Powerless

dnf @ 30%
sorry i really don't like this so far and i'd rather spend my time reading stuff i enjoy :)

I wouldn't say that I particularly liked this book but it was entertaining to an extent. This is the young author's first book, so judging it by those standards, it is pretty good. However, beyond that, I found it cringy and unoriginal. I knew going into this that it was going to be romantasy-YA-trope-central, so I can look past that, but the dialogue was infuriating at times. The use of the present tense threw me off quite a bit at the start, and it has made me realise that I much prefer stories written in the past tense. I found the two main characters pretty annoying, but I loved the side characters. I won't be continuing the main series anytime soon, if at all, however I would like to read the novella that centres around one of the side characters that I liked. Will I be reading summaries of Reckless and Fearless? Yes, I will because I'm curious but I am not spending any more time than that on this series - tbh I should've dnf'd this at 50% but I thought such a long and well loved book had to get better, right??? Nope.

Here are some more specific thoughts, but SPOILER WARNING!

- Why was Pae's hair silver and Blair's lavender? Is this just some kind of quirky genetic mutation? It made Pae feel very manic-pixie-dream girl-esque in a bad way. Who else has an interesting hair colour???

- Do we really need Kai to be so moody? I just found his complaining a bit annoying to be honest. I know he has been through a lot, but come on. Maybe that's me nit-picking too much.

- Kai needs to stop saying 'darling' so much. It was cool the first time, but then it just got annoying and a bit creepy tbh.

- I think I would've viewed Kai as more original if we were introduced to him with his full name - Malakai - at the start. Kai Azer is too stereotypical for me not to make certain associations.

- Why was Kitt not concerned that both him and his brother were getting close with the same girl??? It was no secret so why were they both okay with this? Well, Kai got a bit jealous, but Kitt wasn't phased at all.

- The King had no redeeming features at all. I don't understand why he was so horrible. Even with his dying monologue, I felt he could've done with more character development than just 'he's a bad guy'.

- How old was Kai when he killed Pae's dad?? I thought Pae and Kai were similar ages - like three years apart MAX! How did Kai kill a fully grown man at like max eight years old??? Maybe I missed something, but that feels silly. Also, he would've known from the moment he met Pae that he killed her dad, so why did that reveal come so close to the end? It's not like he just forgot the first time he killed someone - we know he struggled with it!

- The first trial felt too close to the Hunger Games to be original, the second task felt too close to the Blood Rite from ACOSF, and the third trial felt too close to both the D&D movie (the panther mirroring? Clearly a displacer-beast reference) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There was some comfort in the familiarity I guess, but from all the hype around this book I expected there to be more innovative genre-bending reveals and events.

- The most interesting thing for me was that Kai can use other peoples' abilities. Kinda like Aang in ATLA. It was cool how he had to try and be proficient in them all, and how it allows him to sense who's near him.

- I have no idea how Pae survived after getting her foot ripped to shreds (I know it was healed after a while but still) and then all the damage that the King did to her. That 'O' is bound to get infected ASAP.

- Bro it's always the blonde ones please can we get some originality. Never trust a blonde man in these kind of books.

- The whole thing about Pae being thrown into the first trial in a skimpy tank was frustrating. The author had the chance to not sexualise her but alas, of course she was running around in next to no clothing.

- How different were the trials before Kai's one? Would it not be boring??

- Silencers are cool!

- Adena and Lenny are the best characters imo.

i want to read this so bad but i'm making myself wait for the third book to come out because i feel like this is one of those series i'm just going to want to read back-to-back-to-back

dnf @ 20%
cool hunger games-type premise/idea but hard focus on tropes.
def over-hyped by booktok.
can't get over the writing style. feels weird reading different first person perspectives but there's no variety across the POVs? also writing style is just too reminiscent of teen Wattpad to me.
no rating bc unfinished (i just can't do it).

okay.

this book is VERY YA. and i like reading YA books but the maturity levels that these characters have are just not working for me, and i'm only 23 years old. as always your mileage may vary but it wasn't working for me. if the best retort you can have against someone being a classist bigot to you is to say “well did growing up in the palace teach you how to be such a bitch” we are just not on the same wavelength i'm afraid.

the magic in this book was cool, but i'm somewhat picky about magic systems and this one was just a little too loose for me. it felt like different types of magic were popping up on every other page and they didn't feel planned, it felt like the abilities were just conveniently thrown in for whatever scene she was writing. especially since each ability had a name as a way to classify people – brawnies, blinks, veils, so on and so forth, but there are so many abilities mentioned just in the first 30% of the book that naming them individually seems a little silly. there's so many abilities that all the contestants for the trials – 10, leaving out paedyn – all have separate unique abilities. not a single one has crossover.

my main problem was kai and, to a lesser extent, kai and paedyn's relationship. let's just start with this: this is not enemies to lovers even though it absolutely SHOULD BE. as far as paedyn knows, kai's job (not his whole job but a big part of it) is to HUNT and KILL Ordinaries LIKE HERSELF. he's KNOWN to do this by pretty much everyone. whether he actually does it or not doesn't matter because, for all she knows, he does this regularly and without remorse. and yet from the moment they start spending extended time around each other it's all flirty banter and touching. she acknowledges what he is and what he does and it doesn't stop her from wanting him and she has no second-guessing or regrets about it.

i especially don't like how he acts towards her. pet names in general are a hit or miss for me and with kai they're definitely a miss. i can't really explain why, he just doesn't pull it off. besides that he's too arrogant for me to find him attractive and consent doesn't seem to matter unless it's convenient for him. he doesn't do anything as awful as assault her (to my knowledge) but he's just constantly crossing little boundaries and i really just can't stand it. the most egregious bit of this (and what made me dnf) was when the palace was being attacked and he was trying to get paedyn to leave. she refused because she wanted to stay and help but he said, and I'm quoting, “Then don't think I won't throw you over my damn shoulder and carry you out of here myself. Is that what you want?” obviously him threatening to take away her agency is SO sexy and it's even SEXIER when he actually does it and grabs her against her will and carries her even as she literally fights him off and tells him to let her go, which he ignores. so yeah. i do not like kai.

there was no point in going on with the book because obviously they're going to end up together regardless, which is even more annoying because this is the first time I've seen a love triangle set where i was actually rooting for the OTHER GUY to win. and it's obvious this book was going to pull another timeless iteration of “oh no don't go with the mature, well-adjusted guy who respects your boundaries and treats you well. you have to choose the hot bad boy who doesn't respect your boundaries or consent and is emotionally constipated and distant!!” and i just. cannot. 

annoyed at the plague being used in every single expression

loved it !! great story and character development, can't wait to start the next one

It’s like the author took The Hunger Games, mixed in some other YA dystopian and romantasy tropes, and made a book. Maybe I’ll get tired of it someday, but not today. 🤷🏻‍♀️😆

The book was fast-paced, and the constant tension kept me hooked—I couldn’t stop reading.

All the male characters (especially Kai) being arrogant and flirty all the time got a bit annoying, though.

Also, I didn’t realize this was a Young Adult book (which I’m definitely not); I was expecting more development in the romantic relationship—maybe even some spice—so I was a bit disappointed when it didn’t go there.

I really disliked how the protagonist immediately offered her help to a group of people she didn’t know, without asking any questions about their methods or considering the potential consequences for the two princes—who she was supposedly befriending.

Despite its flaws, it was very entertaining and addictive. I’ll keep reading the series.

Am I tripping or is this just a slight variation on the hunger games????

I couldn't make it past the "interviews."

I really tried but kept getting annoyed that the FMC wasn't Katniss and the MMC nowhere near as endearing as Peeta!

A little slow tbh

This was fine. Hunger Games with a king instead of a President like Hunger Games was The Running Man with a President instead of a game show host.

3,80

A very gripping story. I really liked it. Of course, parts of it is tooo similar to The Hunger Games, but nonetheless, I am very much invested in this series now. Also, I wish that the book had ended on a more positive note instead of leaving the reader so tense and worried. 

Ahh Where do I begin... This is the most enjoyable romantacy book I ever read in ages it was perfect. The world build, the characters's development, the story it was just a masterpiece, not gonna lie it was a long book for sure and at the first 30% or 50% I was not sure if I liked it enough to finish it but after the first trial my mind changed completely
I may say that Paedyn Gray is my all time favorite fmc she is gorgeous and powerful
Kai Azer the man you are I fell in love with every word he says
⭐⭐⭐/5 ( this was before I gave it another shot and it didn't land the way it the the first time )

I had to force myself through this because I refused to DNF it. But there are just so many plot holes and the dialogue/writing style just weren't for me. Although this is typically the kind of thing I enjoy, I just couldn't get into this book. 

Kerajaan Ilya hanya untuk individu yang Luar Biasa, yang istimewa, kuat, para elit. Kekuatan yang istimewa yang dimiliki oleh para elit ini diperoleh dari Wabah, namun tidak semua beruntung untuk bertahan hidup dari wabah dan memperoleh kekuatan setelahnya. Mereka yang terlahir biasa, hanyalah orang biasa. Ketika sang Raja menetapakan keputusan bahwa mereka yang biasa dibuang/diasingkan, untuk menjaga keberadaan para elit, tidak memiliki kekuatan tertentu adalah kejahatan, membuat Phaedyn Gray seorang kriminal karena takdir dan pencuri untuk bertahan hidup.
Tinggal di wilayah kumuh bukanlah hal yang mudah. Dilatih oleh ayahnya sejak kecil untuk sangat jeli, Phaedyn berpura-pura memiliki kemampuan sebagai cenayang agar bisa membaur di dalam kota yang penuh dengan kaum elit.
Ketika secara tidak sengaja Phaedyn menyelamatkan salah satu Pangeran Ilya, dia terpaksa mengikuti Ritual Pembersihan (Purging Trial). Kompetisi brutal untuk memamerkan kekuatan para elit, yang justru tidak dimiliki Phaedyn.
Satu hal penting yang merupakan inti buku ini, bahwa Phaedyn tidak memiliki kekuatan seperti kaum elit, hanya orang biasa, walau dia cermat dan jeli, kurang bisa dipercaya bahwa orang-orang terpenting seperti Raja dan para pangeran bisa menerima cerita Phaedyn begitu saja.
Ada beberapa dialog dan informasi, yang menurutku tidak begitu perlu untuk dipanjang-panjangkan ataupun diulang. Apabila hal-hal yang aku maksud tidak ada, pembuka seri ini bisa dipersingkat halamannya, tidak harus mencapai 520 halaman. Belum lagi trope “I want to kill you but I intrigue by you” dimainkan oleh Phae dan Kai. Atau fakta bahwa Kai adalah Pangeran, Kai adalah Penegak Hukum Raja masa depan.
Namun aku akan tetap memberi kesempatan dan membaca buku keduanya.

If I wasn't listening to the audio book of this I don't think I would have been able to finish. It gets 3 stars because in some aspects yes it was its own story but in other I feel that it was way to close to the hunger games. I may try the rest of the series but I think I'm going to listen to powerful before I decided if I'm going to buy or not.

It was an easy listen. Side note - the narrators for the audiobook are so good!

I don't know that I've ever read a book that repeats itself quite as much as this one, not just repeating sentences/scenes from other PoVs, it repeats character thoughts and actions in the same scene too.

Powerless is an amalgamation of many popular Fantasy YA books and I feel like you can tell which ones the author pulled the ideas from as they happen, it's an odd feeling to be bludgeoned by tropes. I feel as though the author needed a good editor and a couple of revisions and it otherwise would've been a fairly standard YA fantasy/romance.

Not sure why so many booktubers/booktokers have recommended this as it's not particularly unusual in plot or characters, nor unique in prose. However, my understanding is that this is a young author, and their first book, so I'm hopeful that a future book may be better.

Big YA mashup. We get Hunger games +divergent+ maze runner (+ some selection) and you get this book.

The romance was top notch tho. The enemies to lovers was done perfectly .

The plot of this book can barely hold it together, but oh was this a fun read. It's exactly what I needed, easy and fun.

actually enjoyed it more than i thought i would
not great but not bad
its just Ok
the fantasy aspect is found wanting and the romance wasn't great. i think this book was marketed as enemies to lovers but they were never really enemies... also kitt is better than kai anyway i fucking hate men full of themselves altho they both are kitt is less so lmfao pain

DNF at 30%. Felt like a mashup of many of the popular YA books of the last decade or so. Some elements seemed to be directly taken(with no subtlety whatsoever) from books like The Hunger Games, The Selection, Red Queen and Divergent.
There seemed to be no real reason for most of what was happening or had happened, the universe didn't seem well thought out and I did not care for any of the characters. Some of the scenes felt like they were almost copied and pasted from other books.
This story and these characters felt unoriginal and like it had no heart and no soul.
I was excited for this story but after 30% it gave me nothing much and I decided to DNF it to respect my own time.

I admit Kai had me blushing too much, I felt anxious. However, feeling the rush of that would not even compare to the tremor I felt all the those times they were talking and getting too close on the trials. I MEAN, there were sights all over the place??? I might read the next one because I'm curious what Kitt would do to Pae. If not gobble. I was not ready for a love triangle, but let's go!

3.5