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Zeroes (Zeroes, #1)

Scott Westerfeld,

Margo Lanagan

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Nov 30, 2017 Wealhtheow rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pocmaincharacters, fantasy, disabled-character, sci-fi, ya

Six teens born in 2000 grew up with lowkey superpowers, and eventually find each other. Ethan is squirrely little asshole who always knows the right thing to say in order to get what he wants. Kelsie can feel and direct groups, and loves spending her time in clubs, ramping up the excitement and joy of the dancers. Thibault is forgettable--even his own family can forget him. Chizara is needled by technology, and has the power to crash it...or fix it. And Riley is blind, but can see through anyone Six teens born in 2000 grew up with lowkey superpowers, and eventually find each other. Ethan is squirrely little asshole who always knows the right thing to say in order to get what he wants. Kelsie can feel and direct groups, and loves spending her time in clubs, ramping up the excitement and joy of the dancers. Thibault is forgettable--even his own family can forget him. Chizara is needled by technology, and has the power to crash it...or fix it. And Riley is blind, but can see through anyone's eyes. They are all harnessed together by Nate, who has the power of charisma, able to grab and control people's attention and even, to a certain extent, their emotions. When Ethan and Kelsie get mixed up in drug money and a bank heist gone wrong, it takes all of the group's powers to keep them alive.

One of the things I really liked about this was how thoughtful and innovative the powers were. No power is useful in every situation: Nate or Kelsie need crowds for their powers to work, being anonymous and forgotten is only useful sometimes, Chizara can only work new wired technology, sometimes words alone can't solve a problem, and Riley's power is entirely dependent on other sighted people being in her proximity. And every power has its upsides and its downs, and shapes the person with it in its own way. Ethan's special voice is so powerful that he didn't learn to talk for himself until he was a child, because the voice always just said whatever the adults around him wanted to hear. Kelsie is easily overwhelmed by the emotions of those around her, making prisons or hospitals an absolute nightmare. It's so easy for Nate to bend people to his will that it takes true effort for him not to be manipulative. etc. Also, I liked the variety of arcs the characters got. Chizara, for instance, gets kind of a classic superhero story of learning a new facet of her power and how to revel in instead of fear what she can do. Ethan cares about something enough to try to talk for himself. This is definitely a YA novel, in that two sets of people get crushes on each other. And there's a scary mobster in the background of all of this, driving the plot forward.

I'm glad Westerfeld is writing more sff (check out his other serieses, if you haven't already), and I look forward to the next book! ...more

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