

On a scale of best to worst TUA fanfic I’ve read, I would consider this story entirely average. Sheinmel makes up her own headcanons, some of which are definitely not supported by actual canon, making me think the creatives behind the series only signed off on the general premise but didn’t actually read the book.

It also would have benefited greatly from passing through an editor. The book reads like a 2nd draft NaNoWriMo project at best and is littered with typos as well as grammatical and a couple of continuity errors. I don’t know if the story was originally written in past tense and then later changed to present tense, or if the author just likes to mix her tenses on purpose, but either way, it comes across as rather amateurish, especially for a supposed New York Times bestselling writer.

There isn’t much going on plotwise, just the same few scenes told over and over again from six different perspectives. Lots of repetition. And I guess since it’s YA, the reader also needs everything spelled out for them by way of making some of the characters a bit daft at times.

I appreciate that Sheinmel made an attempt to include early signs of Viktor’s transition journey in the story without making it *a thing*. I also appreciate that the author refrained from woobifying any of the characters, especially Klaus, like a lot of people in the fandom are wont to do. Luther and Allison are fine for where they would be in their development at that age. But Ben comes across as a weird mixture of his Umbrella and Sparrow versions, and Diego is basically just his grown-up version, which is a bit jarring to read. The few supporting characters have very little characterisation if any.

It’s a fast read, comes with a few warnings but nothing a teenager can’t handle, and gives the fans a little bit of new fodder to talk about. I would not consider it an entry into canon though.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5/5, rounded up)

Journey back in time to the Umbrella Academy’s earlier years in Alyssa Sheinmel’s The Umbrella Academy: Young Blood. Long before Reginald Hargreeves’ death reunited the Umbrella Academy and long before Ben’s tragic death, the Hargreeves siblings itched for a glimpse at freedom, for the chance to be normal kids. But what happens when they go out into the world, in search of a normal night at a college party? Can they escape their extraordinary lives? Or are they destined to save the day wherever they go? These are the questions at the heart of Sheinmel’s Young Blood - and they’re questions she answers to a tee. Young Blood feels just like an episode of The Umbrella Academy.

Balancing six different character arcs and an extraordinary threat, Sheinmel delivers a story that's sure to please Umbrella Academy fans new and old alike. While the book struggles to deliver fully satisfying character arcs to each of the Hargreeves siblings, it never fails to be anything less than entertaining. If anything, Young Blood makes a great case for an ongoing series of Umbrella Academy YA novels - just with a narrow focus next time. A fast-paced, page-turner of a novel, The Umbrella Academy: Young Blood thrills, entertains, and packs a pretty good punch - however brief it might be.

Full review at Geek Vibes Nation.

A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

[jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars | I DONT THINK PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH THIS IS LITERALLY ALL I WANTED. I always wanted to see the young umbrella academy (especially ben), and omg this book served.
the parallel to the end of the book of reginald orchestrating everything and seeing how hurt ben was because of it and the bens death being BECAUSE of reginald (and lowkey something he orchestrated in a way) like he literally always wanted to get out the most and to see he is the one that never actually ended up getting it. ugh.
omg diego in this book made me so sad especially the beginning seeing him so nervous and drinking UGH it gave him so much more depth
also ben being bc worried for five and constantly asking klaus if he sees five I’ll cry.
ben almost dying??? like hello?? omg I genuinely closed the book and took a walk like r u kidding me and klaus SOBBING????? SOBBING. SOBBING ON HIS KNEES GUYS. ON HIS KNEES. SOBBING.
they were all so worried it was a SICK thing to reference and get you all worried that that’s how he died even tho it’s not
THE LINE WHERE KLAUS SAYS HE JUST WANTED HIM AND HIS SIBLINGS TO SPEND TIME TOGETHER AND NOT LIKE A MISSON LIKE TO HAVE FUN TOGETHER OH. MY. GOSH.
I literally died like he was so adorable for that and genuinely so excited to spend time w his siblings and reginald RUINED IT. I will cry.
the whole book I ate up like it was sooo entertaining and enjoyable seeing them as teens and a family sneaking out but also sad knowing what happens in the end ugh I love them.

[S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Young Blood is a nice addition to my TUA shelf as a collector, but I found it difficult to finish despite it being an easy read.

It's riddled with glaring contradictions to canon, the characterizations are often surface level or miss their mark entirely, and there are a handful of obvious typos that make me think this book should have had a few more passes by an editor. The pacing is also a bit odd and struggles to let readers sit with big emotions before jumping to the next topic, which is made worse by the simplistic prose. This wouldn't be a problem if it was obviously geared toward a younger audience, but instead Young Blood can't seem to decide whether it's being written for pre-teens by simplifying everything and frequently holding the reader's hand, or trying to appeal to older teens by mentioning darker topics and dropping a few swears, including an F-bomb or two. It makes for a confusing read tonally and the lack of commitment to seriously explore... anything, really, beyond the bare minimum was frustrating.

As a casual read for a casual fan, Young Blood is probably just going to be "okay". It's an alright book with some genuinely good lines and a few character insights that I appreciated, but for fans who are more familiar with TUA lore and characterization, this book will likely be more disappointing than not, sadly.

I hope that TUA will release more tie-in novels, but I hope that next time they'll do more research and start more clearly writing for an older audience to better cover TUA's subject matter.

[Emmett Salmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a little bit of beef with this book. Though let me stress none of my beef is with the author. This book reads like the author had it ready to go, and then a power hungry editor swooped in.

As someone who couldn't get into the comics after trying, I was excited to see a story set in the Netflix universe. It was a little strange this NC-17 TV show spawned a YA novel, but I'm not too proud to read YA, and it wasn't grossly censored, just an easily digestible story that wasn't too afraid to bring up some blood and violence and drug addiction.

I do want to say the story and writing was fine. I liked reading all the different perspectives from all the different siblings that have always been so different to eachother. Luther and Diego especially were really good foils to eachother, and their perspectives were written well enough that you can agree with both of them.

But I did have some cons with some post-writing decisions.

Firstly, why is this book so badly edited? Actual line in the pages: "Bianca says, 'Yada yada yada,' Bianca says." I caught myself rereading lines that didn't make sense, only to realize an entire word was missing. Twice a word/phrase was cut with a capital I like someone messed up a copy paste? I realize no one is perfect, but the amount of easily noticed errors in here screams editor not actually paying attention.

And I think that may have been the fault of this editor either overly pandering to and/or being overly harassed by their collection of sensitivity readers, which apparently includes Elliot Page himself. Very cool!

Let me start by saying I'm trans myself, though I am older, so my politics don't always align with those of 20 somethings, so maybe that's where my disconnect is.

This book decides to use Viktor's current name and pronouns despite being a prequel, which would have been before his characters transition. I also think it's important to note that Viktor wasn't consciously closeted at this time either; by Viktor's own words in the show, it was Sissy's influence and love that made him realize who he was. And to her credit, Alyssa clearly knew this.

It's also grossly obvious that this was a decision made after the book was written, not least of all proven by the fact that Viktor is left off the cover despite being a huge, if not the largest, driving part of the narrative. Let me guess, he was painted with the long hair he had at that age, but the editor wagged their finger because someone could/did find that offensive, and instead of redoing him with his hair pulled back and tucked in as it's described in the book which makes him noticeably male to strangers, we just didn't have time, so just leave him off. We can play it off as meta commentary about how he's left out of missions and no one will notice!

There's a really well written scene where Viktor gets addressed as "dude" by a party-goer and then has a whole introspective inner monologue about "Being called Dude feels more like me that my name ever has. My name never felt right just like my clothes never felt right." He never comes to any conclusions about this feeling, as lots of trans teenagers don't, as I didn't at that age, and as Viktor wouldn't have, based on his story and timeline. This scene however is totally broken and awkward because it's very clear that it was written using the name Vanya, and then an editor came in with a sensitivity reader and deadline looming over their shoulder, making them ctrl-f the name Vanya and just paste in Viktor without any concern for the greater context. Why would Viktor be sitting here saying "Viktor has never been a name that belongs to me. Viktor was given to me by my family. Maybe I'm not meant to be Viktor," when that's the name he chose for himself? They clearly expect us to change the name in our heads to make sense of this scene, which is such an unfair ask of someone that doesn't know the show, and slaps you back and forth to remind you you're in bed reading a book.

I'm not starkly against the choice to write the story as Viktor. It isn't the choice I would have made; a trans man's story will always begin with believing they are a woman, discovering something is wrong, working through that. This isn't Elliot's autobiography, where we're retroactively discussing a real person, who has real feelings that could be hurt by publishing their deadname over and over again. This is a narrative story. You're sacrificing immersion and a really good depiction of a closeted trans man to save face and not hurt the feelings of a fictional character.

That being said, if the editor actually took 20 minutes to reread that scene, accept that changing the name ruins it, and simply wrote it differently instead of just changing the name and calling it a day, I wouldn't be as bothered as I am. I could have left it at "I wouldn't have made this choice." But instead we just kind of ruined the readability of the book and ruined a really well written and powerful scene that this author absolutely nailed.

I feel like we could have had a decent compromise in using Viktor for the narrative, but not using it in the spoken dialogue. Or used Viktor for his chapters and not for the siblings chapters. We just sort of made the laziest choice with no care and it was just a black mark on my enjoyment of the book, constantly sitting in the back of my mind until I finished.

Still a cute, quick read though.

[Annamae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. As a huge fan of The Umbrella Academy after season 4, we needed this book. The author did an amazing job at capturing each character and what they think/feel. Even though in the show Klaus is my favorite, Ben's chapters were my favorite in the book. I loved reading how Ben thinks on his own, throughout the show you only get to see Ben with Klaus so I loved reading his chapters. It does a great job of setting up each character for the show. There were a few confusing parts though, one being the cat face. I believe it showed up 2 or 3 times in the book, it only showed up in Klaus's chapters so I think it's supposed to be when he dies, but it was unclear. Also, this part bugged me, in season 2 they make a point of saying how they didn't know there were other October 1st babies when they find out Lila was one, but this whole book is about them finding out Ryan was an October 1st baby and he also has powers. This book completely contradicts the scene in season 2 when they act like they didn't know there were more than 7 of them. Now you could say Reginald erased their memories like with Ben's death, but that doesn't make sense either because of the things that happened in the book. Ben makes a promise to himself that he will save people and not kill anyone with his tentacles this sents up his death and the Jenifer incident, how he took the extra risky time to save Jenifer even when Reginald told him not to. Now if their memories got erased Ben wouldn't have made that promise to himself which would likely lead to him not dying. It also isn't just Ben all the characters were set up for the show based on this book, the first taste of the real world sets them up for the rest of their lives. That was only the real part of the book I couldn't get behind, maybe I'm overthinking it. Overall it was a really good book and it's a must-read when you finish the series.

[Spring Petunia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Extremely disappointing to be honest. All of the POVs (with the exception of Ben) were very shallow and honestly boring. Aside from the one personality trait they each had (Luther is in charge, Diego wants to be #1, Allison is insecure and rumors people, Klaus is high, and Viktor is sad and alone), the narrative style of each character was relatively the same. The Luther/Allison incest plot wasn't at all necessary. There was too much information for a fan of the show/comics and not enough for some who wasn't a fan. And my biggest problem, as mentioned above, was how they basically all had one personality trait and didn't change. Ben, however, was a highlight. He changed as a result of the events, as main characters should. But the rest didn't. The book would have drastically improved if it had been in Ben's POV and Ben's alone.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to say that this was better than the comics. I think because it was a novel, that I was able to comprehend it much better.
Likewise, it was a good “prequel” to The Umbrella Academy. There is several nods to how each siblings grows to be. Their attitudes match well and I imagine it took a lot to write. It was nice to see Klaus and Ben as well as Allison and Luther’s relationships growing. Viktor still feeling lonely and Diego trying to be a better hero than Number One. It all connects well.
While Number Five is missing at the time the book takes place, the author mentions him as he’s someone the siblings miss from time to time.
So basically, if you like The Umbrella Academy, this novel is perfect in feeding that obsession.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
I've never seen the show so don't know if that makes my review better or worse...
This is a family of adopted siblings who were all born on the same day and have superpowers. Their father, who they call Hargreeves, has trained them relentlessly and purposefully to use these powers to fight crime. One night they sneak out and go to a party on a college campus and vow not to use their powers. While they are out, however, things go terribly and dramatically wrong.

Very melodramatic, pacing is erratic, some characters deserve more attention.

[Samantha Andersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: The Hargreeves siblings are looking for a night out of fun and normalcy. As a children's superhero group, they often feel on the outside of their community and other kids their age. Despite their father's wishes, they sneak out to have one night with no powers, and they can act like real teenagers. They go to a local college's frat party and come to find that it is not so easy to conceal their powers. They learn that maybe not everything is as it seems, and there's a reason they aren't normal.

Reaction: I was enthralled with this novel. I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was, as I am typically disappointed with novels based on TV shows. This novel handled some difficult topics in tasteful ways. I enjoyed that each chapter was from a different sibling's point of view so that I wasn't missing pieces in the plot and could see everything break down from different places.

Content Warning:
- mild swearing(one instance of the f word)
- Sexual orientation, body dysmorphia
- Drug abuse
- emotional abuse/manipulation
- Violence

[Pip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The publishing world yearns for fantiction.

Thoughts:
Removing Viktor's transness (because it is removed, he didn't simply come out earlier) was a huge missed opportunity
There were a few spelling errors, misused phrases, and heaps of cringy dialogue
The characters didn't really grow in a meaningful way because, well, how could they?
Spoilers: The superpowers made up by the author were so dumb. Knives for skin. I'm just gonna leave that there

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is perfect for any fan of The Umbrella Academy who wants even more of the characters! It stays true to how each character is portrayed, and you really feel their essence. The entire story takes place in just one day, mostly during the night, and you get to experience it from the perspectives of each sibling. Definitely worth reading for any Umbrella Academy fan!

[Montana Heldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Umbrella Academy: Young Blood is a fast-paced and engaging prequel that explores the teenage years of the Hargreeves siblings as they seek a night of freedom away from their strict upbringing Packed with action, humor, and strong family dynamics, it offers a fresh look at their struggles with identity, power, and the desire for normalcy.

[Katie Trombetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself was a fun trot through the UA universe, but boy howdy hot dang did it need an editor. Missing words, extra periods, incorrect spelling and messed up formatting were so disappointing. Made me love Ben more than ever tho.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed a palate cleanser after Season 4 and this was fun enough. I think it's hard to do 5 different perspectives in ~300 pages and drive a plot, but I did like all of the little callbacks (call forwards?) to the tv show.

[Mags Lorang · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Nothing that really wowed me, but it was still a fun book. And I ofc just love seeing more of these characters!!

[Hale Dodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very partial to the umbrella academy so... This was fantastic and I loved it, please write more.

[Cami Golub (Bookmilla) · Rating 4 out of 5]

La primera mitad es completamente adictiva. Despues considero que tiene demasiada descripción pero ME GUSTO MUCHISIMOOO!!!

Klaus te amo ♡

[amy hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

i mean cute? yea! necessary? debatable