Review: Blackout by Robison Wells

Title:  Blackout
Author: Robison  Wells

Publisher:  HarperTeen
Publishing Date: October 1st 2013

Pages: 432
Genre:  YA Sci-Fi Thirller

Series: Blackout #1
Source: Audio

  

Laura and Alec are trained terrorists.

Jack and Aubrey are high school students.

There was no reason for them to ever meet.

But now, a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible powers. And these four are about to find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.

I love stories about superpowers. It's the old feel of comic books for me. X-men, Fantastic Four, Justice League, and The Avengers that gets me all excited. All great superpower teams. For the longest time there weren't many books with the superhero feel. This book brings that back but with an end of the world edge. I loved the tone, the characters, and the story. It worked well together and left me wanting more. 

There was a virus, teens now have superpowers. Some are awesome, some are pretty much useless, but they are all considered dangerous. The government is locking testing every teen and locking those with the virus behind bars... until they need them. The government need these teens to track down and stop the super powered teen terrorist group. These terrorist are destroying the country... landmarks, tourist attractions, crowded buildings... anything to scare and destroy Americans. 

To be honest, I didn't have a high expectation of this book. There have been very few superpower books that I have enjoyed. For me, the tone was never right. There are a couple good ones and this one joined that club. 

The story was full of twists and turns, thrills and excitement, and even a bit of romance. The story starts off with the point of view of the terrorist and switches to other teens who are trying to escape the crazy government. I really liked the characters. There was a wide variety of them and they were each very unique and held their own. I liked every one of them, even the bad guys It was difficult at the beginning to see who the prominent character would be and how the characters would eventually intertwine, but it all worked out in the end with a couple of pretty awesome prominent characters.... which were Aubrey and Jack.  There story just begun and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. 

Aubrey was a great character. I loved her strength, her determination, and her loyalty. She had a very hard life. Her father was pretty much worthless and loved his beer more than his daughter. She had a best friend that was using her for her powers and before that really didn't have any friends, except Jack. Aubrey hit things head on. She didn't let circumstance determine her outcome. She made it all her own and on her own terms. 

Jack was pretty sweet, he loved Aubrey from afar for a very long time. Even though she had changed and not for the better, he still had hope. He knew the real Aubrey. When the right place and the right time threw him into Aubrey's path, he did everything right. He always seemed to be just what Aubrey needed. 

The romance between Aubrey and Jack was very sweet and though it seemed pretty quick they were friends for the past and they seemed to pick up where they left off pretty easily.They just seemed perfect for each other. Each with  good heart, strong will, and a ton of self preservation. Totally cute together. The romance didn't take center stage either. I actually enjoy books that have romance but as the secondary story. 

I really enjoyed the tone of the book. It wasn't totally gloomy but it had tons of desperation and decimation, it was definitely the feel I was looking for. It was a bit twisted in parts, some of teens were a bit demented and had a very strange idea of what was good and what was bad. I did get the good vs.evil feel and loved it. 

The story was pretty interesting. I would of loved a bit more background and more of my questions answered. This was definitely a build up story for more to come. The story seemed to focus on the character building and not so much the world building and I am really hoping to get more of that in the books to come. I can be patient too, because as much as I didn't get the why or the how I did get a lot of the who doing what. 

This book had non stop action and was full of suspense. Even though I didn't seem to get to far in the story I was completely entertained through out the book. The pacing was excellent, I didn't feel any section of the book dragged. I was pleased with the ending even if it didn't wrap anything up for me except that Aubrey and Jack had to make a choice and that they did. I am really excited to see the direction the next book takes. 

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was quite enjoyable.