I have this really odd relationship with super-power books: I like the thought of them more than the actual reading part. IT’S SO ANNOYING AND THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE, TO BE HONEST. I gobble superhero movies and read comics and wear nerdy Avenger tee-shirts. But 99% of the time I find YA superhero books feel generic.
And for Zeroes, I wasn’t invested in the characters and I spent half the time totally befuddled. was seriously confused most of the time. It references all this stuff about “last summer” with inside referneces and jokes and HELLO, I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST SUMMER. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?? I’m getting left out of my own conversation here, sheesh. Zeroes felt like a sequel! It’s great to cut straight to the action, BUT. Without backstory, I WAS SO CONFUSED.
The plot was very exciting and action adventureish. Blow this up. Get chased by mobsters. Eat fast food. Please don’t mention parents because who needs ’em? Not us. Kids can’t be cool with parents.
Everyone had super cool powers, though. SUPER COOL. (Har har, get it? Super…and…okay, never mind. I’ll keep my cheesy jokes to myself.) Like controlling crowds and being unmemorable and seeing through other people’s eyes. IT WAS SO UNIQUE.
But even though that was cool…I felt exactly zlich for the characters because there. were. so. many. of. them. There were six narrators! SIX. And (since I read A Game of Thrones) I’m no stranger to books with millions of POVs, but I feel the difference here is Zeroes changes POV every few pages. So 67 million narrators getting, like, two pages each? I don’t get long enough in anyone’s head to really connect with them. PLUS IT’S SO HARD TO REMEMBER EVERYONE.
THIS IS ME. TELL ME WHAT I’M DEALING WITH THOR, PLEASE HELP.
BRIEF LOOK AT THE MONSTROUSLY LARGE CHARACTER CAST:
- Ethan / Scam: We begin the book with him. He’s this kind of dorky, annoying, whiny kid whose power is this Voice that says what people want to hear. So he can basically talk himself out of ANYTHING. As a character, he was interesting and I think he went through the most development. But he was super whingey and selfish and…eh. An idiot. But then the en
tire book wouldn’t exist without his idiocy, so there you go. - Kelsie / Mob: She’s not part of the Zeroes clique…YET. She’s this criminal’s daughter and her power is crowd-control. Seriously! She can make them rage or chill.
- Thibault / Anonymous: HE IS MY ABSOLUTE ADORABLE FAVOURITE. He’s anonymous! People literally forget him the second they see him. So not invisible…just totally unforgettable. To the point where even his family doesn’t remember him. (His name is pronounced Teebo, by the way.) HE WAS SU CUTE AND SAD AND I LIKED HIM.
- Riley / Flicker: What is the point of her face?? I don’t even know??? She was barely in the book so why was she even there? She’s blind but she can see through other people’s eyeballs.
- Nate / Bellwether: He’s The Leader, huzzah, bow to him. He’s totally absolutely booooring as all leaders must be. And I don’t understand his code name. (Bellwether?!?) I think he controls minds.
- Chizara / Crash: While her power was EPIC (she crashes technology!) I really care about exactly 2% about her and her chapters were dull.
…if there had been LESS POV chapters and more FOCUS on just a few of these characters (and therefore have time to flesh them out), I’d totally have engaged better.
It was a solid action book, but not memorable for me. I just wasn’t feelin’ it, folks. The whole “this is a sequel” vibe threw me off. And what is the point of these teenage mutants? They fought crime and mobsters, but only accidentally. I don’t get what the OVERALL point of them is. They’re not so much superheroes as average kids with powers.
My favourite part was finding out that “Thibault” is pronounced “Teebo”, and I swear ALL my children will be named Teebo because it’s the cutest name in the universe. Failing my children (since I have none, since I am young) I WILL NAME MY GOLDFISH TEEBO. (I have no goldfish either, but shush, I will overcome this.)
THANK YOU TO ALLEN AND UNWIN FOR THE REVIEW-COPY! Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti is published October 2015.
Don’t call them heroes. But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart
Ethan aka Scam has a voice inside him that’ll say whatever people want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t – like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days.
Enter Nate, aka Bellwether, the group’s ‘glorious leader.’ After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the rescue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. At the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.
Filled with high-stakes action and drama, Zeroes unites three powerhouse authors for the opening installment of a thrilling new series.
\\ click covers to see my reviews //
What a shame to hear this didn’t work out for you — BUT this was a hugely entertaining review nonetheless. First of all, YOUR BOOK PHOTOGRAPHY EXCUSE ME WHILE I LEAP INTO THE PIT OF AESTHETIC FAIL SHAME. Seriously, all these are so gorgeous. And I notice the Avengers gifs — thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did. I’m more a fan of supervillains than superheroes (blame Vicious, really), but I’m SUCH an Avengers fangirl. Multiple PoVs are my thing, but when you look at AGOT, there weren’t THAT many — GRRM waited for us to be sucked in before throwing twenty more PoVs and plotlines in, and look at us now. *happysigh*
Alyssa @ The Devil Orders Takeout recently posted…#LitLove: Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Oh yeah Cait, I can’t believe I forgot to mention the unbelievable photography! Do you take photography classes? Damn I have a hard time just taking a straight shot of books stacked, I see so many artistic book shots everywhere and wish I had that talent to just “see”…if you know what I mean.
Well done, post is great and photos are AMAZING!!!
Angelica @ Paperback Princess recently posted…The Book of Days by K.A. Barker ~ Review
@Alyssa: OMG THANK YOU, I HAD SUCH FUN TAKING THESE PHOTOS. I swear, it was just luck today, because I sat on the kitchen floor and had this PERFECT LIGHT for like 5 minutes. And like an idiot I don’t even know what the time was, so I’ll never replicate this shoot. XD But I am pleased you like them. :’) SO PLEASED.
And I, too, blame Vicious for my high expectations for superpowers. NOT EVEN SORRY THOUGH. Vicious was too incredible for words, omg. And and it’s also true about ASoIaF. I mean, there’s only about 6 or so in the first book right? And then after that it’s doesn’t even matter because the world is so interesting. EXCEPT FOR THEON CURSE HIM. And also I pretty much died in A Feast of Crows at every chapter by that stupid seaweed priest. -_-
@Angelica: N’awwww, thank you! THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY. Haha, I actually know NOTHING about photography. I don’t take classes and I shoot everything on automatic *sentences self to the corner of shame* 😛
Stupid seaweed priest indeed. I mean Ironborn culture sounds kinda cool because of Asha Greyjoy, but the other Greyjoys just aren’t okay. Euron is kind of interesting except he doesn’t do anything? I just hope Dany burns them all.
Also, Cait, I thought I’d let you know — your comment reply template sets it up so that in my email, it looked like Angelica was you, which was kind of confusing.
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*whispers* I don’t know how to set the comment notifications any differently. >_< SORRY.
I just finished this book and I thought it was… serviceable but not awesome. Boo!! I hype myself way too much for superpower books. You should try reading Steelheart, that one is surprisingly solid and had supervillains.
Teebo is my fave as well- he’s so adorbs and awkward yet he has enough style to hideout in a 5 stars hotel. I like his style. I actually loved Flicker though I have a thing for blind people apparently.
I was also so confused cos I was lost in backstory hell. Please elaborate things, authors!!
I need to try Steelheart for sure!! It’s on my wishlist right now, actually, hehe because SUPERVILLAINS. Have you read Vicious? Vicious is everything.
And I know right?!? Awkwardness but style and he was so smart. :’) TEEBO FOREVER.
Yeahhhhh I didn’t request this one because I didn’t think I would like it. I’m not a fan of too many narrators, and superheroes definitely only belong in Marvel (or maybe DC if we’re talking Batman). BUT HEY. Glorious photos 🙂
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I’m pretty extra sure you made a wise life decision here, Emily. XD I FAILED. But I just got so sucked in by the promise of villains and superpowers and stuff. Fo rno reason… *whistles innocently*
Batman is the only reason DC is even allowed to be a word in my hearing. bECAUSE I DO LOVE BATMAN. But ugh Dc.
This book DID sound rather cool. But I can see why it didn’t work. I quite liked uglies, but hated Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. ( I dnf’d it. Bear sex=no) So I’m probably not reaing this one. I like that the superpowers are more than flying-invisibility-super speed- super strength, because those are cliched. AVENGERS (I only started watching them a few months ago, and I hated the one DC movie that I’ve seen because it was stupid) Ugh, book confusion is the worst. I like multiple narrators, especially when it has something cool like prodigy, with a different colour and/or font and/or format to distinguish the perspectives. Thanks for the review!
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Um…bear sex…um…yes I can understand why that didn’t work. XD (OMG THAT jUST SOUNDS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS. UGH.) I honestly hadn’t even heard of the two other authors and I guess I’m not tempted to check out their work right now? But, gah. I am pleased the powers were so unique. OMG PRODIGY USED DIFFERENT COLOUR FONTS??! I need that book now, then, asap.
YAY FOR AVENGERS GIFS!!! 😀 Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with superheroes (except McGrowl… does a bionic dog count?), but they do kind of sound better in theory. Or in a movie. Or my imagination. But I started my own on my blog, so… well, we’ll just see. XD
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I feel like movie better capture all the action-y superpower-y stuff for some reason? MIND YOU. I love Vicious an astronomical amount and that was all super villains and powers. Although it was adult too. *sigh* I need a good YA superpower book!
I know the popular answer (probably the “right” answer) is Marvel… I love Marvel. The films are awesome, the characters are awesome, I’m a big fan… But I’m just so loyal to DC. Batman, Dick Grayson, Wonder Woman… Mostly Dick Grayson.
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YES MARVEL. MARVEL IS EVERYTHIN!! *tears around the room screaming MARVEL! MARVEL!* But then I do love Batman, so. Sometimes this causes small crises in me.
I spent this review thinking, “You know, Cait and I have had differences of opinion before, maybe I’ll give this book a go,”, but then I got to six POVs and went NOPE. But Teeboo…Teeboo is the most adorable name I have ever heard. If I ever get another pet I’m totally naming it Teeboo.
And Marvel comics all the way.
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And yes, Teebo is just life I tell you and we shall have like twin Teebo fish and we should obviously come visit each other and let our Teebo fishes (or pets, like, I’m willing to think openly about this) play and socialise. BECAUSE TEEBO. (Totally not over obsessed with this name. TOTALLY NOT.)
*Marvel Hi Five*
Awe, that’s a shame you didn’t like it, Cait. I have never read a book where you go in and it feels like it’s a sequel and damn…I hope I never have to. That just seems awful. No backstory? Backstory is some of the best parts of the book. I will not be picking this one up!
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I felt like the backstory was all brushed over but it seemed super important?!? I FELT LEFT IN THE DARK. OMG NOT FUN. XD
I actually like multiple narrators and wish more authors employed them. I have discovered that (a) most YA superhero books do lack…something and (b) Scott Westerfeld books tend to leave me cold. I will not be reading this one. Loved your review, though.
I think multiple narrators can be done SO WELL but I think the trick is developing them all a lot and fast so I don’t get uninvested? But it is possible I’m just too fussy too. hehe.
I love superpowers!! 😀 Though maybe i’ll skip this one. I did love V is for Villain though! 😀
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V is for Villain was quite hilarious. xD I looooved the footnotes!
Hahah, yeah. XD
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I don’t even know what to say…
Except… PASS!
THAT IS A FAIR THING TO SAY.
A bellwether is (according to Google) “the leading sheep of a flock, with a bell on its neck”. So if he’s the leader, that makes sense.
I don’t like tons of POV characters. My most recent DNF occurred because of that. It’s too hard to develop characters properly when you’re jumping around all the time. (On Goodreads this morning, I saw someone complaining about a 300-page book with TEN points of view. Good lord… Why do authors do that?) If there are like three or four, that’s fine… especially if the author does a good job of giving them different voices. I’m trying to think of books that I liked that were like this. Sarah Miller’s The Lost Crown did a good job with the four Romanov sisters. I can’t really think of any others at the moment that made a favourable impression on me. I guess doing the whole multiple-POV thing isn’t easy!
You sure they weren’t talking about Zeroes? Cos it’s 450+ pages with 6 POVs LOL so pretty close
Angelica @ Paperback Princess recently posted…The Book of Days by K.A. Barker ~ Review
@La Coccinelle: WHAT. 300 PAGES AND 10 POVS?!?! WHY DID NOBODY TELL THEM NO?!?!? Sometimes no is a really good word and some people need to hear it. o.O And ahhh, I GUESS the Bellweather thing makes sense. That is very obscure. This is like a hipster superpower book. XD
Definitely skipping this one–I’m not really a superhero person. I don’t mind having a few narrators if the voices are distinct, but six narrators can be rough for me unless it’s Rick Riordan. (Even then it gets annoying sometimes, though. Shut up, Piper. No one cares. Let Leo talk.) The whole sequel feeling doesn’t seem like something I’d be able to deal with, either. Love your photos in this post, though 🙂
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OMG. THANK YOU. PIPER GO HOME NOBODY CARES. And I hate to add Hazel to that list…but. I gotta. Basically let Leo narrate 90% of the time with occasional chapters from Percy and Annabeth and we’re good. I love Frank too, but. YEs. LEO. *hugs him and feeds him fire and marshmallows*
Awk thank you, too! <3 I was really proud of how the photos turned out. :')
Hm, interesting. I’m curious to see what I’ll think of this. I love Westerfeld and superheroes, but I hate POV whiplash. Especially if half the POVs are boring. As for the normal kids though, I think the whole point is that they just happen to be people with powers, not heroes. So that part I like. Nice review as always!
CJ
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Oh that is true…about the normal-kids-with-powers. I just figure if you have powers you should be doing something with them? Instead of just pottering around doing small stuff? IDEK IF I HAD POWERS I’D STEAL THE MOON OR SOMETHING FUN AND HUGE. #goals And POV whiplash is an excellent way to describe this. *nods*
Stealing the moon WOULD be great. But I kind of like the idea of these loser teenagers having these powers and having no clue what to do with them. It feels sort of real, like people I might know.
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As always your reviews are pure gold. 😀 That’s disappointing that the book didn’t turn out good. Scott Westerfield is an interesting writer, his books seem to be either a big hit or a miss. I read Uglies years and years ago and want to go back and read it, he did write that right? And then I just read Afterworlds and loved it.
I may or may not have said this already, but I generally dislike superheros. I’m not a fan of the avengers, nor of DC comics….I generally stay away from them because superheros either bore me or frustrate me. 😀
I just started watching the TV series Heroes, because my cousin wanted too and I’m tolerating it so far…lol
I know, I know. I’m strange.
As for multiple POV”s, my feelings are mixed. Different narrators has to be done VERY WELL. Each narrator has to be unique and interesting in their own way, otherwise I just can’t get into the book. I just finished a historical fiction book with 2 narrators and I just didn’t like it. While I liked the first main character, the second cliche and boring and I never understood her. Afterworlds is a pretty good example of dual point of views, at least I feel this way.
Rick Rioardan usually does a good job, but there’s always that one character where you’re like SHUT UP. lol Well enough of me rambling. 😀
AWww, THANKS ABI. *tackle hugs you* I have actually only read 2 of his books now and Uglies didn’t do anything for me? But I do want to try Afterworlds because WRITER. I LIKE WRITER THINGS. Writing about writing seems especially cool somehow. XD
Omg, you dislike superheroes. WHAT A SAD LIFE YOU MUST LIVE. haha. I joke! I joke! Each to their own. 😉 I shall be kind but may hum the Batman theme song in your ear to try and convert you. YA KNOW. It might happen. *sneaks away*
Interesting, well I young when I read Uglies and I honestly don’t remember that much of it. YES! It was really good, probably one of the best YA books I’ve read all year. Not that I’ve read that many, but yeah. Some of the writing parts made me frustrated but I won’t say anymore. No spoilers! 😀
Lol I know. People are always shocked when I admit this. 😀 Batman is actually okay, as far as superheros go. I can tolerate him. 😀
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I’m not really in the whole superhero battle between DC and Marvel because I’ve barely started watching Marvel and I know nothing about DC except that Suicide Squad is my most anticipated film of 2016 and I can’t wait ahhhhhhh! I think I might give this one a pass because I’m exactly the same… I like the IDEA of superhero books but I’m not really sure they’d be something I’d enjoy. Great post! :3
Hehe, it’s weird how that works right?!? Liking the idea versus the actual thing…BUT IT IS SO ME AND IT’S A PROBLEM BUT I CAN’T CHANGE. GAH. I do love Batman buuuut I’m a 99% Marvel Fangirl.
Mehh, I really want to read this because SUPERHEROES – YAY! But I’d also be totally confused (the fact that it feels like a sequel is..no, just no) and multiple POVs really annoy me, it it’s done correctly it’s fine but if you barely get to know the characters and forget who is who then that’s a bit of a problem. -_-
I might pick this book up if my library gets it in but I won’t go out of my way to read it. Great review! 😀
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Oh oh YES. Like I used to be entirely opposed to too many POVs, but now I quite like it because it can add more depth…but it needs to be done right. IT JUST DOES. *nods emphatically* I think getting to know the characters is super important. SUPER IMPORTANT. Or else what’s our connection to the book??!
I’ve never been much of a fan of superhero stories. I just find characters with regular non-superpowers much more interesting, I guess. I have an ARC of this and I guess I will try it. Maybe…
Jen @ YA Romantics
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YES. Let me just hug The Rest of Us Just Live Here and books like that FOREVER because they seem to have so much more heart. Although I did love Vicious. XD
Your book photography puts me to shame. I need to step it up here!!
I wonder if the tri-authorship has something to do with the “sequel” feeling? Like, maybe each author had a backstory in his/her mind that wasn’t able to be fully fleshed out, or something like that.
I can’t think of any teen superhero books that I’ve read, at least not off the top of my head. The closest thing I can think of is the TV show “Heroes”, and that was up and down for me. I really liked some of the characters but not others. And it seemed like they weren’t really “heroes”, just average people with physical quirks, kind of like you might have a personality quirk.
P.S. Avengers, clearly!
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Aww, DOn’T BE SHAMED THO. XD This was like a really luck moment because I just took them on my kitchen floor and for some reason the light was just PERFECT AND OMG I WAS SO HAPPY. But I don’t even know what time it was and so I’ll probably never replicate this shoot. xD FAIL.
I do wonder….I haven’t actually read a book by three authors before? I suspect they had two narrating characters each. Why not just one each? AGH.
*Avengers hi five*
I like superhero books, but I think most of the titles I”ve read are adult books. I’m sorry this didn’t have much focus to you and felt too much like a sequel. i am really curious to try it out though – who knows?! I assume you love the Avengers then. haha I really like the Marvel films, but I’m a big Batman fan so reading DC comics are great.
-lauren
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Maybe you would like it!! If you try it, I hope you have a better time than I did. 😉 I feel like Vicious is the best superpower book I’ve ever read…but it was adult and SO FOCUSED ON VILLAINS OMG I LOVE. *flails*
Also yes. BIG Marvel fan her. Except Batman…omg, Batman is everything BUT I STAY LOYAL TO MARVEL FOREVER.
Please name a child Teebo. That is cute! And then we can fuss over him “awwww Cait’s little Teebo is just so CUTE! He has her rugged bookish qualities!”, and you will be so proud. I don’t think we will fuss over the goldfish nearly as much, sorry.
This book…. sigh. I went back and forth with it. At first, I thought “cool, superheros!” just like you, so I grabbed it at BEA. But then, also like you, I remembered that I usually don’t end up loving it in practice, only in theory. And also, Scott Westerfeld and I didn’t get along too well with Uglies. And this book is rather large and foreboding. Soooo… I traded it. I hope it was for something good at least. Now if I could just find something to do with the gargantuan (and VERY heavy) copy of Afterworlds, I will be set 😉
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HOW DARE YOU PREFERENCE A CHILD OVER A GOLDFISH. Wait. Hmm. You’re probably being a responsible human there, but okay, I’ll listen to you because you are fabulous, Shannon and I’ll call the child Teebo and then maybe I’ll call the Fish Katniss or something. Idek. I’m sure many options are open to me.
I didn’t love Uglies either!! I was too annoyed at Tally (I hope that’s her name, I swear I have such a bad time remembering names) for just waltzing up and stealing the boy her best friend like. Who does that?? Jerk. And why were they worried about their love lives when they were about to have their brains manipulated anyway? WHERE ARE THINE PRIORITIES, CHARACTERS. I still kind of want to read Afterworlds though because WRITERS. It calls to me. But why is it soooo huge?!?
I’ve found I feel this way with lots of Westerfeld’s books, with the Leviathan books being the exception, soooo… 🙁 Still, I’m thinking I’ll give this one a try.
And you musttttt read Steelheart because it’s the best YA superhero book and new and fresh, I promise, and you’ll adore the humor. *shoves it at you*
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I’ve only read two of his books and been kind of meh? I need to try Afterworlds though because WRITING. It is a need. AND I WANT TO READ STEELHEART, OMG I DO. I want it on audio so I’m pestering my library to buy it, but so far they’re ignoring me. *sighs deeply* I think Brandon Sanderson is probably a genius?!?!
I actually have not come a across a ton of YA books with superpowers. The only one that I can think of off the top of my head (which is really not saying much because my memory is not the best) is Dangerous by Shannon Hale, which I really liked. There were a ton of characters in it too, and while some were under-characterized, the main ones developed nicely. But other than that, I cannot think of any that really stood out to me. But I definitely think that we need more superpowers and superheros in YA. Something kick-butt, like Marvel (which is clearly has the better superheros) but in a young adult book. Is that too much to ask?
I was thinking about reading Zeroes, (I am a huge Westerfeld fan) but this one just does not seem up my alley. Like I mentioned, my memory is horrible and I will get a massive headache just trying to remember the differences between two under-developed characters. I am alright (and sometimes love) books with multiple POVs if all of the characters have equal time in the spotlight. I mean, what is the point of having more than one POV if you do not get to truly know any of the other characters?
Great review, Cait!
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YES WE TOTALLY DO!!! I need to find a superhero book that wows me in YA. I loved Vicious but that’s technically Adult (or new adult?) but seriously that is kind of stuff we need in YA. *petitions all the authors everywhere* I didn’t mind Transparent by Natalie Whipple, but again, it didn’t floor me or anything. 😐
My memory is horrible too. *pats shoulder* I feel kinship to you in this.
Does the DC vs. Marvel question have to be an either or? Because I love Batman, but I love the Avengers as well. *hangs head in shame*
Hmm, this story does sound interesting but lame. Like, I really like some of the super powers, but I don’t like the fact that the POV narration swithes up so much. That would throw me off. So, I’ll have to think about this one. *sits and ponders*
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YES IT DOES. Okay, okay….I secretly love Batman but I cannot look at DC. BUT BATMAN. But ugh DC. So I do understand there is a small moral dilemma there.
Ahem. But yes. Onto the book. I am just REALLY positive that if there had been three POVs and longer chapters that the book would’ve worked so much better. >_>
I have this really, really weird obsession with Spiderman, to the point I literally have been collecting anything with him on it since I was in middle school. SUPER WEIRD because I don’t know how to STOP collecting Spiderman merchandise lmao. This will actually be my first time reading a book about superheros . . . I think. Okay let me rephrase that, my first time in my adulthood, that I’m reading a story about Superheros. I’m really interested in reading Zeros, and while I love books with multiple POV’s, this sounds like a bit much. As you mentioned, with so many point of views, and with hardly no time to really get a backstory on them, how in the world are you supposed to establish a connection? This sounds really promising and I may still pick it up, but BLEH.
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YES!! I need that connection with characters. I just think maybe even if the chapters had been longer? Omg, but I totally understand your spiderman obsession. XD I collect Avenger tee-shirts and YEAH MAYBE I NEED TO STOP BUT AVENGER TEE SHIRTS. We fangirls must not deny our inner flailer. *nods emphatically*
Oh Cait you didn’t like Zeroes? I feel your points, they’re very valid, I totally get the whole referring to last summer but I didn’t think that they referred to it that much that it felt like it was something important. They mentioned right at the start that the voice insulted the crew and it was hurtful stuff and since then they’d pretty much split up.
I got to 300+ pages in two sitting as I was totally engaged in this book and I’m not a huge superhero person, maybe that’s the difference. You’ve read up on other superheroes so this may seem amateurish to you, but for someone that doesn’t read many superhero books I thought this was awesome, however, I may not be looking at this with clear eyes as I’m obsessed with Scott Westerfeld and his books, so maybe I came in with a bias opinion from the beginning.
My fave character was also Thibault he was the best character, I was invested in his part more so than the others, I think he connected with the readers more than the others did. I certainly disliked Nate, the rest as you said are pretty “anonymous” LOL ok not funny?
Angelica @ Paperback Princess recently posted…The Book of Days by K.A. Barker ~ Review
So I take it you liked it?! BUT THAT IS GOOD! 😀 And I do know they mentioned from the start it was all “last summer” but I just felt there was too much backstory that wasn’t expounded. But that’s just me. xD And it’s true…maybe I went in with too much high expectations since I’m a huge superhero geek. So that would be my bad.
ZOMG THIBAULT WAS JUST ADORABLE AND INCREDIBLE AND I WANTED TO HUG HIM AND REMEMBER HIM FOREVER. I just snicker to myself though, since he’s the character I love and remember the most and his power was being forgettable. XD
Oookkaaay? Like this sounds interesting? But boring? I haven’t read it, but I have definitely heard of it, although I’m not sure I could get my hands on it even if I wanted to read it. What should I say, like great review, except it was repelling? It’s funny, because I really like the Uglies series a few years ago. Anyway, thank you for reviewing it!
Shar@weavingwaveswords recently posted…Advice for Characters
EXACTLY. Interesting + Boring = Zeroes. Such a complicated relationship. *gnashes teeth and wails* This is only my second Scott Westerfeld book. I REALLY want to try Afterworlds though!
I am actually quite fond of superpower novels, when done right. This sounds sounds pretty cool, overall, but I don’t know if it has completely won me over yet.
I am not the biggest fan of multiple POVs, and when they are in a book, they need to be there for a purpose. And ZEROES doesn’t really seem like it hits the mark on that one.
Also, constant referencing to something that happened before the book started, but is never actually explicitly recounted? IT PAINS ME SO MUCH WHEN THIS HAPPENS. Why not START the novel at that something in the past? Or have it as a prologue? WHY use it as an ~intrigue~ thing? Because it never inspires intrigue in me, it just plain annoys me.
I love the fact that Thibault is pronounced Teebo? I mean WHAT? That’s all kinds of cool.
Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity recently posted…Why I Wasn’t a Fan of Lock & Mori by Heather W. Petty
Oh oh I’m the same with multiple POVs. I used to loathe them, though, but now? I’m converted! I feel like there needs to be a point though, and every voice has to bring something that another voice couldn’t have done. I felt like there was even doubling up on scenes in Zeroes. Gah. It wasn’t for me. >_>
YES BOOKS SHOULD NOT SKIP IMPORTANT THINGS. It doesn’t intrigue me either. -_-
Teebo is the name of everything now. HOW IS IT SO CUTE AND SO DIFFERENT FROM HOW IT’S SPELLED?
bestselling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti to create a sizzling new series filled with action and adventure. Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He s got a voice inside him that ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn t like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren t exactly best friends these days.