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A review by lucybbookstuff
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Lawd. I really had to drag myself through this. I went into it after finishing a heavy mystery, hoping it would be some fun trash to counteract that. And I mean... fun trash it may be, but it just didn't quite do it for me.
It wasn't horrible. And I wasn't expecting greatness. All I really wanted from it was to be better than Fourth Wing. And it did deliver on that score, in that it's much less ambitious and much less hyped than FW, so it wasn't as much of a disappointment. And it's not written in such insufferable prose. It's also a debut, and the author is 20, so it's impressive in that regard (though her age and inexperience also shows). But it still missed the mark for me.
Mainly because the point of it was the romance, and I just couldn't stand the romance from the very start. What some are calling "banter" struck me as a man being intentionally obnoxious, and an otherwise strong, smart, and capable woman finding that irresistible for no conceivable reason. And it just went on that way for the entire book. There is a difference between an excruciating, satisfying slow burn, and hundreds of pages of tiresome, pointless repetition.
It's a shame, because the romance is supposed to be the point, and yet it's the underdeveloped world that I found the most intriguing. On that note, I really think this concept could have been pulled off much better without resorting to a bastardized Hunger Games. Literally, the amount of things lifted directly from THG (while completely missing the point of THG) is honestly embarrassing. Right down to the charismatic interviewer with blue hair. Give me a break. Not to mention, the whole idea of the trials made no sense in this world.
Last but certainly not least, this book was yet another victim of the plague of nonexistent copyediting in romantasy. Weird grammar and typos throughout. Extremely distracting.
Sigh. Again... not horrendous. Could have been so much worse. I think this would be great for anyone who typically loves romantasy. And there's nothing at all wrong with that. I just am over the genre until I find something of real high quality.
End of year edit (almost a year later): Bringing this down from 2.75 to 2.5. I don't know why I was so kind to this series lol. It is true I didn't hate this one and saw it's potential. But it was still not good, and all that potential was promptly ruined in book 2.
It wasn't horrible. And I wasn't expecting greatness. All I really wanted from it was to be better than Fourth Wing. And it did deliver on that score, in that it's much less ambitious and much less hyped than FW, so it wasn't as much of a disappointment. And it's not written in such insufferable prose. It's also a debut, and the author is 20, so it's impressive in that regard (though her age and inexperience also shows). But it still missed the mark for me.
Mainly because the point of it was the romance, and I just couldn't stand the romance from the very start. What some are calling "banter" struck me as a man being intentionally obnoxious, and an otherwise strong, smart, and capable woman finding that irresistible for no conceivable reason. And it just went on that way for the entire book. There is a difference between an excruciating, satisfying slow burn, and hundreds of pages of tiresome, pointless repetition.
It's a shame, because the romance is supposed to be the point, and yet it's the underdeveloped world that I found the most intriguing. On that note, I really think this concept could have been pulled off much better without resorting to a bastardized Hunger Games. Literally, the amount of things lifted directly from THG (while completely missing the point of THG) is honestly embarrassing. Right down to the charismatic interviewer with blue hair. Give me a break. Not to mention, the whole idea of the trials made no sense in this world.
Last but certainly not least, this book was yet another victim of the plague of nonexistent copyediting in romantasy. Weird grammar and typos throughout. Extremely distracting.
Sigh. Again... not horrendous. Could have been so much worse. I think this would be great for anyone who typically loves romantasy. And there's nothing at all wrong with that. I just am over the genre until I find something of real high quality.
End of year edit (almost a year later): Bringing this down from 2.75 to 2.5. I don't know why I was so kind to this series lol. It is true I didn't hate this one and saw it's potential. But it was still not good, and all that potential was promptly ruined in book 2.