The Outcasts by John Flanagan

⛵️The Outcasts by John Flanagan⛵️

Book one in the BrotherBand Chronicles. 

Blurb: 

They are outcasts. Hal, Stig, and the others – they are the boys the others want no part of. Skandians, as any reader of Ranger’s Apprentice could tell you, are known for their size and strength. Not these boys. Yet that doesn’t mean they don’t have skills. And courage – which they will need every ounce of to do battle at sea against the other bands, the Wolves and the Sharks, in the ultimate race. The icy waters make for a treacherous playing field . . . especially when not everyone thinks of it as playing. John Flanagan, author of the international phenomenon Ranger’s Apprentice, creates a new cast of characters to populate his world of Skandians and Araluens, a world millions of young readers around the world have come to know and admire. Full of seafaring adventures and epic battles, Book 1 of The Brotherband Chronicles is sure to thrill readers of Ranger’s Apprentice while enticing a whole new generation just now discovering the books.

My thoughts:

So this book and series technically came after the connected series, The Ranger’s Apprentice, but I wanted to read this one first. They only connect when the BrotherBand Chronicles is coming to an end, so I plan to review The Ranger’s Apprentice before I finish the BrotherBand. 🙂 I’ve read this book multiple times before, and it never gets boring or too predictable. It’s a very worthy re-read in my opinion.😉

This book brings you into a different world, time zone, and culture. It never fails to make me laugh; and it was awesome how the story circled around teamwork and the importance of good character. 

If you would ask me who my favorite characters are, I would tell you, “All of them!”. I can’t choose, they’re all so great! 

Here are some things I loved: 

💕The BrotherBand team 

💕All the other characters 😉

💕The hilarious banter! 

💕The true bond of a team 

💕The Skandian culture (btw Skandians are basically like Vikings) 

I can tell you right now, that this book won’t be a waste of your time. If you like a medieval age, a story about boys changing into men and learning to be a crew, low fantasy, action and adventure, and a whole lot of sailor terms, then you’ll definitely want to pick up this book! 

⚠️ Age recommendation: 12+, I would even recommend it for teens, for anyone really!🙃 ⚠️

My rating: 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sexual Content: 

(This books doesn’t really have romance, it only has a little side part where a boy and a girl like and feel attracted to one another) 

One kiss (lightly mild), some attraction, and noticing. Hal likes and has admired a Skandian girl for a while. In Erak’s storehouse, Hal and Thorn see a fountain with a marble statue of a naked boy in a suggestive pose and is supposed to pee in to the bowl beneath him; but it doesn’t work. A mention of stripping down to underwear, a mention of a joke about somebody’s underwear. 

Profanity: 

Made-up curses and unsaid cursing. The Skandians often curse by their native “gods” names. A lot of insults and name-calling. 

Violence: 

Some fighting scenes, blood, and very little death. Two guards were cut at the throat and were killed. A man was stabbed by a spear and died(Semi-detailed). Thorn lost his hand in an accident (mild). The Skandians have a lot gods, that they give reference too. Some mythology. 

POV’s: Multiple 

Pages: 440 

This coming of age introduction of a group of boys, learning to be a team was incredible; and I would totally recommend it to anyone, boys and girls the like.🤎🤎