Review: Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

Published September 29th 2015

Don’t call them heroes.

But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart. They can do stuff ordinary people can’t.

Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He’s got a voice inside him that’ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t—like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days.

Enter Nate, a.k.a. Bellwether, the group’s “glorious leader.” After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the rescue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. And at the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.

Filled with high-stakes action and drama, Zeroes unites three powerhouse authors for the opening installment of a thrilling new series.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book but when I read the publisher’s description, I got really pumped. “Filled with high-stakes action and drama” really caught my attention. I shouldn’t have got my hopes high but I did. And I was left disappointed.
I really like the concept of this book and the writing was pretty good but what really got me was all the different perspectives and how long it took to set up each character. It jumped from character to character and nothing really set them apart so at times I forgot who’s perspective I was reading from. I felt like at least 200 pages of this book was introducing the characters. I personally think that the character’s perspectives should have been introduced like The Lunar Chronicles, a new perspective each book.
I was really overwhelmed with the info dumping for the first 200-ish pages as well. And because of that, I got a little bored.
Overall, this was a fun book and I did like it but it wasn’t one of my favorites. If you’re looking for a book with superheroes, I think this would a good one.