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A review by frantically
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"It's like Red Queen, it's like Throne of Glass, It's like Selection, it's like The Hunger–" bear w me here for a second, maybe, just maybe, ya has developed into a proper genre with its own set tropes and typical characters
"Powerless" brings back all the things I loved about the above mentioned books. It truly feels like reading as a 14y/o, doing nothing but thinking about the book in my bag. I have some criticisms, which I'll come to later, but first and foremost I had such a great reading experience and I really loved this book.
Kai, oh Kai. Love of my life. Top book boyfriend of the year (it's February). When authors say they want their characters to be morally grey, this is who they're talking about. Like, he's a straight up torturer. [Include "But daddy, I love him!"-gif here.] The sexual tension he has with Payden? Unmatched. So many daggers pressed against throats it almost gets ridiculous but honestly, you won't catch me complaining.
Payden and I have a love/hate relationship, leaning towards hate. Getting all the feels again from our fav YA books sadly also includes a typical YA pick-me. Get ready, girl decides to wear leggings when meeting the king and queen for the first time. I feel like that says enough. We also get her bitchy nemesis, who's of course also into Kai, and I just can't take that stuff serious any longer.
Kai's got a brother, Kit, and honestly at some point it felt like they were both so oblivious because they are both courting Pay, both developing serious feelings for her but either don't realise or don't care that their brother is doing the same. Like?? where's my fist fight about who gets to date her???
The king as the villain was soo archetypical and two-dimensional, boooring
I'm bad at writing about things I like but yes, absolutely loved this, will read the next book but please realise that it's not only early YA vibes, it's also early YA problems.
"Powerless" brings back all the things I loved about the above mentioned books. It truly feels like reading as a 14y/o, doing nothing but thinking about the book in my bag. I have some criticisms, which I'll come to later, but first and foremost I had such a great reading experience and I really loved this book.
Kai, oh Kai. Love of my life. Top book boyfriend of the year (it's February). When authors say they want their characters to be morally grey, this is who they're talking about. Like, he's a straight up torturer. [Include "But daddy, I love him!"-gif here.] The sexual tension he has with Payden? Unmatched. So many daggers pressed against throats it almost gets ridiculous but honestly, you won't catch me complaining.
Payden and I have a love/hate relationship, leaning towards hate. Getting all the feels again from our fav YA books sadly also includes a typical YA pick-me. Get ready, girl decides to wear leggings when meeting the king and queen for the first time. I feel like that says enough. We also get her bitchy nemesis, who's of course also into Kai, and I just can't take that stuff serious any longer.
Kai's got a brother, Kit, and honestly at some point it felt like they were both so oblivious because they are both courting Pay, both developing serious feelings for her but either don't realise or don't care that their brother is doing the same. Like?? where's my fist fight about who gets to date her???
The king as the villain was soo archetypical and two-dimensional, boooring
I'm bad at writing about things I like but yes, absolutely loved this, will read the next book but please realise that it's not only early YA vibes, it's also early YA problems.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail