This review was originally published on my blog: acreads.blogspot.com. The author sent this book to me. My true rating: 3.5/5 stars.
I seriously can't figure out how I feel about this book - I certainly don't dislike it... but it was 280 pages devoted to exactly what the title says - introductions. I don't think that it was necessary to devote an entire novel to the introductions of the boys. After a while, I found myself becoming frustrated because I wanted to get to the meat of the story which unfortunately, never came. I think that I would have benefited from learning about the boys and experiencing their individual interactions with Sang in the midst of action... rather than reading a novel that felt like a long prologue.
Sang is a teen who lives in an abusive home and after becoming fed up with her parents' stifling household, she decides to run away. After living so tightly under her overbearing mother's thumb, Sang has almost zero exposure to kids her own age - and that shows. During her interactions with the boys, Sang comes off as overly fragile... so much so that I pictured her staring up at the boys with wide and admiring doe eyes. It was pretty hard for me to relate to her because of this. She was overly adoring of the boys, too apologetic and timid, and too quick to assume that she was burdensome to the guys. I don't have any problems with the boys' characters necessarily, but the sheer amount of them felt incredibly overwhelming.
Despite my hesitations about Introductions, Stone set up enough of a story that I am intrigued and I want to continue on with the series. I just want to know what the heck the Academy is!