Joint Review: Blackout by Robison Wells

by:  Robison Wells
published by:  HarperTeen
publish date:  October 1, 2013

Deadly attacks are sweeping across the country.  Alec and Laura are at the center of the violence, while in a small remote town, Aubrey and Jack feel sheltered from the turmoil.  But these four seemingly normal teenagers are about to find their lives connected in ways they could never have imagined--and one wrong step could trigger an explosion that ends it all.

The first third of this book is, in a word, confusing.  It's one of those books that drops the reader in the middle of the action with little to no explanation as to what is going on.  Sometimes, that's ok, and sometimes it's not.  In this case, it was almost not ok, but I stuck with it because I wanted to know what the deal was with these crazy teenagers.  I was bordering on giving up on this book because the beginning was so hard to figure out.

Basically, a bunch of teenagers have a virus that give them superhuman abilities, but all different kinds of abilities.  Think X-Men type teenagers running around.  Some of them have turned terrorist and are attacking the US, the reasoning behind this is never fully explained.  Because of these terrorists, all teenagers are being rounded up and tested.  The useful infected are being put to work by the US army to fight the terrorists.  

I ended up liking this book, but I think it should have been structured differently.  The story was good, but it wasn't set up right.  

I wish I could say I liked this book.  Unfortunately, it was a DNF for me.  I got  a 1/3 of the way through  and I still had no idea what was going on. I made it to the point where Autumn almost gave up on it.  I just couldn't bring myself to keep going.  I really found myself not caring about any of the kids.  I was disappointed because I really like Variant and Feedback.  I guess you can't win them all, right?

Review: Feedback by Robison Wells

Author: Robison Wells
Publisher: HarperTeen
Date of Publiation: October 2012

Benson Fisher escaped from Maxfield Academy’s deadly rules and brutal gangs.

Or so he thought.

But now Benson is trapped in a different kind of prison.

They are all pawns in the school’s twisted experiment, held captive and controlled by an unseen force. As he searches for answers, Benson discovers that Maxfield Academy’s plans are more sinister than anything he imagined—and they may be impossible to stop.

Let me start by saying, don't read this one if you haven't read the first book, Variant.  Feedback picks up right where Variant left off.  It often refers to things from the first book and it assumes you have the background already.  I enjoyed Variant, so I was looking forward to reading the second book.

This time around,  Benson finds himself outside of Maxfield Academy. He soon finds out that freedom hasn't really been attained and he is a hunted teen.  I liked the town outside of the school.  It was interesting meeting the human versions of the robot counterparts that Benson met in the first book.  The way they would zone out when they were linked with their duplicate was kind of creepy.  

I felt like this book was a little faster paced.  The story moves along pretty quickly.  Some of the questions I had from the first book were answered. However, the ending left me with a bunch more.  The ending was just strange and kind of unsatisfying.  I'm hoping the next book resolves it a bit more.  This is a good YA series and one I definitely think is worth reading.