ARC Review: Girls with Razor Hearts by Suzanne Young

Title: Girls with Razor Hearts
(Girls with Sharp Sticks #2)
Author: Suzanne Young 
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Source: ARC via Simon Pulse
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 17th 2020

Summary: 

It’s time to fight back in this second novel in a thrilling, subversive near future series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young about a girls-only private high school that is far more than it appears to be. Make me a girl with a razor heart… It’s been weeks since Mena and the other girls of Innovations Academy escaped their elite boarding school. Although traumatized by the violence and experimentations that occurred there, Mena quickly discovers that the outside world can be just as unwelcoming and cruel. With no one else to turn to, the girls only have each other—and the revenge-fueled desire to shut down the corporation that imprisoned them. The girls enroll in Stoneridge Prep, a private school with suspect connections to Innovations, to identify the son of an investor and take down the corporation from the inside. But with pressure from Leandra, who revealed herself to be a double-agent, and Winston Weeks, an academy investor gone rogue, Mena wonders if she and her friends are simply trading one form of control for another. Not to mention the woman who is quite literally invading Mena’s thoughts—a woman with extreme ideas that both frighten and intrigue Mena. And as the girls fight for freedom from their past—and freedom for the girls still at Innovations—they must also face new questions about their existence…and what it means to be girls with razor hearts.

I adored Girls With Sharp Sticks, it was the one book that I read in 2019 that I couldn’t stop talking about. So, when a copy of Girls With Razor Hearts appeared in my mailbox I had to dive into it right away. It’s been a couple of days but all I can say is: wow. Girls With Razor Hearts was a thrill ride from page one and did not let up till the last page. Speaking of the last page: WHAT. THE. HECK. How can Suzanne leave us like that?!

Girls With Razor Hearts starts right where Girls With Sharp Sticks ended. Mena and the girls are fleeing from Innovations Academy after learning a devastating secret: they aren’t human. Coming to terms with the fact that they are AI, created by men to be controlled and dominated, they are devastated and shell shocked. But underneath the devastation they are desperate to get the other girls out of Innovations Academy. Leandra, the head master's wife appears to be a double agent and tells the girls to track down Winston Weeks, an investors in the academy. If Mena and the girls can identify the heads of the corporations they could shut down innovations for good. Their first lead is that a member is laundering money through Stoneridge academy, a private school in which their son attends. The goal is simple: get close to the investor’s son, get him to spill and get his father out of the way. Only, things aren’t that simple.

I talked about in my Girls With Sharp Sticks review that if a book doesn’t make you angry, then it isn’t doing it’s job. Girls With Sharp Sticks did that for me and now I am adding Girls With Razor Hearts. It makes me angry in a sense that some of the examples in Girls With Razor Hearts is something we see day to day, whether in real life or on the news. The dystopian setting or this novel is very close to our current world and as a woman that is unsettling.

Viewing not only how Mena and the other girls who escaped Innovations Academy but the girls who attend Stoneridge are treated is appalling. Mena is witnessing sexism and racism first hand for the first time and where many woman in this society have learned to back down and keep their heads down, she refuses too. Essentially, she escaped the Academy to be in another dangerous game.

The twists and turns that this book takes doesn’t slow down for a second. Every time I thought my heart was going to stop racing and things were going to calm down Suzanne threw another plot twist in to keep her readers on their toes. A lot of my questions from Girls With Sharp Sticks were answered but this book left me with so many more that I can’t wait to see answered in the next book.

Overall I really enjoyed Girls With Razor Hearts and I am eagerly awaiting news on the next book. I highly recommend this book to all sci-fi fans but also people who want to read about girls standing up for themselves and not taking anymore shit from the men who try to control them.