Powerless writing and and an unoriginal plot

“For every girl who has ever felt powerless”  is it bad to say the dedication was my favorite part of this book...

Hi, I am back again with another novel that I did not particularly enjoy. 

*Minor spoilers, but no major plot spoilers”

Powerless written by Lauren Roberts is about a girl named Paedyn who lives in the slums as a thief in the Kingdom of Ilya ruled by “Elites” who possess fantastical powers. Anyone who does not have powers, “Ordinary’s” are hunted down and killed if they are found living in the Kingdom. The main character is one of these Ordinary's, using her skills of reading peoples body language to pose as a Psychic and hide among the Elites. However, after she unknowingly saves one of the princes of Ilya, Kai, she is picked to participate in a game that demonstrates the Elites powers called the Purging Trials. Paedyn spends the rest of the book trying to survive the trials and hide her identity as an Ordinary, while also uncovering secrets about her Kingdom and fighting her feelings for the broody prince Kai Azer. 

Powerless is one of those books that has been getting so much publicity and popularity lately so when I received it as a Christmas gift I was really excited to start reading it. Although enemies to lovers fantasy novels with a morally grey MMC is a genre that is so overused, I still enjoy reading them. So, when I heard about Powerless I was sure I would like it. Unfortunately this book majorly failed to reach my expectations (This may be slightly my fault for having such high expectations to begin with. but I had heard so many good reviews!!) There were definitely aspects of the book that I enjoyed, however they were overshadowed by the frustrating writing, the telling and not showing, and the amount that Powerless fully COPIES from other popular YA books. (more on this later)

(NOTE: I know that this is a debut novel so do not take my criticisms too seriously.I just personally feel like this book should have gotten a lot more editing before being released.)

Anyways, let's get into my thoughts on Powerless starting with what I did like.

• One part of this book that I actually really did enjoy was the ending. For the sake of not revealing any major plot spoilers I am just going to say that there is a pretty big plot twist at the end and honestly I was genuinely surprised. I feel like often with YA novels, like this one, I can totally predict the plot twist before it even occurs but this book definitely took me by surprise which I really enjoyed.

• Another thing I enjoyed was Adena’s character. I really loved Adena and she was probably my favorite character in the book. Honestly, just skip reading Powerless and read Adena’s novela Powerfull instead it is SOOOO much better.

• Overall this book was decently entertaining. Powerless was able to keep my attention enough that I chose to finish it. Although most scenes were painfully cringeworthy there were still some cute moments between the main characters. I definitely think I would have rated it much higher if it were not for the fact that the storyline blatantly steals from many other books. 

Okay now for the things I did not like. 

• Starting off with a big one, this book has some of the worst worldbuilding yet. If you have been following along with my other blog posts you will know that I find the world building in The Selection so nonsensical. I am very disappointed to say this book’s world building might be worse. The main plot in the book is the main character- “im not like the other girls” both literally and figuratively because I have super shiny rare silver hair that is mentioned on basically every single page -Paedyn Gray trying to survive the Purging Trials. I may just be incredibly confused but in my opinion these trials make NO SENSE. The main goal of the king is supposedly strengthening the Elite system and getting rid of Ordinarys. So, putting some of the most powerful members of the Elite, including the king's own son, through trials where they might die for seemingly no purpose does not make sense logistically. 

• I already started to discuss this in my last point but another aspect of this book that was extremely irritating was the generic characters. 

The female main character Paedyn could rival America Singer (From The Selection) in terms of how annoying she is and how insistent the author is at writing her as being different from everyone else. If I got a dollar every time her eXtReMeLy RaRe SiLVeR hair, or stark blue eyes were mentioned I would be rich. On top of that, almost every scene she has with Kai the love interest and MMC involves her holding a knife to his throat. It gets so repetitive.

“Shes gripping my shirt and shoving me against the wall. Her free hand finds the dagger strapped to my hip and slips it out, settling the sharp blade against my throat.” Page 96

Then we have Male Main Character (and of course love interest) Kai Azer. For a guy that is constantly advertised as being a morally grey assassin for the king he is one of the softest characters in the story. In his POV he constantly describes himself as dark and horrible but, throughout the novel we barely see him kill anyone!! It felt like almost every chapter was telling readers that Kai was dark and mysterious but there was nothing actually showing us these characteristics throughout the entire story. (Besides maybe the very end.) 

Also, readers are constantly told that Kai hides his emotions behind many masks. This is a common trope in tall and broody love interest characters but I find it so annoying. In my opinion these “masks” are just an excuse to enforce the very misogynistic concept in our society that men are not supposed to show their emotions. 

“His mask clings to his face like a second skin, and when his gaze meets mine, I take a slow breath.” Page 177

• By the way, yes, unfortunately this book is written in dual POV. I personally really dislike dual POV’s so I am slightly biased but, I know some people really enjoy it. However, regardless of my overall dislike of dual POV’s I felt like it did not work within the context of Powerless. The book is set up to be a love triangle between the two princes of Ilya and Paedyn. However, only one of the princes gets a POV making it clear to the readers who the main love interest is going to be. (yes, I know that Kitt gets a POV in the second book, but it is so minor and I think my point still stands.) This leads to the love triangle feeling pointless. 

• Another thing that really bothered me about this was how poorly it was advertised. This book was strongly advertised as being a slow burn enemies to lovers and frankly it just wasn’t. The main characters almost immediately have feelings for one another or at least some sort of attraction. This is how Paedyn describes Kai at their FIRST interaction

“I’m suddenly, acutely aware of every place he’s touching me. His strong arms are still wrapped around my waist and half holding me up, though his gaze feels like a caress in and of itself” Page 29

On top of that the enemies to lovers was nonexistent. I just do not think that hating someone, (who you clearly have a crush on and who you are constantly noting how unbelievably attractive they are.) for about five minutes before deciding to be allies counts as enemies to lovers. (sorry not sorry Paedyn) 

• Finally the main reason I dislike this book and a huge part of why I rated it so low is the obvious copying of various other YA books. For some context let me give you a quick summary of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (Note: I have not read this book yet but i got this information from multiple online summaries of Red Queen)

Red Queen written by Victoria Aveyard is about a girl named Mare who lives in the poverty stricken Stilts as a thief in a Kingdom where Silver Elites possess superpowers. Anyone who does not have power is a Red or a commoner. The main character is a Red and through a turn of events she ends up at the palace stuck in a love triangle between the two princes of the Kingdom. She then spends the rest of the book trying to hide her Red blood secret while also uncovering secrets about her Kingdom and trying to fight her feelings for the princes.

Sounds familiar, right? Although Red Queen is the most obvious example of Powerless copying other books. Powerless also takes very similar plot elements from books like The Hunger Games and the aforementioned The Selection. 

If you want to learn more about Powerless’s plagiarism accusations check out this link: https://editority.com/blog-post-copy-or-coincidence-the-striking-similarities-between-powerless-and-red-queen/ 

Overall, although the book was mildly interesting and there were some parts that I found enjoyable, I did not like this book because of its poor writing and unoriginal plot. 

• Written by Julia