One of the perks of my job is ARCs (Advance Reader's Copies) come into the store. I had mentioned to my friend at work that I was excited for this one and had even preordered a personalized signed copy. So when I walked into work and found the ARC in my locker I was very excited, she saw it come in and snagged it for me.
I will try not to be too spoilerish because the book isn't out yet and not knowing certain things is important.
But I want to share some thoughts. Something Adam does here is he writes the dialogue the way teens talk. Something with YA books is yes the characters are young but sometimes they act very adult and sometimes they are clearly young and speak and act like they are and that is like the "real world". In the real world people of all ages are capable of different levels of maturity and speaking the way teens of the day speak isn't the best reflection of how mature a person is.
There is something very important about this book, Emil is a gay young man and is very comfortable with his sexuality as is his family, he has a loving support system and knows he’s lucky. There is an easy use of all pronouns for each character including they/them. I love the way Adam makes his characters feel real and validates their lives. I thinks it’s time for more characters of color and more characters who are members of the LGBTQ community to be magical and heroic and the stars of the story. All kids, all teens, should be able to see themselves in their stories. And white and straight kids need to be exposed to more diverse characters the stories they read. Normalized shouldn’t be Cis gender white males, it should a rainbow of people across all spectrums.
So this particular story, the first in the Infinity Cycle and a departure from Adam's previous books. It's a magical fantasy story. Something that comes through is the love you can tell the author has for works from his younger days, there is a bit of an ode to stories like Harry Potter and X-Men here.
Twin brothers Emil and Brighton live in NYC in a time where some people have powers and others don't. Among those who don't there are some who acquire power in less than honorable ways. The brothers wish they were a magical team but when their 18th birthday comes and nothing has manifested they have resigned themselves to not being super heroes. Brighton really wants powers and he fan boys those who have them. He is trying to make a name for himself as an internet celebrity. I will admit he irritates me and I blame a lot of what happens on him and his greedy desire.
Overall I really liked this book and am looking forward to seeing where the next installment takes us.
There is tension and questions of ends justifying the means. There is the beginning to looking into what makes a villain and what makes a hero, the shades of gray and the things people do to each other in their quest to be or to feel powerful and part of something.
And Emil, he is a sweet young man who is comfortable with his sexuality but not his body and it is an interesting character. I liked him and felt for him and wanted him to be happy and succeed.
I think I am risking saying too much if I say more so I will just say that this is a solid first outing. It is worth noting that this is a different approach to world building for a series than I have encountered before. The story starts and the world is fleshed out a little bit here and there. Adam talks to the reader as if they are in a world they are already a part of so there aren't huge pauses in narrative to explain back story and history, it all flows.
As I touched on before, there are different ways of voicing YA books/characters. Here it is in the first person and the teenagers sound like teenagers from this time period, the present. It doesn't distract from the story but it can at times make an older reader and lover of YA books feel old. It isn't a problem and I still really liked the book and story.
(Finished January 2, 2020)
No comments:
Post a Comment