Powerless by Lauren Roberts
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 528
Cover: Hardcover
Age rating: 13+
Buy on: Amazon, Barnes and Noble
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He had been searching for her his entire life.
She has been pretending to be him her entire life.
Only the elites, the powerful, and the exceptional have a place in the kingdom of Ilya.
Though not many were lucky enough to survive the illness and benefit from it, the Plague generously gave these Elites the powers they had been enjoying for decades. Ordinary people are simply that—ordinary. Moreover, Paedyn Gray became a thief by need and a felon by fate when the monarch ordered that all Ordinaries be exiled in order to maintain his Elite society.
Paedyn is more aware than others that it's not easy to survive as an Ordinary in the slums. In order to stay alive and out of danger, Paedyn, who has been trained by her father to be excessively perceptive since she was a young girl, pretends to be a psychic in the busy city and blends in with the Elites as much as possible. Not as easy as it seems.
Paeydn is thrust into the Purging Trials after she unwittingly saves one of Ilyas' princes. The vicious battle serves to highlight the Elites' abilities, which Paedyn does not possess. The prince she is battling affections for will undoubtedly murder her if he realizes that she is wholly Ordinary, even if the Trials and the opponents within them don't.
SPOILS ALERT:
I had high hopes for this book when I opened it, mostly because of the extreme hype I saw on Book Tube and Book Tok, praising it as the new Hunger Games and that it might achieve the success of Harry Potter. And I hate to say that I was left extremely disappointed.
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The plot of the book was unoriginal, with the Trials reminding me of the trials in Harry Potter, the Goblet of Fire. Especially the third and final trial, which seems to be a copy of the maze trial in Goblet of Fire, the maze was magic and could move around, and to win, the champions need to reach the center of the maze. Now, where had I heard that before? Hmmm...
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Moreover, the scoring system of the Trials was vague, making no sense whatsoever. Blair, a Tele girl who won the final Trial, was said to win the whole Trial. Which was confusing, cause what's the point of the other 2 trials then?
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The reason why this book was so hyped was the couple, Paedyn and Kai, who gloat about having jaw-dropping chemistry and extreme tension. Now, I agree on the tension, it was so thick that you could cut it with a knife, so that's the part I enjoy about their relationship. However, I felt their moments were being repeated throughout the book, making it uninteresting fast. The repetition of Paedyn holding the knife against Kai's throat, him flirting with her, and them refusing to admit to being attracted to each other gets annoying pretty quickly. So I enjoy it when Lauren writes moments of them being vulnerable and caring for each other, it makes me take them more seriously. One of my favorite moments was when Paedyn stayed by Kai's side for the night because Kai was having a horrible nightmare.
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But despite the few moments of the book, I still think didn't make a whole lot of sense, how Lauren told more than showed. For example, Kai was told to be a "monster", a scary killer multiple times throughout the book. But I didn't see it, Kai had shown to be caring and warm to the people he loved. The female protagonist is also inconsistent, Paedyn herself thinks that the trials are a sick entertainment for Elites to kill each other, and she thinks it is disgusting. But in the trial, Paedyn almost kills other Elites, also wishing that they were dead.
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Despite it all, this book was still a fun read, it wasn't a masterpiece and it didn't move me as I thought it would. Compared to other YA fantasy books I read, this one pales in comparison, and didn't live up to its hype. I felt you would only enjoy this book if you first get into YA fantasy, not if you have read dozens of fantasy books before.