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A review by ronibooks
Zeroes by Deborah Biancotti, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan
5.0
4.5 STARS
The book has 546 pages, but the chapters are extremely short, which makes them flow like water. I'm not kidding, it was the five hundred shortest pages of my life, because I was so busy reading that I didn't feel any effort in moving forward.
The events take place within a week: at times it seems that everything happens in two days but the things that happen are too many to be only two days. This feeling is reinforced by the presence of 6 different POVs, one for each Zero, which however are made really well.
The setting is a bit vague. We know where we are and in what year, but the whole context behind the powers is still hazy. We do not know why these kids have these powers, nor what they should do with them, how many others there are or why they own them. We only know that they were all born in the year 2000 and that they developed these powers at different ages.
There are two or three inconsistencies, mainly due to the speed with which the "new" relationships between some characters take hold, but nothing so out of place since there's a context - even if vague - to justify them.
Zerøes is not like other superhero books. Here we have a group of kids with sometimes strange, sometimes incredible, sometimes destructive powers, which most of the time end up creating more problems than anything else and that only work well when they work in a team. Their story involves, makes you laugh, makes your heart beat and makes you feel part of what you are reading.
The narrative is structured really well. Events / actions, dialogues and storytelling style are calculated in detail and work exactly how the authors wanted them to work. The only flaw I find are the descriptions: a little lacking, especially as regards the characters.
The characterization is GREAT. The main characters have strong personalities who manage to get out of the pages, and even the secondary ones have characters that distinguish them from the others. The flaw is the bad guys, a little stereotyped and who do most of the home runs.
But let's go step by step in the analysis of the six protagonists.
- Bellweather (or Nate): he's the leader of the gang, a rich and charming boy who has the power to impose ideas and self-respect on others, who he uses for his own purposes (that aren't always clear). He's one of the most negative characters, who remain until the end, since his selfishness is seen and all that transpires from him is neutrality;
- Mob (or Kelsie): she's the other side of the coin, because together with Scam gives way to everything that happens, and finds herself entangled in a series of messes for choices made by someone else but to which she wants or must remedy. Her power allows her to create an influence on crowds, transmits her emotions to the group and can disperse crowds of people;
- Crash (or Chizara): she is one of the most positive characters, since she is motivated by good intentions and although her power pushes her to destroy she tries to stop herself so as not to risk hurting others. However, every now and then some whim takes it. Her power makes her vulnerable to technology, which buzzes in her head until it hurts, and which pushes her to tear apart all the networks that surround her (systems, phones, GPS, computers etc.). She develops a new ability linked to her power of destruction;
- Anonymous (or Thibalut): he is the most positive character of the whole book, very Zen and respectful. However Anon suffers from his condition, as his power makes him invisible: as long as you look at him you remember him, but the moment you look away, every memory of Anon vanishes from your mind. This is why his life is lonely, even the Zeroes forget him... until Scam combines that chaos and things start to change;
- Flicker (or Riley): a positive character as much as Anon, perhaps a little less considered some choices that she decides to make, even if for a good purpose and which in the end reveal themselves to be positive for the fate of Anonymous. Riley is a blind girl, whose power allows her to see through the eyes of others. In this way Flicker manages to go around the city alone and above all her ability makes her an excellent element in the missions that the group has to accomplish.
The authors of this book are three, but the style is fairly uniform.
I personally loved this book like few others in my life and if you like superhero stories, Zeroes it's a really good choice!
The book has 546 pages, but the chapters are extremely short, which makes them flow like water. I'm not kidding, it was the five hundred shortest pages of my life, because I was so busy reading that I didn't feel any effort in moving forward.
The events take place within a week: at times it seems that everything happens in two days but the things that happen are too many to be only two days. This feeling is reinforced by the presence of 6 different POVs, one for each Zero, which however are made really well.
The setting is a bit vague. We know where we are and in what year, but the whole context behind the powers is still hazy. We do not know why these kids have these powers, nor what they should do with them, how many others there are or why they own them. We only know that they were all born in the year 2000 and that they developed these powers at different ages.
There are two or three inconsistencies, mainly due to the speed with which the "new" relationships between some characters take hold, but nothing so out of place since there's a context - even if vague - to justify them.
Zerøes is not like other superhero books. Here we have a group of kids with sometimes strange, sometimes incredible, sometimes destructive powers, which most of the time end up creating more problems than anything else and that only work well when they work in a team. Their story involves, makes you laugh, makes your heart beat and makes you feel part of what you are reading.
The narrative is structured really well. Events / actions, dialogues and storytelling style are calculated in detail and work exactly how the authors wanted them to work. The only flaw I find are the descriptions: a little lacking, especially as regards the characters.
The characterization is GREAT. The main characters have strong personalities who manage to get out of the pages, and even the secondary ones have characters that distinguish them from the others. The flaw is the bad guys, a little stereotyped and who do most of the home runs.
But let's go step by step in the analysis of the six protagonists.
Spoiler
- Scam (or Ethan): although many of the protagonists have concrete defects, Scam is perhaps the most negative example, which in the end undergoes the principle of change. He is selfish, indifferent, unfriendly and unwilling to admit that he is wrong, and only at the end does he show a chance to redeem himself. His power is the most problematic: the voice that comes out of his mouth seems to know everything in the world and says what the person in front of him wants to hear, but 99% of the time he ends up only putting him in ever worse trouble;- Bellweather (or Nate): he's the leader of the gang, a rich and charming boy who has the power to impose ideas and self-respect on others, who he uses for his own purposes (that aren't always clear). He's one of the most negative characters, who remain until the end, since his selfishness is seen and all that transpires from him is neutrality;
- Mob (or Kelsie): she's the other side of the coin, because together with Scam gives way to everything that happens, and finds herself entangled in a series of messes for choices made by someone else but to which she wants or must remedy. Her power allows her to create an influence on crowds, transmits her emotions to the group and can disperse crowds of people;
- Crash (or Chizara): she is one of the most positive characters, since she is motivated by good intentions and although her power pushes her to destroy she tries to stop herself so as not to risk hurting others. However, every now and then some whim takes it. Her power makes her vulnerable to technology, which buzzes in her head until it hurts, and which pushes her to tear apart all the networks that surround her (systems, phones, GPS, computers etc.). She develops a new ability linked to her power of destruction;
- Anonymous (or Thibalut): he is the most positive character of the whole book, very Zen and respectful. However Anon suffers from his condition, as his power makes him invisible: as long as you look at him you remember him, but the moment you look away, every memory of Anon vanishes from your mind. This is why his life is lonely, even the Zeroes forget him... until Scam combines that chaos and things start to change;
- Flicker (or Riley): a positive character as much as Anon, perhaps a little less considered some choices that she decides to make, even if for a good purpose and which in the end reveal themselves to be positive for the fate of Anonymous. Riley is a blind girl, whose power allows her to see through the eyes of others. In this way Flicker manages to go around the city alone and above all her ability makes her an excellent element in the missions that the group has to accomplish.
The authors of this book are three, but the style is fairly uniform.
I personally loved this book like few others in my life and if you like superhero stories, Zeroes it's a really good choice!