This was A VERY GOOD BOOK. My
grade for it is 9/10. 90%. A.
It was good; it could have been
better. Let me break it down for you:
This book was like a text version
of a comic book. It was wonderful. I enjoyed every second of it. It is a gritty
story and worth the new-price I paid for it. You need to know that it reads
like a comic book world going in. It will make more sense if you digest it that
way. Don’t think of it as exactly our
world.
I would classify this book as a
New Adult book. I know there is a lot of bitching from the publishing industry
saying that NA can only be about Romance and directed at girls about 17-20somethings.
But they are wrong. This is a New Adult book. Not for teens. Not necessarily
for adults. It is about two college-aged boys (who do grow up later on in the
story, but the focus is on new adults, really). This is what the industry
should be backing when they talk about New Adult. Books like this. A book that
uses the f-bomb and deals with mature content YET ISN’T ABOUT SEX – a book
teens would like but one that college-goers would MOST IDENTIFY WITH. The
target gender of this book could go either way – boy or girl. The main
characters are two boys, yet there are two very interesting female characters.
I would summarize the book like
this: Two college boys – Victor and Eli – figure out what it takes to give a human
superpowers: near death experiences. They both (basically) commit suicide with
the other person around so that they can be resuscitated and have powers. They
are, essentially, superhumans – what Schwab calls “ExtraOrdinaries.” The second
half of the book is actually better than the first. The first is a bit hard to
accept because the way Schwab explains the boys’ interest in EOs is not necessarily
logical. But, you know, it’s that whole comic
book as a novel thing. Also, another problem with the first half is that
Eli is a religious nut that later wants to kill all EOs because he thinks God
wants him too.
This brings me to how the book
could have been better. Eli thinks that because his power is one that keeps him
immortal (and ageless) – an introverted power
– that god is OK with him being an EO. See, before he committed quasi-suicide
he asked God to, I guess, “bless” what he’s about to do. But then when Victor
accidentally kills his girlfriend when he is going through his own EO change he
suddenly thinks all EOs need to die – and that God wants it that way. This is
what I had the biggest problem with. The story could have been better if, for
example, Eli had the conception of “God creates monsters to kill monsters.”
Because then Eli’s personal perception of himself would have been more logical;
his vendetta against EOs would have made more sense. But that’s not what you
get from the novel.
Really, he has no reason to hate
EOs. He only has a reason to hate Victor – the one person who killed his girlfriend. If Schwab wanted me to feel
sorry for Eli/to sympathize with Eli (which would have made for a better book,
because who doesn’t love feeling sorry for the villains) then she should have
made his reasoning better. He really just came off as a psycho nut job, which
didn’t give Victor someone really cool to fight against (not that he doesn’t
have someone cool to fight in the book – the character Serena is amazing. I
love her. She’s perfect in every structural way, but she rests on the shoulders
of Eli who just is NOT strong as a foundational character). It is because of
Eli’s poor character development that the whole book barely makes it to my A grade status. But thankfully, Schwab really
pulls it together in the end. Victor is a redeemable character, but there are
no real good guys. Exactly what I like in a novel!
The lowdown: Though this is an A
book and worth the read, I’m debating on whether or not it changed my life. I
will definitely read the sequel if there is one (please let there be one!).
