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A review by katyanaish
Universal Alien by Gini Koch
4.0
****3.5 stars****
This is a tough one to really evaluate. As a comics-geek girl myself, I've read more than a few "What If" books, and so I didn't struggle over the necessary suspension of disbelief. Not just that it could happen, but how quickly everyone accepted that it did happen, rather than lock both Kittys up in an asylum. And it was fun to get to spend time, in the alt-world, with characters that we haven't gotten to do a lot with. Particularly Alfred and Cox.
And so much of that alt-world was heartbreaking. I'm glad that Kitty put together a family over there, because man, they need each other. So many of them were heart-breakingly alone.
I also think it was an interesting way to reveal our Mastermind. Because it will be fun to find out how much of what was happening in alt-world is really correct in our world.
But I had a couple problems.
1. People were douches in our world.
In several ways. Firstly, the way they were instantly like "whelp, alt-Kitty, fuck whatever is going on with you, we need you to handle this political situation, and we'll get to your crap when we have time." Honestly, I was agog - mouth hanging open - at the callous way that everyone was like here's the situation, get with it, and stop thinking about your kids. What made it worse is that literally none of our characters - none - expressed concern for our Kitty. Everyone just shrugged and reassured alt-Kitty that Kitty would handle it, and then went on with their lives. We had, throughout the book, maybe two beats where Jeff had a worried expression for a split second. That just doesn't cut it. Especially when our world wasn't dealing with life-and-death crises. Yes, a political crisis, but not like ... assassination attempts and etc. I get why we didn't have a lot of freaking out in alt-world, with alt-Chuckie and such - they just didn't have time, because they were literally running for their lives the whole time. Not so with our world. They simply couldn't be bothered to care. And that REALLY hurts.
Throughout this series, I've had a problem with the way her team seems to always either dismiss Kitty, treat her like a moron, or take her for granted. The brief opening of this book, with her Secret Service gals, made it clear that they'd all be beating her down to make her into some bland political creature, which nicely established that that treatment has just increased since the election. Basically, they consider her to be an embarrassment, rather than an asset. This despite all she has done. And this book turned that knob up to eleven - I honestly got the impression that no one in our world cared that much if they ever got Kitty back. And that's awful.
2. The danger of unlimited powers.
This is a concern I've had about Jamie for a bit now. There's no clear understanding of what she can and can't do, and frankly, after this book, she seems to have god powers. That's a problem. Whenever you are going to have a powered entity in your story, you need to have clearly defined rules in order for the story to stay compelling. For example, Algar and ACE. They are our two most powerful entities (at least so far), and they have very clear rules and lines about what they can/will and can't/won't do. And puzzling out their hints is one of the great funs of this series. But Jamie has no such restrictions, and it makes her a deus ex machina (and/or Mary Sue) that can be problematic. Further, given what went on with Naomi, I am not understanding why some of these supreme being types haven't scooped Jamie up out of the world yet, as we've been told that god-powers are not allowed.
3. This book desperately needed a wrap up.
I think we could have alleviated a whole lot of that feeling of her team / friends / family not giving a fuck about her if we could have had a chapter of them all reconnecting. Right now, it feels like the same dismissive crap from point 1. They're reaction was "oh, she's gone. *shrug*" and now "oh, she's back. *shrug*"
I'm just disappointed. Because Kitty is a really great character. Not without flaws, no. But frankly, an unflawed character is bullcrap, so I love her flaws and all. And she doesn't deserve to be stuck surrounded by people who roll their eyes and treat her like a boat anchor strapped around their necks. But that's how they honestly all seem. I've felt that before this book, but now, I feel it VERY much, and it makes me incredibly sad.
This is a tough one to really evaluate. As a comics-geek girl myself, I've read more than a few "What If" books, and so I didn't struggle over the necessary suspension of disbelief. Not just that it could happen, but how quickly everyone accepted that it did happen, rather than lock both Kittys up in an asylum. And it was fun to get to spend time, in the alt-world, with characters that we haven't gotten to do a lot with. Particularly Alfred and Cox.
And so much of that alt-world was heartbreaking. I'm glad that Kitty put together a family over there, because man, they need each other. So many of them were heart-breakingly alone.
I also think it was an interesting way to reveal our Mastermind. Because it will be fun to find out how much of what was happening in alt-world is really correct in our world.
But I had a couple problems.
1. People were douches in our world.
In several ways. Firstly, the way they were instantly like "whelp, alt-Kitty, fuck whatever is going on with you, we need you to handle this political situation, and we'll get to your crap when we have time." Honestly, I was agog - mouth hanging open - at the callous way that everyone was like here's the situation, get with it, and stop thinking about your kids. What made it worse is that literally none of our characters - none - expressed concern for our Kitty.
Spoiler
Dude, she had her head broken open. Badly enough that Jeff thought she could die before they could get her to the hospital. And alt-Kitty made it clear that she had been in a car accident, with people trying to run her off the road and kill her while she was in a car with her kids. So Kitty with a potentially lethal head injury got dropped into a situation that was almost guaranteed certain death. And NO ONE GAVE A FUCK.Throughout this series, I've had a problem with the way her team seems to always either dismiss Kitty, treat her like a moron, or take her for granted. The brief opening of this book, with her Secret Service gals, made it clear that they'd all be beating her down to make her into some bland political creature, which nicely established that that treatment has just increased since the election. Basically, they consider her to be an embarrassment, rather than an asset. This despite all she has done. And this book turned that knob up to eleven - I honestly got the impression that no one in our world cared that much if they ever got Kitty back. And that's awful.
2. The danger of unlimited powers.
This is a concern I've had about Jamie for a bit now. There's no clear understanding of what she can and can't do, and frankly, after this book, she seems to have god powers. That's a problem. Whenever you are going to have a powered entity in your story, you need to have clearly defined rules in order for the story to stay compelling. For example, Algar and ACE. They are our two most powerful entities (at least so far), and they have very clear rules and lines about what they can/will and can't/won't do. And puzzling out their hints is one of the great funs of this series. But Jamie has no such restrictions, and it makes her a deus ex machina (and/or Mary Sue) that can be problematic. Further, given what went on with Naomi, I am not understanding why some of these supreme being types haven't scooped Jamie up out of the world yet, as we've been told that god-powers are not allowed.
3. This book desperately needed a wrap up.
I think we could have alleviated a whole lot of that feeling of her team / friends / family not giving a fuck about her if we could have had a chapter of them all reconnecting. Right now, it feels like the same dismissive crap from point 1. They're reaction was "oh, she's gone. *shrug*" and now "oh, she's back. *shrug*"
I'm just disappointed. Because Kitty is a really great character. Not without flaws, no. But frankly, an unflawed character is bullcrap, so I love her flaws and all. And she doesn't deserve to be stuck surrounded by people who roll their eyes and treat her like a boat anchor strapped around their necks. But that's how they honestly all seem. I've felt that before this book, but now, I feel it VERY much, and it makes me incredibly sad.