Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Reviewed by Emily, Teen Librarian at Kinderhook Library
Rating: 9/10
Scout’s Honor was pitched in Book Page as “if Buffy the Vampire Slayer got therapy” and I said “sign me up.” Actually following up on character’s mental health after the world-ending adventure is a trope that desperately needs to keep growing.
Prudence Perry is a Legacy Ladybird Scout. She’s inherited her mother’s Sight (allowing her to see monsters in the world); she’s been trained in combat, weapons, and community service since middle school; and she watched her best friend die. So yeah, Prue is also a retired Legacy Scout, something so unspoken of in the Ladybirds that her old troop mates call her “quitter” and her family (many of whom are active monster-hunters) don’t understand why she doesn’t just get over it.
Since her retirement, Prue’s made new friends who mostly don’t know anything about the monsters (mulligrubs) that pop into our dimension, feeding off people’s emotions and occasionally eating someone whole. She’s doing her best to move on and dodge her mom and aunt’s attempts to get her to pick up her knives and knitting needles again. Then, Prue gets caught coming back from a late night with her friends. Instead of grounding her, Prue’s mom neatly gives her an ultimatum: train her little cousin as a Ladybird or switch schools in September.
Scouts’s Honor is about healing first and monster hunting second (though I assure you, there are monsters!) While Prue’s mom and aunt hunt mulligrubs on their dawn patrol and Prue’s old troop-mates snag bigger and bigger kills for the national Ladybird leaderboard, Prue’s just trying to teach her new students how to actually survive. The author spends a lot of time showing how Prue, though she still deals with anxiety and PTSD, has grown from a monster-hunting middle schooler being asked too much into a young woman who sticks up for herself and takes the time to care for her own mental health. The book has fantastic world-building, character development, and themes that fit seamlessly into both the story and the real world. Fans of more realistic elements in their fantasy stories should definitely give it a read!