It Gets Both Worse :( and Better :) Long Review

I have binged all four of these books, and have written a review on three. This past book has some of the similar critiques of the last two, only they are more problematic in this one. This book has more teenage "bedroom" stuff than the other three combined. It is almost as if the author has a fetish for mid-teen "action". It was almost to the point in this book that I quit reading because it sooooooo obfuscates some of the greater points about the story. I mean, how many times can you use the phrase or its equivalent "Hugo felt it in his loins". But the worst part about it is it minimizes what has made the series so great. Which is the diversity and inclusion of characters. It turns the other teenage girls into Hugo's harem, and makes them into one dimensional "mean girls" or "weak girls" but all the girls fawn and seek Hugo's bedroom prowess. So simultaneously you empower diverse POCs and sexual orientation via superhuman representation, then you diminish it via gender marginalization. This occurs also with the adult characters (Connie, Annie, Therese's one-dimensionality, etc.). The editors should catch this.

Also in this book there were a lot of "come on man" twists, which shall not be revealed to avoid spoilers. One twist is M. Night Shyamalan "I see dead people great" the rest was M. Night Shyamalan, "The village" terrible.

One twists was related to Quin's relationship and her coming to terms with her bi-sexuality. Ekeke did a great job with this long arc over time, making it feel organic. Yet, Ekeke near ruins it with one twist, near the end of this book.

So why then do I say this book gets better? The superhero fights are fantastic on pretty much all fronts, especially the penultimate fight. This book Ekeke really out does themself in that department. Outside of "the bedroom stuff" Ekeke also does a good job in Hugo's evolution as a hero. I am still scratching my head at Grayson's arc, which is really irrational on many fronts, but I see what Ekeke is trying to do with his long arc. I just wish it was a little more practical. So in total I downgraded this book from my 5 & 4 star ratings of the first three to only 3 stars for this one.

4 people found this helpful

A step down from earlier books in the series.

While still a book about heroic action and sleazy villains, the interesting mysteries and clever, descriptive storytelling takes a back seat in this book to excessive action scenes and repetitive romance scenes that rarely add anything interesting to the story itself.

Indeed, even the author seems to periodically get bored with his own storytelling and just jump in time without warning or explanation. Instead, characters will just start confusingly referencing events that happened in a time jump and after a while the author will give a quick recap of what was missed. If you like to be told stories via quick recap instead of descriptive scenes, then I guess that's fine. But, at least a few of the time skipped scenes seem more interesting than the story that wasn't skipped, and I am left wishing the story was written in a more interesting, less distracting manner.

However, the performance of the three voice actors is top notch, and they do a great job making the story as interesting as it can possibly be...given the writing they have to work with.

3 people found this helpful

Great Read!!!

Amazing story! I can't wait until book 5 comes out! C.C Ekeke is a great author.

3 people found this helpful

can't wait for the next

great follow-up in a great series ..some excellent transition between stories and great fight scenes

2 people found this helpful

I'm begging you!

PLEASE GET A NEW FEMALE VOICE ACTOR!!! No offense meant but her voice may very well be the most obnoxious sound I've ever heard in my life.

1 person found this helpful

Too much sexual content

Could go without the teen sexual references
At least move from teen section over to adult

1 person found this helpful

Getting worse in a lot of ways.

Hugo has always been a bit of an #sshole but he's pretty much just a dramaqueen in this book. He creates situations of tension then shuts down about it everytime anyone mentions anything.

The mean girl harem gets extra meangirl and extra harem, basically every female character's importance is reduced to who they are banging, and how they can weaponuze sex against their enemies.

Grayson's story still straddles the line between boring and annoying.

I'm basically at the end of my patience with this series but I've invested so much time into it that not finishing seems wrong at this point.

1 person found this helpful

very good story, bad female narrator

loved the story as always and both men narrators are great, but the female narrator has one accent type to all the veriety of accetns presented in the book. its a bit racist and annoying hearing her take on the accents

good but

the story is great honestly I get that's its a young adult book but the superhero aspect and story lone is well just awesome. my only gripe is the Quinn story in my opinion I get she's the puzzle solver but a lot of her seems forced I find myself skipping over her storyline and not missing a beat in the story as a whole.

Even better than the earlier books

If you made it this far, you already know how enjoyable this series is! I have the next book cued up and ready to go!