Take a photo of a barcode or cover
abinthebooks 's review for:
Powerless
by Lauren Roberts
DNF AT 37%
I honest to god cannot believe this book was published in the year of our lord and savior, 2023 (and babes, I’m not even religious…). Because if I just picked this book up today without knowing anything about it, I would have confidently said ”Yes, this book was published in 2012-2014” with absolutely no hesitation. And I think in some ways that’s what the authors intent was, but it’s just not something that I think really can compete with much better modern YA fantasy.
I’ve been following Lauren Roberts from the very beginning of her writing journey; down from the first video she posted about the idea she got for this book, to the time she self-published, then when she got picked up by a larger publishing house, and even her current stuff I try to watch every now and then. So I was really excited to read this book, especially since Lauren did say this book has Hunger Games vibes (as well as Red Queen, but that’s one of my least favorite books ever so, ya know…). But I think there comes a point between being inspired by things, and just blatantly plagiarizing/ripping off something.
That’s what the entire dystopian era of publishing was; ripping off The Hunger Games in some non-inventive way. And that’s really just what this book unfortunately was. A rip off of two very popular books from the dystopian era. Powerless had absolutely nothing new to add to the YA fantasy genre. The magic system was stolen from Red Queen, the plot was stolen from The Hunger Games, and yes, there was even a love triangle. A love triangle in once again I say, the year of our lord and savior, 2023.
If I had read this at the peak of my dystopian faze (when I was fifth and sixth grade) yes, this would have been a new favorite for me. But I just couldn’t read this story again. I’ve read it enough times, and I knew this wouldn’t bring anything new to the table. Combined with mediocre writing, cringe dialogue and romance, and an angsty edgelord male love interest who’s just a white version of Nasir from We Hunt the Flame, I honestly just can’t be bothered.
And to all of you who wonder why I can’t have fun reading bad books, I don’t know guys. I tried really hard to just like this despite it being bad, but I really couldn’t. I think this book has finally proven to me that Booktok books are just not going to be for me, and I should probably stop trying the lot of them.
I honest to god cannot believe this book was published in the year of our lord and savior, 2023 (and babes, I’m not even religious…). Because if I just picked this book up today without knowing anything about it, I would have confidently said ”Yes, this book was published in 2012-2014” with absolutely no hesitation. And I think in some ways that’s what the authors intent was, but it’s just not something that I think really can compete with much better modern YA fantasy.
I’ve been following Lauren Roberts from the very beginning of her writing journey; down from the first video she posted about the idea she got for this book, to the time she self-published, then when she got picked up by a larger publishing house, and even her current stuff I try to watch every now and then. So I was really excited to read this book, especially since Lauren did say this book has Hunger Games vibes (as well as Red Queen, but that’s one of my least favorite books ever so, ya know…). But I think there comes a point between being inspired by things, and just blatantly plagiarizing/ripping off something.
That’s what the entire dystopian era of publishing was; ripping off The Hunger Games in some non-inventive way. And that’s really just what this book unfortunately was. A rip off of two very popular books from the dystopian era. Powerless had absolutely nothing new to add to the YA fantasy genre. The magic system was stolen from Red Queen, the plot was stolen from The Hunger Games, and yes, there was even a love triangle. A love triangle in once again I say, the year of our lord and savior, 2023.
If I had read this at the peak of my dystopian faze (when I was fifth and sixth grade) yes, this would have been a new favorite for me. But I just couldn’t read this story again. I’ve read it enough times, and I knew this wouldn’t bring anything new to the table. Combined with mediocre writing, cringe dialogue and romance, and an angsty edgelord male love interest who’s just a white version of Nasir from We Hunt the Flame, I honestly just can’t be bothered.
And to all of you who wonder why I can’t have fun reading bad books, I don’t know guys. I tried really hard to just like this despite it being bad, but I really couldn’t. I think this book has finally proven to me that Booktok books are just not going to be for me, and I should probably stop trying the lot of them.