Powerless

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and the trial scenes👹👹 you know in the hunger games where they tend to each other's wounds?? MAYHAPS IT IS IN HERE TOO This is my first time on Reddit, so forgive me if I am a little lost on how things work. I just finished reading Powerless by Lauren Roberts, a book that is highly popular on BookTok, and I have a lot to say. Here is my review: No one knows this better than Paedyn Gray, an Ordinary posing as an Elite. When she unsuspectingly saves one of Ilya’s princes, Kai Azer, she’s thrown into the Purging Trials, a brutal competition to showcase her ‘Elite’ powers. I can't wait for book 2 ughhhh 😭 I. WANT. THAT. BOOK. (because it's gonna get super angsty and Kai is out for blood).🩸🗡 there was so. much. tension. if men said the things in real life that kai says to paedyn, we would have no need for romance books. however, there was so much tension and banter to the point of becoming repetitive and literally putting me into a reading slump. (kind of a me problem, too, but i’m going to put a little blame on the book.)

Several guards cross my path as I zigzag down streets, forcing me to slow down to steer clear of them. Every shop, corner, and street has been bestowed the gift of leering, white-uniformed law enforcers. These brutal Imperials have been stationed everywhere along Loot Alley by decree of the king due to an increase in crime. I will say, the little thingy thing between Paedyn and Kai's brother Kitt was giving enemies to lovers more than the actual marketed enemies to lovers. A lot of enemies to lovers nowadays is just insta-love where they're immediately attracted to each other but oh no they're enemies. Knife to throat. Witty banter. Whatever that means. That was Paedyn and Kai. Kitt and Paedyn's drama had the real sauce. Every time she saw him she was reminded of the man who killed her father, and slowly had to begin to see him as a real person and appreciate him for who he was. Enemies to lovers where they have to do work, challenge notions about themselves to be together, that's what's good. The slowburn. Idfk what endgame is, but I wish we got more of whatever was going on between Kitt and Paedyn rather than chapter after chapter of Paedyn and Kai. Kingdom of Ilya is divided into two types of groups, ELITES (with powers) and ORDINARIES (powerless). Elites were gifted with different powers because of a PLAGUE, and the ordinaries were banished from the Kingdom because they're rumored to lessen the powers of the elites. The smell of soot stings my nose, forcing me to clamp a grimy hand over it to stop a sneeze from slipping out. The book is needlessly long, with self indulgent scene after scene that served little purpose to the plot or to further character growth. Yes, I know they're fun to write. But it became very repetitive and very boring very fast. The tropes are fun, knife to throat and whatever etc etc, but I have to wonder why there are like 4 different instances of it and why they're almost identical in purpose and tone. And, what's worse, they're very telling rather than showing. The author needed to kill some darlings, kill MANY darlings.

Customer reviews

She blows a strand of hair from her eyes in annoyance. "I feel like I don't know many things about you, so I figured I'd start with the basics." An amused sigh. "I'm letting you off the hook with an easy question so don't disappoint. What is your favorite color?" Roberts said: “Becoming an author was a dream I never considered a reality – that is, until I stumbled across BookTok. After creating content on the platform, the following I gained grew into a family, and it wasn’t long before I was writing Powerless.

The worldbuilding didn't survive too much of a thinky think. I don't think it was a good idea to introduce genocide and oppression without engaging with those ideas properly. It felt very much like this book was trying to be Hunger Games but it had as much depth as the Selection. (This review is getting long but I have so many issues with the reform revolutionaries in the selection and the violent vs nonviolent thing going on there). That feels so mean to say I'm sorry but also please. PLEASE. I can suspend my disbelief about the girl getting away with being an Ordinary, but I draw the line as using revolution as an aesthetic without real political worldbuilding behind it. This book is literally a romcom with action scenes in it! It was not screaming FANTASY much, but I still enjoyed it a lot! This story was quite interesting, and I can't compare it with Hunger Games because I haven't read that series, but it gave me Shatter Me vibes (as in powers and some scenes).

S&S has promised a “wide-reaching TikTok and digital-first campaign, with innovative and content-rich activity, building Lauren Roberts as a major new player in YA”.