I was really pleasantly surprised by this book. I'm kind of burnt out on YA titles these days, especially trilogies, but this is actually a pretty exceptional and well-written piece of YA fantasy.

Powered brings back memories of NBC's Heroes or even X-Men. One of the primary differences seems to be that in the Powered universe Heroes and 'Supers' have lived alongside humans for most of appreciable history and they have their own society and civilization that humans seem to know about, but don't try to penetrate. This really doesn't come into play a whole lot in the book, I just found it to be a unique piece of world building.

Maci isn't the most likable character that you're ever going to find in the annals of literature, but I did find her to be relatable and her feelings to be representative (enough) of teenagers.

Unlike other recent YA fantasy/dystopian trilogies the love story in Powered actually serves a purpose in the narrative more than just making Maci more relatable.

I also loved the absolutism found in the Super-society (blonde hair/blue eyes = good; dark hair = evil; Heroes don't have bad dreams, the twin thing, etc.) and the way that Maci and her allies must fight to overcome her own stigmas that society puts upon her.

All this being said, King City felt a little bit like the Capitol in The Hunger Games (with fewer dystopian elements) and Pepper seemed to be almost a photo-copy of Cinna. Neither of these things detract from the story though.

I'm looking forward to the next one. ( )

As someone who wrote a series of superhero novels and another standalone superhero novel, I'm always interested in reading the competition. So I eagerly volunteered to read an advanced copy of this book. On the whole I really enjoyed it.

The biggest strength I think is that the author creates a unique world for the characters. In this world there are a bunch of "supers" (ie superhumans) most of whom live in "Central" in the Grand Canyon. The supers have a sort of caste system. There are the Heroes who do all the superheroic stuff like fighting villains and then there are the Retrievers. I didn't fully understand the Retrievers but I take it they pretty much clean up the mess afterwards.

Maci Might is 16 years old, which means her powers have finally reached their full potential. She then undergoes the test to determine if she'll be a Hero or a Retriever. This doesn't go quite as well as she hoped. From there Maci's life continues to unravel as she alienates her friends and family and has to take refuge in South Africa with a cute researcher named Evan. Probably too much time was spent on Maci and Evan hanging out before we get to the final showdown with the villain.

My main criticism is that I think the villain could have been stronger. Almost half the book goes by before we even find out who the villain is and then another quarter of the book goes by before the villain really becomes any kind of threat. Superhero stories are defined as much by the villain as the hero, like Batman vs. the Joker or Superman vs. Lex Luthor or the Scarlet Knight vs. the Black Dragoon.

The only other criticism would be that for what I presume is a YA book there's some gore in there that even made me cringe. The part where Maci suffers a severe head injury had me literally yelling, "Ewwwww, Gross!!!!" So it's probably not best suited for the younger end of the YA spectrum.

(One other technical note is people don't ride donkeys in the Grand Canyon. They ride mules, which are only half-donkey and half-horse. The stuffed mule I bought from the Grand Canyon gift shop wanted me to note that.)

Still, on the whole it's a brisk, fun read. And of course there's plenty of room for Maci's adventures to continue.

That is all. ( )