Teen Review – The Free
Review by Fariha, with thanks to Helena at TPL for providing an ARC to read and review!
Release Date: February 28, 2017
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
When you’re a thief, you’re also a liar. It comes with the territory.
The Free by Lauren McLaughlin is about Isaac West, a high school teenager with a rough childhood, who landed himself in juvie for a month because he was caught stealing. We follow Isaac through his sentence and his experiences at juvie: the good, the bad and the wishes to just get out of there.
I thought I’d turn to the “Things I Liked” and “Things I Didn’t Like” list that I haven’t done in quite a while for this review.
Things I Liked:
**I really loved Isaac’s love for his sister and everything he was willing to do for her. Isaac was an alright character throughout the novel but I loved this certain aspect of him. We don’t see nearly enough siblings in YA, especially ones who have a good relationship with each other.
**I’m quite glad that there was no romance in here. I mean, there were references to sex and romantic partners but it was not a big deal throughout the novel.
**How diverse it was! There were people of so many races and ethnicities, I was very pleasantly surprised. There was even a Pakistani kid, which I appreciated a lot because, while there are appearances of people of colour here and there in novels, POC of similar background as myself are much rarer. The different cultures and races represented were definitely a plus.
**There was a light exploration of racism in the system. It was not even close to a large portion of the book but Isaac mentioned different races getting different treatment from the guards and the adults at juvie and I thought that was quite important and interesting.
**I also liked the concept of “group” a lot. Each group consisted of a couple of kids and a therapist; each member would act out their crime with the help of other members in the group. The group prods at the person and their crime until only the raw remains are left and they have to confront what they have done and come to terms with their crime. This leaves room for some interesting experiences and stories.
Barbie Santiago has a reputation for ‘fighting like a girl,’ which is not an insult, by the way. Guys fight for show. Girls fight to kill.
Things I Disliked:
**There is a large cast of characters and, in this case, it was quite necessary, but I feel like not many of them were well-developed. Even Isaac didn’t feel all that substantial to me, so the side characters felt quite flat.
**The ending wrapped up a little too conveniently for me. It seemed to be building up to something and I was on the edge of my seat but I was quite gravely let down.
It was such a fast read, it can probably be read in one sitting in a couple of hours! Although I’m not certain as to how accurate this book is or if it does justice to kids in Isaac’s situation, the author’s father had been to juvie in his teenage years. All in all, a pretty good read, would recommend.
To hell and back. Because we know the way.
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