The Sevenfold Hunters takes readers on a wild ride alongside a team of trainee alien hunters fractured by a death in their midst. The Sevenfold were the most elite team at Carlisle Academy, stacked with legacies whose parents once fought for and now hold prestigious positions on Carlisle's board. The exception is the team's leader, Abyan. Orphaned by the very aliens the school teaches them to fight, it's a personal battle for her. When Sevenfold member Jared dies at the hands of the Nosaru (the aliens) off mission, the team is crushed. And they're not the only ones. He was with his girlfriend, Artemis, rock climbing, when the attack happened, and her world is rocked by the revelation of Jared's secret life and the way he was taken from her. She can't help but feel that the school's response indicates something more sinister is going on. It motivates her to seek entry to the elite academy, not as an aspiring Nosaru hunter, but to find out what Carlisle is hiding about the day Jared died. In a twist, the school assigns Artemis to Jared's old squad, an action that stirs up a lot of animosity towards the new girl. Not only does the new recruit threaten the team's standing in the school's rankings, but she also has the gall to take the space left by their friend, the one they're still mourning. We get the story through two POVs as Abyan and Artemis try to put together all the strange things happening at Carlisle, initially as separate investigators, but eventually as collaborators.

The strongest aspect of this book for me is the Sevenfold team. There's a lot of representation, starting with the fact that there are only two "token straights," a ratio I can get behind. Artemis is bi, and it's always worth noting for me that one of the members is ace. Abyan stands out as my favorite character. She's British Somali, and her lack of upper-crust background is just another way she stands out at Carlisle. Language code-switching is one of the ways she ultimately ends up bonding with Artemis. Abyan is also hijabi, and we see some of the little and big ways her faith has impacted her time at school. For one, she's had to fight to prevent her squad from being assigned missions that would require her to miss prayer. We also see the heart-warming respect she receives from her friends regarding personal boundaries. Her best friend on the team is Hank, and they have a heart eyes will they/won't they vibe. They always have each other's backs, even against the rest of the squad. Their flirtatious banter is top-notch, and I was rooting for them to take the plunge. But while they share intense moments and some adorable friendly hugs to ground each other, Hank respects that Abyan wouldn't be comfortable with further physical intimacy. My final comment re:Team Abyan is that there's some powerful depression representation through her character, showing how she copes (or can't) with the bad days and where they come from. I found it relatable and meaningful, an aspect of her reality woven through the rest, just like mental illness is in real life.

The weaker element of the book for me was the world-building and background components. In terms of relationships, Abyan and Hank have a deep feeling of history between them even if it doesn't play out on the page. But not all the friendships on the team have the same nuanced quality. In some ways, I think that's natural. In other ways, the famed synchronicity of the team feels unsupported even before you get into the specific fractures affecting them this year. For world-building, it feels a bit like a standard alien and evil corporation plot, which isn't necessarily bad but doesn't inspire my enthusiasm. It also leaves room for some plot holes or at least thin explanation since it's relying on common tropes.

In the end, characters and their relationships are more important to me than world-building, and I think these characters have a lot to say. With that in mind, I would pick up a future book about them should it exist to see how things evolve for them. Thanks to Page Street for my copy to read and review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

Unfortunately this was not an enjoyable read for me as I found I liked the idea of this book more so than the execution of it. I was very excited by the premise but found the writing a bit choppy and elements of the world somewhat underdeveloped/explained. I didn't enjoy how the sole lesbian character in this book was described, and likewise found it odd that several characters were outed to someone they didn't really like or even know in the space of one sentence and how many of those identities were then never referenced again. While those may be personal issues I had with it, they did affect my enjoyment of the book. Ultimately, I feel I was left with more questions than answers.

Thank you to Pride Book Tours & Page Street YA for my finished copy. All opinions are my own.

This was such a fun YA sci-fi and I absolutely loved it. The world has creatures called Nosaru, that are basically alien vampires, and The Sevenfold are one of the best alien hunter groups out there. But when things at the school start getting suspicious, they must find out who can be trusted and what everyone’s true motives are. This book pulled me in right away. Both the girls quickly won me over, but Artemis was there first. She’s a softie and I’m here for cinnamon rolls. Also the found family vibes were peak in this book!
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If you like aliens, boarding school settings, sci-fi or horror elements, then this is the book for you! The Sevenfold Hunters follows two girls: Abyan, no 1 badass, and Artemis, the newbie who keeps failing everything but somehow hasn’t been kicked out. Abyan is a Somalian-British muslim straight cis girl and Artemis is a Black British bisexual cis girl. What I really liked about these two was how different they were. Abyan is a headstrong leader, while Artemis is scrambling to keep up in a world she was just thrust into. Both of them go through incredible growth in this book and I really hope we get to see more of them!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC of this book.

3/5 Stars

The Sevenfold Hunters first grabbed my attention from the description, students who go to school at these prestigious Carlisle Academy to study, learn, but also hunt and fight aliens. Seemed like a great science fiction book to pick up. However I found it fell a little flat of my expectations. While this book is fast-paced I found the plot uninteresting, as it seemed to follow a very typical plot. While there is a mysterious plot line within the book, I found it little predictable. Having a hard time gaining my interest to further along with the book. For myself, I love books with well done world building of any scale. Although this book had minimal world building in which seemed rushed, and undescriptive. Having very little context and background for where the story takes place and how it evolves. The characters within the story are the best part of the story, as there is the found family trope. The author did a great job creating diverse characters, showcasing a tight knit group of friends who each add a refreshing perspective to the story.

If you love science fiction books with aliens like The Final Six and Nyxia, then I recommend giving this book a read.

Thank you to Pride Book Tours, the author, and the publisher for the copy!

First of all, let's talk about what I liked about this book. I did enjoy the elements of found family. The banter between the different members of the Sevenfold is fantastic and they really shine through as a tight knit group of friends. I also really love the cover, and the premise is fantastic. The villains also shone through as definitely evil and the stakes certainly felt very high.
However, I wish there was more time spent on explaining the world instead of just shoving the reader into it. I wasn't certain if it was just me who couldn't keep up, but this seems to be a similar issue that i've seen in other reviews. There should've been more time dedicated to explaining the world, because by the end I was just rushing trough it because I didn't understand what was happening and I was in too deep to start over from the beginning. Additionally, I wasn't a big fan of many of the characters. I don't think we ever got an explanation why Artemis goes by Jay as well (or maybe I accidentally missed it), and Abyan was really annoying. I couldn't stand her POV and all the decisions that she made. I would've preferred any of the other characters' perspectives instead of Artemis and Abyan.
Overall though, there are definitely some great elements to it, it just wasn't fully for me

4/𝟱

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Vampire aliens
~ Exclusive school/Academia
~ Diverse British ethnic groups
~ LGBTQ+ representation
~ Fights 🙌

Abyan is losing her mind & focus at a critical time. Her team needs her focus to vanquish the Nosaru & recover from their grief over losing a squad member, instead, they get the rookie Artemis & a leader with other things on her mind. As the team re-learns how to work together, fight the Nosaru, train Artemis & avoid being kicked out of Carlisle Academy - they find out secrets about the school & themselves in highly destructive ways.

🌵
Overall, although I didn’t particularly LOVE any of the characters, the premise was good, with characters with depth & struggles. There were sci-fi elements, but I would probably call it a fantasy-sci. It’s a good read for some ‘Academia’ lovers. 🤔 I wasn’t fully convinced that the alien vamps were evil.

✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

🌱THE MEH
~ Ugh the whiny useless female who complains about wanting to go home but doesn’t spare everyone & just LEAVE
~ 🤣 Had to keep reminding myself not to get upset at the children
~ Leader that refuses to accept being wrong and endangers others instead
~ Unnecessary delay and drama

♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)

- THE SEVENFOLD HUNTERS is tense and action packed, mysterious and full of heart. I fell quickly for the central squad, rooting for them in their race against the clock.
- I loved this idea that the aliens were what we generally call vampires, and that there was a whole secret military and bureaucratic apparatus built to fight them and keep their existence a secret from the larger world.
- I also loved that in this book nearly everyone is queer in some capacity, and the diversity of backgrounds and identities in the main crew felt natural and effortless.

I really liked this book. I've always loved books that have found families in them. I also found the diversity in a science fiction novel refreshing.

Unfortunately I couldn't get over the writing style at all. It was choppy, kind of uncoordinated and just generally hard to understand.
I couldn't really focus on the storyline because of that.
Additionally, the main character just wasn't likeable enough for me to get seriously invested in the whole story. I'm pretty disappointed since the original blurb sounded good, but the story just lacked depth.
There was barely any actual world-building, the characters weren't really fleshed-out and the few plot points I actually got curious about were never worked through.

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me.

Thank you, Page Street Kids, for allowing me to read The Sevenfold Hunters!

Rose Egal definitely wrote an interesting debut with its flaws and strengths which resulted in a okay reading experience.