A review by callistag1
Powerless by Lauren Roberts

adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

3.5 stars rounded down because if I round it up to click a four it won't feel right.

Maybe I didn't enjoy this book because I had such high hopes for it, seeing that almost every BookTuber and BookTok account I follow has raved about it. But really, there was a lot about this book I didn't like.

The plot was okay. After a plague wipes through the kingdom of Ilya, most of the surivivors are left with powers and are known as Elites. The few who didn't get powers are known as Ordinaries, and the ones who receive powers that are "too dangerous" are called Fatals. Basically, the king is a dick and decides Fatals should die because they can't be controlled, and Ordinaries should die because they apparently are diseased and make the Elites sick by weakening their powers. The fact that everyone is okay with mass genocide because they want to be able to move shit with their mind or control fire or morph into animals baffles me.

Paedyn, our main character, is an Ordinary who passes herself off as a Psychic in order to not be nerfed on sight. She's literally out here just trying not to die and I respect that. When she shows a bit of human decency and accidentally saves the 2nd born son of the king, Prince Kai, she is voted by the slums she lives in to participate in Purging Trials (a.k.a. PG13 Hunger Games basically because people die but it's not a necessity to win) and now she has to fake it til she makes it. Add in rebellion and some romance and a hint (?) of a love triangle but not really, and that's the book.

Now, the plot had potentially, but there were just a couple things about the book I couldn't get into. One being a nitpicky thing that pissed me off so badly that I removed a full star for it: the author's outrageous use of the word "laugh" or "laughing" or an iteration of the word. I've never read two characters laugh more than I've read Paedyn and Kai laugh. Once the word or an iteration of it was used four times on one page, and it was used almost every page they were together. It felt like when Roberts didn't know how to have them react, she'd just convey that they laughed in one way or another, usually with "laugh" or "huff out a laugh." Is it a small thing? Sure. Still pissed me off though.

Another problem I had was with Kitt as a character, specifically with his relationship with Kai and their father. While it is stated that the king was nicer to Kitt than he ever was to Kai, Kitt knows that Kai was strait up tortured by their father to make him enforcer, and is just... okay with it? Or tries to play peace maker but still seems to love their father as if "well he was nice to me" makes it okay to just ignore the fact that his father is an abuser. Considering how the book makes Kitt and Kai seem to be close, you would think Kitt would not have his head up his dad's ass. Also, he said some out of pocket stuff about "sacrifices of the Ordinaries are necessary" and that had me wondering how I was supposed to care about him at all because even later on he didn't really seem to care that much, so he was probably set up to become the next villain since the king is killed near the end of the book. (I will say I liked that scene. There was only two mentions of laughter instead of a dozen!)

Also, there were just a few things that felt a bit cliche and fan-fiction like, and I feel a bit upset because everyone acted like this was going to be that book when it fell kind of flat. 

Overall, the plot isn't bad, but there were things like what I mentioned before that just wasn't it for me. Will I continue the series? Maybe. I have it on my to-read list, but if so, it will be on the lower end of my tbr because there are other books I am much more interested in.  
 
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