The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses | K N Smith | Book Review

The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K N Smith is her debut Teen Action-Adventure novel. A thrill-ride through the senses of five friends on a mysterious adventure, read the book summary, book release date, genre, reading age, book quotes, and book review of The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K N Smith in this post below.

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About The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K N Smith:

No. of Pages: 341

Publication Date: 9/15/21 (2nd Edition)

Genre: YA Action-Adventure, YA Thriller, Urban Fantasy, Mystery/Thriller, Debut

Series: The Urban Boys Series Book 1

Reading Age: 12-17 years

Can be read as a standalone? YES

Trigger Words: Vivid fight scenes Occasional light swear words (damn, hell), violence

Buy From: AMAZON IN | AMAZON US | Google Books

The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K N Smith Book Summary:

Five kids’ lives change when their senses are heightened in a bizarre turn of events. With mysterious strangers, and evil villain suddenly making an appearance in their lives, their lives will never be the same again. 

The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K N Smith Book Review:

I got attracted towards this book because of the intriguing plot that promised action, adventure, friendship, and teenage superhero protagonists. So, apart from the super powers part, this book had me giving “Hardy Boys” and “Nancy Drew” vibes. And I have been a huge fan of these book series since I was a teenager. Plus I love discovering new authors and K N Smith is a new author for me.

Things I liked:

I loved the plot idea, and the intriguing title coupled with the interesting blurb, I was excited to read this book.

Then this book is one of the few stories where I didn’t find any grammatical and language errors which is a definite plus in my book.

I also enjoyed the ending that beautifully wrapped everything, and yet leaves the readers eager for the next book.

Things that could be better:

However, while this book had so much promise, in the end it didn’t live upto its full potential. And it didn’t thrill and engage me like my childhood favourite teenage heroes adventures.

The story is fast paced and while this is good, still at times the story moved so fast that it didn’t allow me to savour the events happening. Then the characters while a varied bunch and very characteristic in their behaviour never felt real enough to make me feel connected to them. So, the teenage protagonists felt like sketches and that too, often, way more mature than their age in the story. Their actions are also such that they won’t connect with the target readership of 12-17 year kids. 

Also the focus on violence at several places made me uneasy. And I seriously wanted to see a more inspirational way to handle things than show violence as the solution. Since this book is intended for teenage readers, I would have loved to see the author develop her characters to lead by example. But for now that doesn’t happen.

Then I also didn’t like the sudden change in POV mid chapters which often confused me. Add the way some of the dialogues are written, I don’t think younger teenage children will relate to this style of conversation. I also wanted to see a deeper development to their friendship as they went on this exciting adventure.

But the major glaring area of improvement is the focus on the powers of the protagonists. I wanted to see more focus on how they got the powers, how they adapted to them, the role they played in saving the day, and why they were chosen? For now, nothing is shown on how they got these powers, and even as they fight evil these powers become secondary. Suddenly they are trained in martial arts which was strange because there is no development to this revelation.

Also I was surprised by the parental behaviour of the adults in this book. As a parent myself, I would never behave like they did in any of the situations shown in this book. They are too calm and collected to be true.

The author’s writing style while very elegant will still be too difficult to connect for younger readers. For the target readers, the writing should be simpler, straight forward and conversational in a voice that suits the ages of the protagonists. For now, it is too lyrical, too descriptive, and a little too mature to make the characters seem realistic.

Conclusion:

All in all, The Urban Boys: Discovery of the Five Senses by K N Smith is a book with an intriguing plot but for now, I didn’t connect with this story and sadly didn’t enjoy it. So, while this book had so much promise, I struggled to finish this book and am sad it didn’t live upto its promise. I didn’t find the excitement, thrill, and bonds of friendship that I was looking for.

However, despite this, I am happy I connected with K N Smith and look forward to reading more of her books in the future.

Buy From:

AMAZON IN | AMAZON US | Google Books

Meet Author K N Smith:

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