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Powerless by Lauren Roberts
The Powerless Trilogy #1
First off, if you haven’t read Powerless yet or you loved this, this fantasy book review may not be for you.
I am honestly not trying to yuck anyone’s yum here but because this an honest book review by Booktrovert Reader. So this review is not raving of this popular BookTok book.
Powerless by Lauren Roberts started out strong for me and I was enjoying it. But then it just started to drag. Then I started to notice that I was skimming the book just to get somewhere in the plot. Then I noticed that I was starting to skim or avoid reading all together. Finally after the first trial, I decided to cut my losses and stop reading it. I haven’t decided if this will be a hard DNF or a soft DNF yet. I may try this again by listening on Audio. There are elements in this book that makes it fun and entertaining. I got as far as 50% into the book before I just decided to move on to other books. The book slump isn’t worth it.
⚠️⚠️Spoiler Warning!⚠️⚠️
Lets break it down why I didn’t like Powerless by Lauren Roberts that much.
Honestly, this could have been edited down to a shorter book
- Powerless by Lauren Roberts felt like it could have been shorter
- There is a lot of filler content and I lost interest in what was happening.
- I honestly feel for me, that if there wasn’t so much filler fluff that I would have enjoyed it better.
Not enough time with the world building
- Why are we doing the purge trials? I know it was used to demonstrate the powers of Elite, but what is it to gain? If the king wanted to preserve the superior bloodline of the Elites, why send them off to possibly die. The king also sent two of his children that could be heirs to the throne if something were to happen to Kitt. Why would he risk them like that?
- So many different random abilities are thrown at you throughout the story. There this power, that power and no real structure to the magic system. But I do like how Lauren set up how the abilities came into play. But that set up resulted in “the plague” as the curse word being used consistently
Slow or abrupt pacing
- Slow: There was no real action going on. There was a lot of conversation going on between Kai and Paedyn that you couldn’t even tell they were in a trial.
- They would be dancing, talking about their lives and where they came from. Really slow and not getting to the point.
- After each trial it’s all about Paedyn and Kai or Paedyn and Kitt talking and getting to know each other. It’s like we are all just hanging out.
- It took 190 pages to FINALLY, get to the trials. By then, I was struggling to even care.
- Abrupt: one moment we are in a ball, there was an attack, then next chapter Kai wakes up and is in the first trial. No full and solid transition into this.
- Paedyn was just ‘chosen’ to represent Loot for the trials. Like…how? How did people know who she is and why did they feel to select her? Yes, I know she saved Prince Kai, but is that it?
Why was Paedyn allowed to blatantly strap a knife to her thigh in front of other royals and her competitors?
- Sometimes I do feel that authors justify the FMC being this ‘tough’ ‘bad-A’ character by strapping a knife to their thigh.
- If she was forced against her will to be there, why allow someone to carry a knife to a public event like that?
Sequence of events made no sense
- Jumping into a hidden hole before an interview? Why? So Kai can rip her dress and throw her into and out of a hole?
- Why was Paedyn allowed to go back to Loot so many times? She wasn’t even really sneaking around. She was just allowed to leave. Wouldn’t that compromise the trials?
- Why so many balls?
Lot of talking and the severity of the purge trials wasn’t intense
- Paedyn didn’t even fight going into this competition. She just got in the carriage and that was it.
- You’re in it….”okay”. She didn’t fight the system. She just did it and just enjoyed the luxuries of the palace no problem. There was no struggle.
- There was a lot of jealousy in people’s relationships, catching chocolates in each other’s mouth, more balls, and flirting. Nothing exciting was really happening
- This plot is either centered around the love triangle between Kitt and Kai or Paedyn getting to know Kitt or Kai. I didn’t enjoy it, it made the plot really slow.
Too similar to the Hunger Games
- I recently read the book and the similarities were there. I know some people would say, it has its own unique perspective so it can’t be copying from the Hunger Games. I would beg the differ.
- Paedyn trains with knives but she shoots with an bow and arrow in the first trial
- The game was set in the woods
- Kai gets burned by fire
- Paedyn get really injured by another player and thank goodness and miracle healing balm is around
- There were wolves
- They were herded to the center because the game master *cough* I mean king decided to herd them for a better show for the audience.
- Another contestant was killed, Kai killed her and laid flowers on her grace
- Adena, who was Paedyn’s dearest friend, dies in the last trial by a branch impaling her. Just like Rue in The Hunger Games
- Look, I know there are no original ideas. I get that. But when I can starkly see similarities, it puts me off.
What is up with Rai with an obsession of fighting and torturing?
- One of the chapters started with him saying that the only way he is getting through the days to the next trail was through fighting and torturing. So random.
- If Rai had this amazing ability to sense powers and is also the one who kills ordinaries for his father.Should he have some experience with sensing when there is an ordinary around? Was he that starstruck by Paedyn to do the job he was trained to do since he was a kid?
In conclusion, I can see how this is a popular BookTok Romantasy book. Just wasn’t for me. I might just read the second book Reckless or attempt to reread the first book through Audiobook.
For now, I may just sell my copy of Powerless on PangoBooks and consider it read.
