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snowbenton 's review for:
Want
by Cindy Pon
I picked up this book from a tweet that pointed out it had an all-Asian cast and a heist, and I was sold. I live for a good heist. I am currently planning my Six of Crows tattoo, and I almost bought a mini Cooper for my first car because I've seen the Italian Job (the original and the remake) way too many times.
This is not a heist book, and it hasn't done a great job of being anything else either.
There is no heist: To me, the essence of a heist is having a cast of characters who are all really excellent at their one job (and for humor, probably shit at everything else) and they use their skills despite their interpersonal issues to pull off the job. The book opens with a kidnapping to get money for the plan. I was still invested at this point. But it's just a series of small jobs that work out through sheer luck. Only two out of the five characters have special skills, and in one small job only four characters are used. You can't have a heist where you literally have a line that says "Arun, who wasn't needed for this operation, had some lab crisis to deal with." Just. No.
The worldbuilding sucks: They have cell phone parallels called Palm and Vox and I never understood what the difference was. They can't see the sky, so the pollution is bad, but everyone just walks around in cloth masks. I get that the whole point of the book is the rich vs the poor, but that still seems over the top. You never get to know the other members of Zhou's group and so it's hard to care about them when they are in (mild to moderately) dangerous situations. Also this minor spoiler:
The romance takes precedence over everything: This speaks for itself. Get your bland romance out of my heist.
This is not a heist book, and it hasn't done a great job of being anything else either.
There is no heist: To me, the essence of a heist is having a cast of characters who are all really excellent at their one job (and for humor, probably shit at everything else) and they use their skills despite their interpersonal issues to pull off the job. The book opens with a kidnapping to get money for the plan. I was still invested at this point. But it's just a series of small jobs that work out through sheer luck. Only two out of the five characters have special skills, and in one small job only four characters are used. You can't have a heist where you literally have a line that says "Arun, who wasn't needed for this operation, had some lab crisis to deal with." Just. No.
The worldbuilding sucks: They have cell phone parallels called Palm and Vox and I never understood what the difference was. They can't see the sky, so the pollution is bad, but everyone just walks around in cloth masks. I get that the whole point of the book is the rich vs the poor, but that still seems over the top. You never get to know the other members of Zhou's group and so it's hard to care about them when they are in (mild to moderately) dangerous situations. Also this minor spoiler:
Spoiler
The bad guy creates a flu virus, and Arun is somehow able to come up with an antidote in a matter of weeks, which we all know in today's covid world that that ain't happening.The romance takes precedence over everything: This speaks for itself. Get your bland romance out of my heist.