Sourcebooks Fire
June 2, 2015
308 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or Amazon
Kenna is tired of being "normal". The only thing special about her is that she isn't special at all. Which is frustrating in a world of absolutes. Villains, like the one who killed her father, are bad. Heroes, like her mother and best friend, are good. And Kenna, unlike everyone else around her, is completely ordinary— which she hates.
She’s secretly working on an experiment that will land her a place among the Heroes, but when a Villain saves her life during a break-in at her lab, Kenna discovers there’s a whole lot of gray area when it comes to good and evil and who she can trust.. After all…not all strength comes from superpowers.
Tera Lynn Childs and Tracy Deebs' Powerless was more fun and enjoyable than I was even expecting. Kenna lives in a world where superheroes - and villains - are real. She may be surrounded by Heroes every day, but Kenna herself is without a power, she's ordinary.
The world of Heroes and Villains, right and wrong, good and bad is all very black and white for Kenna.
When a Villain saves her during a break-in at the lab, she has to reexamine those long held beliefs
Soon, another side of the world Kenna thought she knew so well is exposed and calls almost everything into question.
I loved the concept of a world where there are really heroes and villains, people with powers; where there's good and bad. I loved even more that the authors did not leave things at that simple, concrete distinction (heroes = good, villains = bad). They are, after all, people that are the heroes and villains and people are rarely all one or the other.
It was a bit unclear whether the rest of the world (the 'ordinary' people) were aware of those with powers or not. I thought so, but something later in the book made me question it. As much as I loved how much things revolved around Kenna nad the group of characters, I'd like to know more about the bigger picture in the rest of the series. (Like, if people do not know, how are things explained away? Why don't they know?)
The characters in Powerless all seem to fit together really well. We don't see a lot of the characters before some of the action gets started, but it is enough to not only get a feel for Kenna's character, but to see her strong friendship with Rebel. The romance is almost understated. It doesn't take center stage - and rightly so with all they are dealing with - but it is definitely there. The way things seem to spark almost right away, progress nicely but without being too fast was nice.
That he characters have questions about each other, their motives, their attraction, who's good and who's bad, and trust was great. They have been taught, have believed they shouldn't trust the other that they aren't the same, yet their goals make them question that.
Powerless does a fantastic job examining good and evil, right and wrong, our prejudices and how we're all really similar without it feeling like a 'message.' It's all a pretty seamless part of a very entertaining tale. The look at power (as in super powers), power (as in authority), being powerless and what it all means was very smart, too. I am absolutely looking forward to Book 2 (especially with that ending!).
If you're a fan of superheroes, sci-fi or just entertaining, smart books, you'l want to read Powerless.
thank you to he publisher and NetGalley for my egalley to review
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