DNF’d this at 30%

Couldn’t make head nor tail of what was actually going on, the writing style was bizarre, it read like either a badly translated version into English or an AI generated plot. Difficult to distinguish between the main characters as there were too many and nothing unique stood out about any of them to differentiate them from each other. Disappointing as the concept of the storyline was quite intriguing!

I was granted complimentary access to Discovery of the Five Senses by K.N. Smith as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

For full transparency, this book didn't pique my interest the first time it was presented to me as a potential review opportunity. It came across my suggestions on NetGalley for the second time after accepting the review opportunity for this tour, but I've also featured it on my blog three other times. I am glad I finally gave it a chance because the 4-star average on Goodreads did not deceive, it's a great book!

This book reads quite a bit more mature than what I'm used to in the YA category, not in an inappropriate or adult content sort of way but just in a tone and experience sort of sense. These characters feel like they've seen a little more in their short lives than YA high school characters typically feel. The quality and level of the writing gives the reacher a little more benefit of the doubt in terms of what they can understand and pick up on than a lot of YA that I've read as well. I can see how that might be a stumbling point for some reviewers, but it was refreshing for this very much not teenaged reviewer, and I think this is the sort of thing I would have loved to get my hands on when I was a teenager.

I do love a good hero story full of well-meaning vigilantes coming into their own as local heros, and this book doesn't disappoint. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the acquisition of powers felt a little cliche, but I love the direction this book took and how absolutely real and genuine these boys feel as people, as kids on the verge of adulthood, and as heros.

My two main criticisms are distinguishing all the different focal characters, and the title itself. This book splits up the "main character" role between a moderately sized cast of teenage boys and they didn't all come across as clearly distinct from one another as I would have liked to see. As for the title, this was honestly one of the big reasons I didn't elect to review in earlier tours I hosted stops for with this book. Having read the book I understand where the title comes from, but without context the title feels very Magic School Bus. It sounds like it's going to be targeted at a much younger audience, it sounds like it's going to be science-based educational content that pairs non-fiction material with a fun plot, and as I hinted, it sounds like perhaps the reader should expect the appearance of a lizard companion or a ginger-haired teacher who should have been fired ages ago for endangering her students.

Thankfully that's not the case and this is actually a well-written young adult fantasy adventure that'll appeal to adults as well as teens.