Nikki

I really enjoyed this book, I went into it without seeing any of the complaints and criticisms of it, and now seeing it I feel like a lot of the complaints are people who just want to create reasons for why they disliked it.

Yes, the romance book had smut, fork found in kitchen. Why are you picking up a dystopian romance and being disturbed by there being on page sex?

Also a weird complaint that people had: the worry over who is behind the pen name. That's been a common publishing occurrence since the start of book marketing (even before that, honestly) why are you sleuthing out who it could be? If it's a concern regarding the politics of the author then don't read it? Drawing more attention to the book with your detective deducing will only drive more sales.

The criticisms around dubious consent due to the position of power Cross had over Wren is valid. I have read far more egregious depictions of dub con, so maybe I'm desensitized, and while maybe the author could've leaned even more into the FMC saying it directly to the MMC, there was, I feel, enough of an acknowledgement of the disparity and the relationship overall didn't feel pushed onto her.

I feel like the complaints regarding it not being dystopian, that it uses the dystopian backdrop while not carrying themes, are largely people being gatekeep-y about a genre they like. I do want to see the author explore the politics of this world and dig deeper on the overall goals of each side of this conflict more; although I am happy with the amount given in this first book, it didn't drown in exposition. It's shown that while the Primes are monstrous and bigoted, the uprising may not be as easy to root for as was originally presented so hopefully the sequel expands on it, and I think it will. Which I guess in and of itself will be problematic to some as there may be a desire for a black and white Oppressor/Subjugated dynamic, with less grey, especially as it is depicting a genocide of the Mods.

Overall, I was compelled with the world building and entertained by the storytelling, and that's what matters to me.

This got me out of a multi month reading slump, super enjoyable. The FMC felt like her age, and I feel acted in a way that was understandable even when I, as the reader, was screaming for her to not do something. I saw the twist coming but that was more to do with my experience with the common structure/plot twists of romantasy than the story beating a dead horse and being overtly obvious.

I don't know that I've ever read a book that repeats itself quite as much as this one, not just repeating sentences/scenes from other PoVs, it repeats character thoughts and actions in the same scene too.

Powerless is an amalgamation of many popular Fantasy YA books and I feel like you can tell which ones the author pulled the ideas from as they happen, it's an odd feeling to be bludgeoned by tropes. I feel as though the author needed a good editor and a couple of revisions and it otherwise would've been a fairly standard YA fantasy/romance.

Not sure why so many booktubers/booktokers have recommended this as it's not particularly unusual in plot or characters, nor unique in prose. However, my understanding is that this is a young author, and their first book, so I'm hopeful that a future book may be better.

Two stars, only because I saw potential in it, but boy was it disappointing.

Basically a miscommunication trope into kidnapping and SA, with no groveling and an entirely unsatisfying wrap-up.