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ellementary's reviews
171 reviews
Illusive, Volume 1 by Emily Lloyd-Jones
1.0
Ugh, you can't say things like it's X-Men meets Ocean's Eleven and not follow through on that. You get me all excited and leave me so unsatisfied. I realize the job of the marketing department is to say things like this to get you to buy the book because that is their job but, damn, it's one of my biggest pet peeves. I cannot stand it when the book doesn't deliver on the promise.
So, yeah, it had super powers. And heists. And cons. But, that's about it on the similarities... It lacked the depth and ambition of X-Men. It lacked the wit and charm of Ocean's Eleven. It lacked a whole lot of things when you get down to it. The book follows a rag tag band of criminals who use their powers to their advantage and try to avoid run ins with government officials who are none to keen about their being differently able. They attempt to find the formula for the vaccination that birthed these super abilities. It had all the promise of a good story, but it never happened. If the characters don't pop, the book is a flop (for me at least).
Ciere, our protagonist, is a borderline unlikable sort of anti-hero that goes around constantly mucking everything up. She's hard to sympathize with. Add a dash of throw away supporting characters, dismal character development, shoddy world building, and unmemorable dialogue... voila a two star review is born! It gets an extra star because I enjoyed Devon as a character and, yeah, I definitely appreciated that the author didn't try to fix them up in some horrid love triangle (as is so common in YA these days).
All in all, like I said, unsatisfying. Unmemorable. Disappointing. I think I was hoping for a different book. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations? I feel like when you bill a book as a cross between X-Men and Ocean's Eleven you're inviting the comparison and the book just never took off for me.
So, yeah, it had super powers. And heists. And cons. But, that's about it on the similarities... It lacked the depth and ambition of X-Men. It lacked the wit and charm of Ocean's Eleven. It lacked a whole lot of things when you get down to it. The book follows a rag tag band of criminals who use their powers to their advantage and try to avoid run ins with government officials who are none to keen about their being differently able. They attempt to find the formula for the vaccination that birthed these super abilities. It had all the promise of a good story, but it never happened. If the characters don't pop, the book is a flop (for me at least).
Ciere, our protagonist, is a borderline unlikable sort of anti-hero that goes around constantly mucking everything up. She's hard to sympathize with. Add a dash of throw away supporting characters, dismal character development, shoddy world building, and unmemorable dialogue... voila a two star review is born! It gets an extra star because I enjoyed Devon as a character and, yeah, I definitely appreciated that the author didn't try to fix them up in some horrid love triangle (as is so common in YA these days).
All in all, like I said, unsatisfying. Unmemorable. Disappointing. I think I was hoping for a different book. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations? I feel like when you bill a book as a cross between X-Men and Ocean's Eleven you're inviting the comparison and the book just never took off for me.