Zeroes, not Heroes.

That was fun.

In a nutshell, it’s the story of six American teenagers who discover they have superpowers. And fairly atypical ones too. A Voice that says exactly what needs to be said–for better or for worse. Being immediately forgotten. Crashing electronics all around you. Controlling mobs. Leadership (somehow different from mobs). Seeing through others’ eyes.

Maybe Flicker’s power made her think differently than most people. She saw the world from so many perspectives, and seeing was half of enlightenment.

What I like most perhaps was the entire idea of the title: “Zeroes, not Heroes”. They’re not superheroes. Perhaps they’re playing at one day becoming heroes, but for now, they live their lives and happen to have powers. Until of course… those powers keep getting them into more and more trouble.

The plot that ensues… is chaotic, but believable enough. It’s mostly a ‘how do we fix this’, which works for this sort of story. I was intrigued to see there are sequels. I’m curious where the story goes where ’everything is collapsing around us’ isn’t quite the driving force. Or perhaps they’ll just have to find some new troubles.

The other bit I particularly enjoyed was varied the cast was, especially with the points of view from each. The Zeroes are from all over: roots from eLatin America, Nigeria, Russia, and France. One is blind (who of course has the vision powers to offset that; that’s … a bit weird), one is wrestling with the idea they might be schizophrenic. It’s an ensemble cast done well.

Her parents didn’t understand that braille meant big clunky books that marked you as different, while audiobooks live invisibly on your phone and text-to-speech gave you the whole damn internet.

The characters, for better or for worse, certainly feel human.

The sight of Ethan - of Scam, since this was a mission - sent a trickle of annoyance down Crash’s spine. Not like all the little itches of tech, just the ever-present need to punch him in the face.

Yeah. I get that. But that makes it all the more believable. It’s hard to pull off a series with an unlikable protagonist, but spreading it across a number of characters–who call them out no less–certainly helps.

Overall, it’s pretty solid. Give it a try. I’ll have to check out those sequels.

Side note: I listened to this book. I had to look up Thibault’s name… which honestly really works well. 😄