Advance Review of Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan & Deborah Biancotti's Zeroes
Release Date: September 29th, 2015
Synopsis as found Amazon.com:
X-Men meets Heroes when New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti to create a sizzling new series filled with action and adventure.
Don’t call them heroes.
But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart.
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 recue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. 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.
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A group of teenagers find a connection in each other, forming a ragtag team of kids with super powers. Each of them has a unique power different from the other, but all of them were born in the same year. They don't know where their powers come from, even though there is a bit of speculation, but they have formed a team to learn how to control them. They don't wear lycra uniforms with capes & they aren't superheroes, so they call themselves the Zeroes.
The story begins with the group having been split up after a falling out they had the summer before, but the moment one of them finds themselves in need of help, they all band together to rescue him. I mentioned before each of them has a different superpower, but they also have given themselves codenames that coincide with their ability:
Bellwether (which means "the one who takes the lead") is their leader. It is a running joke that they call him Glorious Leader throughout the book. He has the power of persuasion, but like most of the team, his power only works best when there are more than 6 people. He needs an audience to perform and more than once it is said that he is going to end up a politician some day.
Crash is the only team member whose power does not work on people. She has the ability to destroy any electronic item. She hears the sounds that every little piece of machinery makes and more often than not, gets a headache from all of the background noise.
Flicker was born blind. She discovered her powers while her twin sister read to her, which she did every night. She has the power to see through anyone's eyes. At first they thought it was some kind of twin magic, but then she started to see through the eyes of people she didn't even know. Her power works best when there is a group of people, because she can jump from person to person and see every angle of a situation.
Anonymous is mostly a mystery. He is always there one minute and gone the next... that's because his power is for everyone around him to forget about his presence unless you are looking directly at him. If you begin to notice him, he can cut the strands of your focus. This power is one of the saddest, because he can't truly make friends when no one can remember he is there.
Scam is the focus of the story for quite a while in the beginning of the book. His power is always getting him in trouble and he is actually the reason the team broke up in the first place. He began to talk at the age of 2 spouting out complete sentences that made him sound like a genius. Sadly, that was only his other voice. He has his regular voice that betrays his emotions and he chooses what is said from it. Then there is his other voice... it is smooth and always knows what to say. If he wants something or is thinking about something, the other voice creepily says what it needs to to get it. It knows things it shouldn't, making him seem almost psychic sometimes. His power is the only one that works best 1 on 1.
Mob is the last member of the team. She isn't actually a member of the team, but her story intertwines with all the other characters, thus making her an intrical part of the book. Her powers have to do with the swaying of emotion in a crowd of people. It works best when there are more than 6 people. All the clubs in their town have a standing order to let her in for free, because when she is having a good time on the dance floor, everyone in the club is having a good time. On the reverse side, when she is sad or angry, she can cause people to become an angry mob.
I have read a lot of books about superheroes this year, but this one definitely has something new to add to the genre. It was exciting and beautifully written... but I love anything Scott Westerfeld writes.
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