Alissa Grosso's "Ferocity Summer" had the potential of being a good novel about a girl caught in the crosshairs of drugs, a death she's set to go to trial for, and a friend spiraling out of control, but I think even with the interesting premise that was supposed to be captivating, it dropped the ball with a cast of characters that were difficult to care about. I'm usually all for rough, gritty novels with no bars held on the tough situations the characters face. "Ferocity Summer" is a mature YA novel in the sense of its content, but the problem is that Scilla (Priscilla) never amounts to being anything more than a passive player in all the events that surround her. She never takes a proactive role, and even when she begins to change as a result of observing things in her life spiraling too far out of control, she never fully comes to terms with the repercussions of hers or others actions.The transitions in this novel were a bit all over the place for my liking, and the amount of slut shaming and derogatory terms used toward females in this book really turned me off. As I mentioned, I can take tough language and situations, but I often feel that it has to set a mood or a purpose, and there was never really a consistent one in this novel. Not to mention the random bits of Civil War history peppered into the narrative. Even with it being tied into the novel's events/sentiments of the character - the exposition often threw me out of the story more times than I could really appreciate what it had to say. Overall, I don't think "Ferocity Summer" turned out to be the riveting read that it was purported to be with respect to its subject matter. I think there are far more novels in YA literature that delve into the problems of use and abuse of drugs, as well as other tough factors, much better than this one.Overall score: 1/5Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Flux Books.
