Scarboys

by A.J. Smee

"Smee’s well-composed young adult novel will be devoured by fans of James Dashner and is an excellent choice for anyone that enjoys dystopian fiction. Scarboys is an intelligently written story about friendship and freedom, delivered through the engaging tale of a boy coming of age in a bleak and challenging world." -Dave Allen, Indies Today, 5 Stars

"Author A. J. Smee has crafted a thrilling and sinister work of dystopian fiction with plenty of twists, excitement, and interesting content to offer readers from all walks of life...I would highly recommend Scarboys to fans of high-concept storytelling, action-packed drama, and dystopian fiction readers everywhere." -K.C. Finn, Readers' Favorite, 5 Stars

Synopsis
In the remains of civilization ravaged by war and climate change, Nestor Hardy lived his entire life isolated in a place called Old Mexico. When his persistent headaches become life threatening and the death of his aunt leaves him alone, he’s forced on a journey into a dangerous world where children are a valuable commodity. After narrowly escaping Kuntryve, an infamous child hunter, Nestor is befriended by Lucre and the Children Y, a ragtag group of children living secretly in an abandoned factory. But even then, safety is never guaranteed. As he learns the truth about why children are hunted, Nestor realizes the role of friendship, the value of self-sacrifice, and his own special talents in saving his friends from the hands of evil men. And none of them is ready for the startling truth behind the Scarboys and the mastermind who fabricates them.

319 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Reader Views · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the land is scorched and to survive, society has taken to scrounging. With many children orphans, the adults have no problem making sacrifices of them as no one will miss them. Nestor, without guidance for the first time, must venture into the world in search of a cure for his worsening headaches that can be debilitating. After a run-in with child collector Kuntryve, he meets up with a group, Children Y, that have been hiding for years. While Nestor knows Kuntryve is dangerous, he doesn’t realize how much so until he learns the children are given over to a mad doctor who is cutting open their skulls to test brain implants.

“Scarboys” by A.J. Smee is a well-done dystopian book. There are a few things that could’ve been done better, but overall, I did enjoy it. The whole concept of this post-apocalyptic world is interesting. The ecological consequences of the greed of mankind are blatantly clear, which draws an interesting future parallel to where our current society could be headed. Where it starts to diverge is in the “commodity of children”. There are a few instances when adults mention that kids are a commodity because they can be used as slaves and soldiers. While I get that, it’s not exactly a sustainable practice. And given that we don’t see any proof of the “child commodity” outside of Moize, it’s a little hard to accept as fact.

Nestor as a character is interesting because he’s very naïve to the ways of the outside world. And though I understand his aunt was out of touch with reality, I still think she could’ve better prepared him for the world. What I also didn’t get was Nestor was supposed to find this Dr. Pleck yet somehow it was actually Moize that gave him the brain web. Also, it was very obvious early on that this is what was going on with him.

On to the brain webs. I think it was an interesting technology to include in this book. And with the mad doctor behind it, it made it fun. Yet, there were some issues in the “powers” that the brain web gave—especially that this is a sci-fi book. By the end, Nestor was able to see auras as well as read minds/implant thoughts. While I get how increased perceptions works for a device that increased intelligence, the two main things he experienced were more like fantasy superpowers.

Throughout the book, there were very few mistakes, but there were some inconsistencies regarding the chapter headers. If an author is going to do excerpts as chapter headers, they need to be consistent throughout. Overall a good read!

[Alina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarboys is a book about a boy named Nestor, who ends up completely alone in the dry desert in the South West of the United States. Nestor’s aim was to reach the city, but he meets lots of people and has several events happen to him that affect his final destiny. On his journey to the city, he encounters nice and mean people along the way that he is forced to deal with as the story unfolds.
I really liked this book, especially its genre-dystopian. It sends its reader to the future or to the past where The Great Conflict takes place. The author is intentional in trying to make the reader feel the apocalyptic atmosphere through his descriptions. His writing is effective. He reaches his goal amazingly. Another thing I noticed and appreciated was the choice of characters' names which intersect with their personalities. For example, Kuntryve, the antagonist’s name hides the word contrive which represents his personality. Another character’s name is Yaga, the author probably took that name from the eastern European tale, Baba-Yaga, however, he makes her personality different than in the tale. A note to future readers, in the second book Yaga’s personality, is revealed. The only thing that I didn't like in the book is that between chapters 22 to 30, in my opinion, it was a bit stretched, I would cut out this part. The vocabulary was unique and a bit difficult to understand for the age group that the author intended it for.
The message intended by the author is to alert the reader about safety. Firstly, he wants to make teens care about their safety. Perhaps this was not the aim of the book, but somehow it is part of the message one takes away. It shows that bad things can happen and we must pay attention to our surroundings and the people we trust. As we learn through Nestor’s experience his trusting nature endangered him. Finally, stay close to your friends and always stand up for them as did Nestor for Lucre.

[Amir Khalil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book “Scarboys” has a variety of aspects to talk about. For starters, the author made a marvelous job choosing the characters since they are all very different. For example, Moize is very different from Kuntryve. They are both bad guys, but Kuntryve is big and quite dum, while Moize is small and brilliant. Adding on to this, the author really nailed it with the backstories for each important character. Nestor started having normal headaches and one day he decided to come to the city and find a cure. After that, the story starts to really take action. Another example where we can observe this is with one of the villains, Kuntryve. This character had an interesting story because he had a piece of brain blown out and if it wasn’t for Moize, he would’ve died. Another aspect of the book to talk about is the language chosen. For me as a student, the words and terms used in the book were quite complicated and sometimes hard to understand. Even though, perhaps for older students or even college people the language might be a good fit for them. The genre and the overall plot of the book is a very futuristic and neo-world type of book. For my case, I hadn’t read any book of this kind, but I found it entertaining and catching. The ending of “Scarboys” was sort of, “a happily ever after,” type of ending. Since we already know there is another book coming, it would’ve been more interesting having a more mysterious or catchy ending. Overall, I would honestly read this book again.

[Seoyoung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarboys is a post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel. This book is intended for young adults and adult reading levels. This book shows the problems that can be leeded from problems we are facing today like climate change and war. The protagonist, Nestor Hardy, a fifteen-year-old boy who grew up in an isolated countryside leaves his home to find a cure for his dreadful headaches. Along the way, he makes friends in a destroyed chaotic world where children are a commodity, and a crazy neurosurgeon undergoes brain surgeries to create the ‘Scarboys’.

The author A.J. Smee has created a fascinating and thrilling story. Containing excitement, action, and unexpected twists, the author has created an enjoyable story for those who seek joy from reading. Smee has skillfully built the dystopian setting with vivid descriptions. I was able to clearly imagine it in my head. I particularly found the author’s ability to graphically describe the climaxes impressively. I was so immersed that I felt like I was being sucked into the book. As I said above the author uses vivid descriptions that allow the reader to imagine the characters and what is going on in the story. Scarboys is an expertly written narrative about friendship and freedom told by the fascinating story of Nestor. Overall I would highly recommend this book to fans of post-apocalyptic dystopian novels.

[Aditya Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarboys is a book of Fiction in the Dystopian and Action sub-genres. It was authored by A.J Smee. The book is meant to be read by young adults and gives us insight into Climate Change dystopia. The book starts in an abandoned countryside ranch and introduces us to the protagonist Nestor Hardy- A fifteen-year-old boy who until now has never left his Aunt’s abandoned ranch. The death of his aunt marked the beginning of his journey to the city to find a doctor who has a cure for his life-threatening problem. Now determined to reach his goal, Nestor embarks on this journey making many comrades and adversaries. All while doing this Nestor has to steer clear of a cold blooded child kidnapper

A.J Smee has crafted the novel in such a way that most will find it difficult to put it down. Being full of surprises, twists, and turns Smee will always keep the reader wanting to know more. I love how Smee has methodically built up the plot and slowly de-escalated it. Some parts of the story that were surprising were the attack on the Children Y and Tandem's betrayal. The children Y, what an unfortunate group of children. Fans of George Orwell will devour Scarboys. Overall, I’d recommend this book to people that love surprises and enjoy dystopian fiction.

[Jimmy Ayoubissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarboys is a very interesting book. It's fiction but actually makes you question the book, as you have to remember that children getting kidnapped is real. The book has sufficient action and makes you love the characters such as Del or Nestor. You also sometimes question who to trust and believe, as the characters are full of lies and desires to betray each other. It's also quite interesting to see the backstory behind every character, not all books send out enough information about characters. What I really would like is more information on the great conflict, what kind of conflict was it? A World War? Cold War? Armageddon? Understanding the great conflict is going to be potentially necessary in future books, if we don't get information about it, then perhaps the whole idea of how the world is in the situation it is at will be lost or even forgotten. Overall I would give the book a 8/10, nice story, interesting characters, interesting backstories, yet not enough settings or even enough information about settings. In conclusion, the book is very interesting with an extended vocabulary, yet a very nice book. I would recommend it mostly to teens, young adults, or older.

[Valentina S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarboys is a dystopian novel about a boy, Nestor, whose aunt has passed away and has now to leave for the city alone in order to find a doctor who can cure his headaches. When he starts his way to the city, he realizes that things are worse than what he thought and this is when all the challenges and obstacles begin for Nestor.

In my opinión, Scarboys is a very well-written book with many details and well-descriptions. I’m personally a fan of dystopian novels and I believe that one of the most important things in a dystopian novel is the details, so that you can clearly imagine how this world is, and I believe this is exactly what AJ Smee did. The details of the settings are very descriptive and you can clearly imagine everything. The character descriptions are also great and the emotions they feel are also very clear. The story follows a good storyline and the story proceeds smoothly. One suggestion I would give is to be a bit more clear on the powers Nestor has since sometimes they were mixed with some fantasy elements that didn’t really go with the story. Overall, I think this is a very good book and I would totally recommend it.

[Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scarboys, is a nice book, it talks about the life of some kids after the apocalypse how are they treated, and how they are controlled by making them get surgery; We can see in this novel that the kids are trying to stop Kuntryve who is the bad guy of the story, what's interesting about this book is the details and imagination brought to every single chapter and page in this book we can observe the number of details and things created that I have never heard before its amazing. Something I didn't enjoy about this book is the beginning of it the first 5 chapters were calm we can say we didn't have any type of action that's something that I need to get hooked to a book; Something else I didn't like was the complication of the words, I believe that it took me way longer to read the book because of how hard these words were. An author is a creative person and we can see that he has a lot of knowledge his capacity to write a book so easily is amazing; Overall it is a nice book I would rate this book a ⅘ just because of the complication of the words in my point of view, I loved this book and I would share it with my friends and family.

[Arthur Fernaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An apocalyptic world, full of adventures. A group of teensagers, The Scarboys. The 15 year old Nestor, having grown up in an isolated countryside ranch with his aunt, but unfortunately when she dies, he decides to take a trip to the city. Facing a lot of challenges, hard decision making, and experiencing things they have never experienced ever before.

The book is very detailed and very specific about what’s going on. Nestor himself had to climb a tree with a beehive hoping the Scarboys would eat some of the honey up there. Kuntryve which tries to kidnap them, a lot is going on and he manages to explain everything.

I find the vocabulary and language level a bit difficult for me (14 years old). I should say and recommend the book is for 16+ or young adults. But apart from that everything is good.

A.J. Smee, the book is amazing, really, it demonstrates you worked extra hard to manage to publish the book and be proud. Well done.

I should say it is 4.5/5. A.J. Smee did a fantastic job. Recommend the book 100%.

[Martin Cannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scarred to Death

Loved this first novel from AJ Smee. The plot is detailed, and rarely straightforward taking the reader on a roller coaster ride through a dystopian maelstrom which connects the themes of survival, relationships and the environment in a compelling read. I could see the potential for a movie from the early stages of the novel. Smee portrays the main characters in a realistic manner allowing the reader to identify with them in a meaningful way - even the “bad guys”. The climb to the honeycomb cliffs struck me as a central piece in the growing awareness of Nestor and understanding his own growth in the novel. The roles of Yaga and Moise juxtaposed the dichotomy of adult responsibilities in the new world order. The language and structure of the novel help the reader’s understanding of the relationship with the living world -and our responsibility to it and to each other. I look forward to Smee’s next novel!

[L]

The author of the novel, A.J Smee, is in a subtle way. Smee encourages it, contrary to common beliefs in general. This is a dystopian novel set in ancient Mexico, especially after the end, and is now known as New Mexico in particular. This is very important. This is the first dystopian novel I have ever read and shows that this kind is the first dystopian novel I have ever read subtly. Especially the vocabulary of this book was very strict. In particular, I was forced to learn some new words and their meanings on a large scale. I'm going to reread it, mostly to catch up with some of the things I missed first, to show that Smy, to encourage it, or so they essentially thought. To be honest, when I first saw this book, I thought it would be one of the long and boring novels most of the time, but as I read it, I realized how fascinating it was. did. Overall, I give this book a 4.5 / 5 rating. This shows that this is generally the first dystopian novel I read.

[Adam Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a bit biased with the book (and I know it's not perfect), but every time I reread certain sections I still like it.

[Haley Kilgour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I think this is a well-done dystopian book. There are a few things that could’ve been done better, but overall, I did enjoy it.

The whole concept of this post-apocalyptic world is interesting. The ecological consequences of the greet of mankind are blatantly clear. Which draws an interesting future parallel for where our current society could be headed. Where it starts to diverge is in the “commodity of children”. There are a few instances when adults mention that kids are a commodity because they can be used as slaves and soldiers. But while I get that it’s not exactly a sustainable practice. And given that we don’t see any proof of the “child commodity” outside of Moize, it’s a little hard to accept as fact.

Nestor as a character is interesting because he’s very naïve to the ways of the outside world. And while I understand his aunt was out of touch with reality, I still think she could’ve better prepared him for the world. What I also didn’t get was Nestor was supposed to find this Dr. Pleck yet somehow it was actually Moize that gave him the brain web. Also, it was very obvious early on that this is what was going on with him.

On to the brain webs. I think it was an interesting technology to include in this book. And with the mad doctor behind it, it made it fun. Yet, there were some issues in the “powers” that the brain web gave—especially that this is a sci-fi book. By the end, Nestor was able to see auras as well as read minds/implant thoughts. While I get how increased perceptions works for a device that increased intelligence, the two main things he experienced were more like fantasy superpowers.

Throughout the book there were very few mistakes. I the only one that really stood out to me was the use of gate instead of gait. But there were some inconsistencies in regard to the chapters. The first like 15 chapters had excerpts from this history book. Then you get one crazy glance into Kuntryve’s head. Then nothing for ten chapters. Then one entry from Moize’s journal, then nothing for two, then three more Moize’s entries. If an author is going to do excerpts as chapter headers, they need to be consistent throughout.

[Michele Gatto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful writing, visceral imagery, with a unique take at consciousness, perception, and human interactions... a YA novel with great exploration of anarchy, nature, and desire. Looking forward to a second book!