The Intuitives – Erin Michelle Sky & Steven Brown (Review + Giveaway!)

Title: The Intuitives 
Authors: Erin Michelle Sky, Steven Brown
Publisher: Trash Dogs Media, 2017 (July 25)
Genre: YA Fantasy

**I received a copy of this ARC free from the publisher and authors in exchange for an honest review**

This review can be found on my Blog, TeacherofYA’s Tumblr, or my Goodreads page

My Review:

Ok, so you know how I feel about covers, and when I first got this, I was a little disillusioned…until I saw that it actually is a very strong cover:

I’ve been lucky enough to have this copy for awhile and I just always looked at it, wondering what the runes meant. The cover ties in pretty well with the story, so the cover makes a lot of sense. 

I can barely contain my excitement over this book: let’s just say I was really surprised and I wasn’t expecting what I got. What I got was a book I couldn’t put down…you’d have to pry it out of my hands as I read it, glued to the pages. 

Let me explain:

The POV shifts several times between our six teen (besides Roman, who’s 11) characters. 

We start with Roman, and we learn that he sees things around people that no one else sees: angry red bees around his bully of a brother or fairy wings sprouting from his little sister’s back. He is afraid to tell anyone bc he knows no one else sees what he does: he just draws it all in a sketchbook to keep his mom from worrying about his “hallucinations.” 

Sam intrinsically knows the time, all the time. She feels like she’s always waiting for something to happen, but she just doesn’t know what. It’s incredibly frustrating for her. The only time she feels a sense of urgency is when a strange test is announced af school: finally, Sam knows she’s supposed to take this test. She just doesn’t know why.

Daniel loves music and stays relatively upbeat. His friends, however, seem to call to mind certain music depending on their mood. Because of his perfect pitch, Daniel has a running soundtrack in his mind all day, but it doesn’t bother him while taking the strange standardized test at school that asks questions with no real answers, like “What is the best color,” or “when is it too hot?” He just goes with the flow and answers his questions as the music plays on in the background.

Mackenzie misses her dad: as a military “brat,” she goes from place to place, but she looks forward to the Skype calls every Sunday: this is when she can tell her father about all the fight matches she wins. She always seems to know when the opponent is going to move against her, and it has helped her beat them all. When she gets an invitation, after the test, to join a special school for the summer, she’s just glad to get away from the mundane house that seems to mock her with its plainess.

Kaitlyn works after school at a repair shop, fixing almost anything. It’s almost as she can just see what’s wrong with the machines and lacking schematics, she just find the issues and fixes it. It relaxes her and she is always looking forward to the next Broken toaster or lawnmower. When invited to the school, after her test, she worries about her grandmother…but the Institute assures her that she will be taken care of while Kaityln is gone. So she packs up to go meet the other kids involved in the summer program. 

Rush is a talented gamer: he’s so talented that he’s guaranteed himself a spot on the beta team, touring as a professional gamer. When he takes the test, he just fills in whatever because he knows it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, when the results come back that he’s been accepted into the summer program, it throws a serious wrench into his summer plans and career goals. At the insistence of his father, he goes, but he’s not happy about it. 

These six “students” don’t realize they’ve just been recruited for skills they don’t even know they possess….

To stop a threat they didn’t even know existed.

Is It Classroom-Appropriate?

Oh, yes yes yes! This book has some great characters and each one is fully fleshed out. The plot is enticing and the concept of the “intuition” that guides us is a great discussion topic. This could bring up talents that we all don’t even know we have, and we can talk about the diffferent kinds of intuition we all have: fear, fight-or-flight, emotional, etc. it has characters that range from 11-17, so there’s someone every student can identify with, and there’s both girl/boy POVs so it’s not like it is geared more for this reader or that. 

A lot of fun could be had with this text: it ends in a good place but it also leaves room for speculation of a sequel. Mythology and modern-day meet to create an interesting concept of other planes of existence. The head of the group, Ammu, has an ancient text with all sorts of creatures that can be discussed, such as the Gryphon, who makes an appearance and becomes the favorite of all the characters:

The book is the guide to the realm and each person plays a part. I would defintely give The Intuitives ★★★★★ for classroom use, which is a rare rating for any book!

Age Range

We aren’t going to see any Lexile scores for this book…I would compare it to Michael Grant’s Gone only for the multiple POVs and that book sits at a 620L, which means a MG reader would comprehend this book with no issues. So I would recommend ad low as 11 if the reader was avid, but would settle comfortably at 13 if the reader is unmotivated. I feel this is s book that could motivate reluctant readers for sure.

End Result:

I LOVED The Intuitives! I want more. I NEED more. I don’t want to give away any spoilers. Let’s just say that if people like this, there will be more, so we NEED people to like this book! And that’s why I’ve got some cool news…but first, my rating, which I’m sure at this point you’re not surprised about….

It’s OBVIOUSLY ★★★★★, OR….

🎊🎉SO HERE’S THE COOL NEWS!!!🎉🎊

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Lol, just kidding. 

But how would you feel about a HARDCOVER COPY of your very own? Or a SIGNED PAPERBACK?? A copy of The Intuitives just for you!!

Trash Dogs Media and I have set up a Refflecopter giveaway for THREE, COUNT EM, THREE COPIES OF THE INTUITIVES!! 

So without further ado, I will add the Link here so you can go enter! It will go until 7/18, so you better go enter QUICK!!

ENTER HERE:       Rafflecopter Giveaway – One Hardcover or two paperback copies, signed by the authors

*This is part of my blogoversary bonanza, and I’m also running a mini-giveaway, the second one, on Twitter for a Cassandra Clare Shadowhunters pin from ALA! More giveaways to come, but you can’t win if you don’t enter!*

Thank you to Trash Dogs Media and Erin and Steven for the copies for the giveaway…now GO! Enter! Your chances are GOOD!