The Flatliners meets X-Men

Usually, I don't read superhero books or sci fi stories because my smooth, wrinkle-free brain finds it hard to get into. But fortunately, with the aid of audiobook, I was able to immerse myself into this book.

Revenge. Drama. Homoerotic subtexts (*coughs* GAY!!). Sisterhood. Let's disregard the science and superhero stuff. Those aforementioned themes are more than enough to summon my basic ass into the story. I live for those kinds of tropes.

First, I wanna talk about the writing. At first, I must admit—it was quite pretentious. There were a lot of compound-complex sentences, elongated descriptions which I found quite hard to read. But as I went on, I get used to it especially when I went through the intense scenes. Those types of sentence dynamics helped me to stay at the edge of my seat.

In terms of plot, I think this book delivered what should it deliver. I could feel the beat of the plot points. The non-linear narration weaved the mysteries, back stories, and characterizations well, making me curious to read about each of the character's motivations and agencies. Well done! I enjoyed the timeline puzzle this book had to offer. Not only for the main characters, but also to the side characters (Syd, Serena, and even MITCH!)

Now for the characters: Victor and Eli were not likeable people in my opinion. Both of them fell into this gray spectrum of being a 'hero' and 'villain'. But of course, Eli was the worse one because he was portrayed as the villain of the story, even though it was consistently smacked in our faces that this boy 'is our hero'. I just felt that his motivation in killing those EOs are not that solid. I mean, his religious background was not enough to justify his hate (repulsion) to his Co-EOs. I was like, "Bitch, you want them dead because you know you can't die, so stop acting like a fucking Messiah, that the society needs."

I felt more attached to Sydney. Oh gosh, Sydney was so cute and charismatic and a dog lover. A soft girl who just wanted to be loved. And oh my gosh, Serena. That bitch! If I wanted to be an EO, I would like to have her power. She was such an amazing seductress, like Eli has been confused all the time why he couldn't kill her. With her soft voice, she could simply tell people what she wants. Like if she tells you to eat your shit, you would eat your shit.

Another issue that I have with this book is the lack of portrayal of the limitation of their ability. I hope this was explored in the sequel. So that's it? Eli's untouchable while Victor couldn't control other people's pain who were far from his sight? What about Sydney's ability? Aren't there limitations how many times she could only revive the dead?

Anyhoo, I've been rambling so much. I just wanna say that after reading this book, I felt shivers. Like as I am typing this review, I'm still thinking about the events that I've read. So despite this book's flaws, I decided to give this a solid five stars. Hell yeah! Good job, VE Schwab!