Book Review – ‘Zeroes’ by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

Whirlwind action from multiple perspectives!

Genre: Y/A, Paranormal

No. of pages: 546

From Goodreads:

Don’t call them heroes.

But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart. They can do stuff ordinary people can’t.

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.

Enter Nate, a.k.a. 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. And 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. 

‘Zeroes’ is such an amazing book! I loved it.

I was a little put off by the constant head-jumping. We’re treated to perspectives of all of the team members of the Zeroes team (and Mob); and while that usually annoys the heck out of me, the pacing and writing style of these three authors maintained my interest. It is the first example that I have read in a really long time of multiple POV’s that actually works.

Colourful, realistic and diverse characters. It was refreshing to explore the personalities and backstories (as well as personal relationships) of the cast as they slowly unfolded throughout the book. There was always something happening, and every event drove the plot forward. It was such an intricately and expertly woven plot I was never bored, though in some areas it did feel a little long.

I loved the mythology behind the power system of the teens abilities – how it boiled down to connection of some sort (or lack thereof). A brilliant take on superpowers. And how there is a downside to their abilities as well – every element of this book is fully developed and realised.

I was never quite sure where the story was going – the way it was written left you wandering if you were going to get thrown a curve ball or not. Great praise to the narrative to deliver such a tone of delicious uncertainty. Pacing is excellent – I was always eager to see what happened next – the alternate perspectives added to that tension, especially with many of the chapters ending on cliff-hangers.

The only reason I’m deducting a point from a perfect rating is because of the confusion I had about which character I was reading about – each with their own name and a superhero name – I had to keep reminding myself who was who. That, and the book was a little long, the extended internal monologues spaced some events too far apart. Although interesting, if boiled down more, the pacing in ‘Zeroes’ would have been supersonic.

Cute ending. Highly recommended. And can’t wait for the next in the series ‘Swarm’ due out next month.

Overall feeling: Tell all your friends – read this book!

© Casey Carlisle 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Casey Carlisle with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.