[b:The Blackthorn Key|23270216|The Blackthorn Key (The Blackthorn Key, #1)|Kevin Sands|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433428562l/23270216._SY75_.jpg|42810383] by [a:Kevin Sands|8599864|Kevin Sands|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1441310632p2/8599864.jpg] was the first book that two of my nieces (Thing Two and Red Fish) chose to read for our newly formed book club. I... Did not care for it. It was a struggle just to get through the first one, and then my girls turned around and requested the sequel ([b:Mark of the Plague|48516662|Mark of the Plague (The Blackthorn Key, #2)|Kevin Sands|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571602585l/48516662._SX50_.jpg|49179172]) for our July meeting... SIGH. You could tell the author is a giant history nerd, so it was interesting to see the big focus on social/class dynamics of children, apprentices, business owners, political workers; the king vs the people vs the church... But it's just hard to care when everything is so bleak and everyone keeps getting murdered and 98% of the characters are mean (aka: all the reasons I hate Game of Thrones. Minus the sexual assault). While it might be accurate that adults were fine with beating kids, any kids, in the 1600s, it's still depressing to read hundreds of pages of, say, a 13-year-old orphan getting kicked in the chest by grown men until her ribs break. Not my idea of a good time, personally.