Battle Schooled is a fast-paced story about friendship and bonding over what makes us different, and fighting. Lots of fighting. The story revolves around a number of YA students from different countries and ways of life, who don't always get along but have to join forces when someone starts murdering students. It's unclear what type of school this is, as the kids spend most of their time pummelling each other and planning tournaments. On the other hand, the curriculum includes combat lessons and students are allowed to carry weapons. The plot is a bit unfocussed in places, wandering from subject to subject, especially in the first half. Once the murders start, the story comes together better. There's lots of humour with witty repartee and ripostes, characters developing their signature moves, and unveiling of hidden talents. Overall, it was a quick, enjoyable read.

Summary: Combat, friends, murder. School can be difficult. ( )

My main obstacle with this book was how boring it was. It was based on a group of kids in some sort of school, of which the main purpose of in the kids lives was unclear. The author did mention a few times however, that teaching fighting skills was a secondary venture, so perhaps it was all about a standard curriculum of maths, science and language? Who knows. Either way, the fighting that takes place in the novel overtook anything else that the school may have been about. The fighting itself was also pretty anticlimactic for the most part. A lot of the fights took place between the students who had challenged each other based on ego and then when they lost became friends with each other. Even the fights that happened against more arduous opponents were anticlimactic and sometimes hard to follow as so many characters got involved in them and so many different fight moves intertwined with other characters. Sometimes it was easier to skip over the fighting narrative to the aftermath of it than to read the action scenes themselves.
I did like the concept of the book, and found the idea to be fairly original. But the author seemed to change his mind too often during the writing in this book making it seem as though the evolution of the characters and the trials they faced went in circles, never really progressing past their introduction. All together it was a dull read and I was grateful that it was a shorter book, had it have been any longer and I don't think I could have finished it.
To read my full review please go to https://opinionatedbw.blogspot.ca/ ( )