I love this book so much, I need a physical copy for my library. Disturbing, suspenseful, haunting. It had everything I could want.

If you like diving into intriguing fantastical worlds, The Headmasters needs a spot on your bookshelf.

Really interesting novel with an engrossing plot line. It feels like you're walking with the main character, Maple, all the time, and this really situates the reader within the story. Because of this, I really felt that I was experiencing everything that she was. The concept of the Headmasters controlling memories, and the society that the people built in the wake of this invasion was fascinating, and I loved learning about the different ways of life amongst the community. The writing was descriptive and visceral, and conveyed the tension and dread that permeates the story.

Maple was a really interesting main character, and I enjoyed following her as she grew up. The discovery of the journal was a great way to introduce the initial invasion by the Headmasters, and really helped to build a better idea of the people living there.

At times, the story did feel a little slow, with too much irrelevant information added in which made it drag. Whilst this slowed the pacing of the novel down, and made it feel a bit laborious sometimes, it did lend the story a more immediate feeling in the sense that the author was able to capture the monotomy of daily life on the compound, and allowed the reader to feel as if they were experiencing it firsthand.

Overall, a really good book with a great main character, an interesting and unusual plot line, and great writing! I would definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

I did love the premise of this story. I loved the flashbacks. But these are all from our humans pov. I wish there more or where or why or how the headmasters came to be there.

I really enjoyed Headmasters. It's an interesting concept and felt the pacing was good. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys SciFi and dystopian world settings.

An anticipation novel with a very pin-pointed narrative looking just over the shoulder of its narrator. Part survival story, part alien invasion in the body-snatcher sense, this book is very well written in terms of atmosphere and pace.
We look at a tiny community entirely cut off from the world with the complete inability to save themselves. It's full of anguish and we yearn for the narrator, Maple, to free herself.
That said, the story was missing an essential element for me, I would have liked to see the other side of the narrative, to get a little more explanation and insights into what the Headmasters were thinking, and were trying to achieve. I would have liked to know how the rest of humanity was going beyond those lost communities. I was a little disappointed by the ending as I had hoped for more and it felt a little easy.
This is still a good book for people who like end-of-the-world novels with a humane narrator.

I think this will end up being one of my favorite books of 2024. It's a perfect marriage between world building and character development. Sometimes sci-fi can feel empty when you're excitedly waiting for the twist and then it comes and that's all there was. The pacing is great, as well as the reveals, and even if those weren't as exciting, I was deeply invested in Morton's characters. I didn't see it was YA until I was almost done and was surprised but the author does a great job of writing a book accessible to teens that is in no way juvenile.

I really enjoyed this book! It was unlike any book I’ve ever read in terms of plot. It kept me completely engrossed in the story throughout the book.
One issue I had was that sometimes the time jumps had me confused and I didn’t notice until a little bit into the chapter. However, once I got my bearings again, the time jump would make a lot of sense and help the story along. Speaking of the time change, this story happens over the course of 7(?) years, which was really beneficial to the plot. I found this much more interesting than books with a similar premise, but the story unfolds over weeks which feels a lot less “realistic” in terms of timeline.

4.5 stars. What a disturbing book! I read it in one day, could not put it down. I absolutely loved the world and how it affected all the characters. There's a lot that remains unexplained, and it works really well. I especially enjoyed the ending - I thought it struck a perfect balance that fit the rest of the story.

Reminds me too much of every other piece of fiction where the dystopian construct is living in your head man. This at least has the cool idea of making it into a weird tick thing. Almost there.