Branded follows a young boy named Henry, whose world changes abruptly one day. The catalyst for this change? When his friend, Rachel, bursts into his class screaming, looking as though she has had a run-in with a pack of wild dogs. The problem is that no one, save his best friend Charley, seems to remember or care about this. Cue a bunch of crazy monsters hunting them down, in search of the very thing his parents fought to protect (and subsequently gave up their memories for).

Unfortunately, overall, this just wasn't my cup of tea. I feel as though this would be better categorized as middle grade fiction, based off of the prose and general story. I personally felt as though the characters fell flat, and the writing was a bit clunky. This was ultimately the result of a heck of a lot of telling, and very little showing. We were given a play by play of actions and emotions, rather than a vivid landscape of what was happening. Often descriptions of the action would read like, "Henry walked to the door, and opened the door." (And let's not forget excessive adverbs and unusual verb usage.)

To me, it lacked interest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Intrepid Pen for providing me with an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.