Book Review: Powerless by Lauren Roberts

‘Powerless’ by Lauren Roberts was published in 2023. It is the first book in a series with the same name and consists of ‘Powerless’ (2023), ‘Reckless’ (2024) and ‘Fearless’ which was published earlier this month. There is also a novella that accompanies this series called ‘Powerful’, (2024) which follows a side character from the first book, Adena, amidst the events of the first chunk of ‘Powerless’, between her appearances in the main narrative.

The world-building for this book piqued my interest, exploring the idea of supernatural abilities coming forward in the fallout of a devastating plague. The gene mutation amidst the plague rendered the strong, stronger, the fast, even faster, and endless possibilities for people in the kingdom. This strange change in the population and their abilities meant the royal family had to force a divide quickly, to ensure their position of power was secure, rendering anyone who didn’t naturally develop a power, an Ordinary, and thus, a diseased member of the community, that could and would reduce the power of those in their proximity, like a leech.

Years later, we are introduced to Paedyn Grey, a homeless girl, living in the slums of Loot Alley among other starving, desperate people. Except there is something strange about Paedyn, unlike most people in Ilya, she was not blessed with a supernatural ability, making her an Ordinary, and destined to be executed.

I was excited to finally get around to reading this book, due to its beloved status among readers on BookTok, however, I will admit that I was not as taken with the series as other readers seem to have been. I attributed a lot of these struggles to the idea of suspension of disbelief and my lack of immersion within the world and its politics. I felt very detached from the story, and struggled to be swept away by the storytelling.

While I appreciated the pacing and characters’ struggles during the story, I struggled to find a reason to actively care about the main characters, Paedyn and Kai, and the struggles the pair were undergoing during The Purging Trials.

I also struggled to resonate with their illicit romance, where knives to the throat were commonplace, and sparring appeared to be a form of flirting. I felt that it lacked the tension, and intensity that I had gone into these books expecting. Instead, I found myself detached from Paedyn’s plights, and struggled to relate to her.

While I acknowledge that this book has evidently received a great amount of praise and critical acclaim, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Instead, I actively considered DNF-ing the book at multiple points in the story. I do think it could be a fun entryway into fantasy or romantasy as a genre, but I felt like my expectations were not met with this book. I, therefore, will not be continuing to read the remaining books in the series with the same vigor at this time.

Although I would not recommend ‘Powerless’, that doesn’t mean the book is inherently bad, and while I am not the biggest fan of the series thus far, I am aware that as the plot thickens, I may become more invested in the lives etc. of the characters. In fact, with a pitch that compares it to ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Red Queen’, it could be the recipe for your next favourite book. It just, unfortunately, wasn’t mine, and even then, that may change.