Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Standard Sedgwick. Brilliant and everything the children’s book industry requires.
A school library must have.

As usual, Sedgewick is hard-hitting and brilliant and everything the publishing industry needs.

Fantastic read, recommended to friends,

Wrath is a beautiful story of friendship and faith set during the pandemic. When Cassie goes missing, her friend Fitz traces back their conversations to find clues to her disappearance. What is troubling is the fact that she had begun strangely, claiming she can hear a noise called The Hum that no one else can. The book has short chapters that move the story quickly, with flashbacks to Cassie and Fitz's scenes before she was gone. There are elements of environmentalism and climate change that feel relevant. However, I thought the story could have been longer, especially towards the end. There are heavy issues like abuse and mental health that I wish was explored further. But this would be great for younger readers as they learn how to navigate their friendships in a world with a complicated future.

This unfortunately was not a book for me. I couldnt really get into the story. Still it was a nice quick read.

This didn't have the magical quality of other titles I've read by Sedgwick. I wish that the ARC displayed the dyslexia-friendly format that is supposed to be present in the print book.

I'll be honest - I read this a couple months ago and completely forgot to write a review at the time! From what I can remember, I absolutely loved the story and the descriptions of the scenery once the main characters get on the road north to Scotland. I did have a few "I've been there" moments! Overall, I enjoyed it and will be buying it for the school library.

I found this Book moving and allowed the reader to experience the pandemic through a lens they might not have experienced otherwise! I feel the characters are well developed and I finished this book very quickly. I found the pace of the book quite well thought out. I have read other works by Marcus Sedgwick and was not disappointed by this, as I really enjoyed his other books too.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and found it very relatable and can see many young people relating this to their own experiences of the Pandemic.

Thank you so much to #Netgalley and the publisher. I actually enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated. It deals with some important topic (climate changes etc)

Cassie and Fritz are friends. But right now, their world is in chaos. Thanks to a lock down (covid) Cassie finds that she can not stop hearing a hmmm that is coming from deep within the earth.

Then Cassie disappears and that begins this well written YA psychological thriller.

This is a slow but beautiful and moving story about friendship, family and connection. It's understated and relies on carefully written characters and your evolving emotional understanding of their stories rather than action which is unusual but important in modern YA writing.

A bit odd, though the oddness works in it's favor. It helps that the writing is sparse. There isn't much description or reflection. The events are laid out as they happen and it is left for the reader to do the reflecting. The major characters have sufficient depth This is the sort of book where you want to leave yourself some time for mulling after you finish it.

I do love a book by Marcus Sedgwick and Wrath did not disappoint. Full of secrets and suspense throughout, this book is both thought-provoking and heart-wrenching. I adore the characters within this book as they all play an important within the story. It is a masterclass of storytelling, meaningful and powerful and will be a perfect addition to any secondary school library as Wrath will support and educate many readers about our connections to each other and the planet.

I loved the reflections about the recent lockdowns at the beginning of the story as it portrays how this has impacted young people’s mental health and state of mind. It is gripping from the very first page right through to the end and I cannot wait to recommend this to some of my students.

A huge thank you to the publishers, Barrington Stoke, for letting me read an advanced copy of Wrath on Netgalley to read and review on my blog.

You can buy/pre-order this fabulous book from all booksellers, online and of course using any independent local bookshop.

Barrington Stoke books help emergent, reluctant and dyslexic readers unlock the love of reading. There books are published in such a special way to ensure an accessible read for all.

Scheduled to post 3/15/22.

I've loved everything I've ever read by Marcus Sedgwick, so I was thrilled when I got approved for this ARC. His writing is usually so deep and layered and convoluted in the best possible ways. His books are a mind game that twists you up before getting to the end.

WRATH was not like that at all. To the point where I was left wondering if my ARC was missing some pages or something. It's exceptionally short, much shorter than his previous work (that I've read, anyway), and the story is just . . . blah.

There's no real character development for Fitz, and Cassie is the real focal point of the story but spends very little time actually on the page. The hum that keeps being alluded to just doesn't go anywhere, and it ended up being a very basic 'teen hates her homelife' story. Considering her parents, I don't blame her, but because I've read other Sedgwick books, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never dropped.

I'm disappointed in just how bland the story is and how those weird little elements that kept getting mentioned just fell flat. They were used as teases throughout, but never amounted to anything.

I read WRATH expecting a MARCUS SEDGWICK book, and all I got was a very pale comparison to the stories I'm used to. There was no real tension, Fitz was simply a tool to get through the story (Cassie's story, I might add, I think the whole thing is told from the wrong POV, IMO), and there's no payout on the underlying elements used as tension to get the reader through the story. From a formatting perspective, my ARC was a mess, so maybe there was something in the style that added to the story that I'm missing here, but I highly doubt it would add that much.

I'm just so disappointed.

1.5

This book was so engrossing and engaging. The writing style was so easy to read and flowed perfectly from beginning to end, making this book difficult to put down. It was accessible whilst still having and absolutely incredible plot.

The narrative voice was stunning. I loved the way that much of the book was Fit looking back on memories of Cassie prior to her disappearance, seeing them in a new light with her being missing. I also adored their relationship/friendship, it was so sweet and realistic. They clearly cared for and trusted one another but Fitz still maybe didn't say the right thing at times. It was just so true and honest a depiction.

I also think this weaved in lockdown and the pandemic so naturally, this book really heavily features some of the most stressful parts of reality yet it still managed to be an escape to read. The narrative on climate change, the necessity for hope and change was beautifully tackled and interwoven.

Finally, the prose was just gorgeous. I've highlighted sections in my copy because they're just so prominent and stunning. This really is a masterpiece of a book.

I like Marcus Sedgwick and I really wanted to like what this book promised, but it just feel a little bit short for me. It was a bit of a pandemic novel and a bit of a climate change novel and a bit of a teen drama, but it just wasn't quite enough of any of those. I finished it because it was so short, but it just never hit home as I was hoping it would. My students might pick it up because of the length, but I don't think that they will really engage with the story. It wasn't terrible by any stretch, just a little disappointing.

This book left me wanting more. I enjoyed a lot of parts of it including the premise, the characters, and a lot of the messaging. However, there's just not enough in it and parts can be confusing. That said I think I would have really enjoyed reading this as a preteen and would recommend it.

This book wrecked me. The emotional affects of quarantine on kids already struggling to figure out who they are made this book a must-read. I plan to add it to my classroom shelves, as I know many of my students will connect with Charlie and Fitz, their desires to belong, and their family struggles.

Wrath tells the story of Cassie Cotton, a teenage girl who's been struggling during the Covid lock-down, who's been hearing this strange humming noise, and who suddenly goes missing one day. Left behind with no idea what might have happened to her, her best friend Fitz tries desperately to figure out what could have happened to Cassie.

Wrath is the latest children's book release from publisher Barrington Stoke, a publisher that has been producing some excellent children's reads. Normally with their books there's a theme to them, a topic that they're dealing with in some way. Sometimes this is a story about wildfires that help raise awareness of nature and global warming, or stories about a family struggling to get by that teaches young readers about poverty and how hard some people in the UK have it. Often the themes are pretty obvious, and central to the book; but it took me a while to see the central themes in Wrath.

The book begins with Cassie, already being missing. She's just vanished and people are still trying to figure out when she might have disappeared, and where she could have gone. One of these people is Fitz, one of her best friends, her band-mate, and someone who secretly has a crush on her. Over lock-down Cassie had been messaging Fitz, as well as secretly meeting him in the middle of the night, telling him about a strange humming sound that she's been hearing.

As the days pass, Cassie keeps insisting that she can hear the hum, that it's always there when its quiet, and that she thinks it the sound of the earth itself. Whilst Fitz wants to be a good friend to her, he can't hear the sound, and as the days pass other people hear about Cassie's sound, and start mocking her for it. When Fitz stupidly agrees with one of his friends that Cassie might be crazy she overhears this, and it's the last time that he sees her before she vanishes.

With the police searching for her, Fitz believes that the sound might be connected with her disappearance somehow, and starts to search through everything she sent him about it. Desperate to find his friend, to tell her he's sorry, and that he loves her, Fitz will go to impossible lengths to get her back.

Wrath tells its story across a series of flashbacks, scattered over the days when Cassie goes missing, showing both how Fitz is dealing with his friend being gone, as well as what led them both to this point. The story unfolds slowly, with small pieces of the puzzle being handed to readers as Fitz starts to piece together what might have happened. Because of this, it's not clear at first what might be going on.

For the longest time I was left wondering if perhaps there would be some kind of supernatural element to the book, that the hum would be something real, something that could have whisked Cassie away from her home. Whilst there's no explanation for the hum by the end of the book, it eventually becomes clear that this is a much more down to earth story; one about relationships and wanting to escape.

You see, Cassie is going through a difficult home life leading up to her disappearance. Yes, she has both parents living with her, and they're pretty rich, a stark contrast to Fitz who lives with his father and struggles to get by, but thanks to her parents relationship going through a rough patch she's living in a house filled with constant arguments. She's being subjected to shouts and screams, the sound of broken things, and is trying to drown that noise out. Her disappearance is as much about escaping her family as it is trying to figure out what the hum is.

The relationship between her and Fitz is also given a lot of weight, and most of the scenes in the book involve the two of them, or at least relate to their connection with each other. Fitz is either spending time with Cassie, thinking about her, searching for her, or wanting to make things better with her. And this huge focus he has on her could have easily come across as creepy, some kind of teen obsession, yet it doesn't. There's another character in the book who is written this way, and there's such a sharp contrast between him and Fitz; you see that Fitz isn't some love-struck teen, desperate to just possess the girl he loves, but an actual decent person with a damn fine heart.

By the end of Wrath its clear that this is a story about love, about relationships, and about escaping the things that bring you pain. It shows how those around you can be hurt by your actions, even if you don't think so. Cassie was hurt by her parents, and her leaving hurt Fitz. But ultimately it's these connections that help save her come the end, that ground Cassie and show her that she doesn't have to face the huge, frightening world all on her own. And because of that, I think the book has a wonderful message behind it.

Interesting premise but the execution left me cold. I think this is another one where I’m just not in the target audience anymore. I’ve loved all Sedgewick’s previous books and I can cope with his stripped down prose – but the cupboards were a bit too bare for me on this one. For midgrade and younger teens looking for an easier read, this will probably be ideal.

What a wondrous little book: as bleak, yet beautiful & hopeful as the turning point in our planet's history at which we now find ourselves.

Teenage angst&anxiety are brilliantly interwoven with the plight of our global environment to brew a feeling of desperate determination.

I have read a number of Marcus Sedgwick's novels before, and this new story is a wonderful addition to his canon of work. A fascinating concept that kept me hooked.