Review: Zenith

Author; Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings

Publisher; Harlequin Teen

Genres; YA Science Fiction

Pages; 534

Rating; 2.5/5 stars

Synopsis;

“Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she’s just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.

But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder‘s all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi’s past.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a ruthless ruler waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time to exact revenge for the destruction of her people. The pieces of her deadly plan are about to fall into place, unleashing a plot that will tear Mirabel in two.

Andi and her crew embark on a dangerous, soul-testing journey that could restore order to their shipor just as easily start a war that will devour worlds. As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.”

What. A. Mess. The biggest disappointment of this book was not the characters or the writing. No, it was what the story could have been. The elements were all there and yet somehow this story ended up as a massive pile of parts that don’t match.

I was rolling my eyes over and over at the beginning of the story because it was poorly written and didn’t give enough insight into the characters. Andi comes off as a murderous criminal with no heart. Starting off a story with a ton of false advertising isn’t a smart move… just saying. She at least turned out to be a not completely terrible character but no one else was developed. Let me actually restate that from a more critical standpoint. Nothing in this book was developed. The characters, the world, the relationships. Don’t even get me started on Andi’s crew because WHAT THE HECK. Andi was developed because she’s the protagonists and the authors clearly favor her but everyone else hardly seem to exist. Lira hardly get’s a spot light and could have been such an interesting side character. Then there’s Gilly and… what’s her name? Breck? I think that’s right. They weren’t even people. The only thing I know about Gilly is that she’s a small ginger thirteen year old who likes guns and I know nothing about Breck. I’m not sure who had the genius idea to have a character with literally no character but they did. Sigh. Then there were the two main male characters; Valen and Dex. I don’t know a single thing about either of these dudes that’s important to the story or equates to them being at all realistic.

Since there are so many characters in the book there were also a million point of views that we jumped between. This didn’t bother me until I was reading the very end of the book where there was huge battle scene. It seemed like every other page I was reading about the same event from another point of view which was so hard to follow and just annoying!

The writing in this book was just as much of a mess as the characters. The two author’s individuals styles clashed and things felt stiff and awkward. The way the figurative language was written made descriptions uncomfortable and unimportant details get shoved into my face tirelessly. I can’t tell you how many times they descirbed Dex’s strong tattooed arms or Andi’s white & purple hair because it was SO MANY TIMES. Plus the writing bled into the dialogue that was so forced. I could never imagine two people having a conversation like these characters did because nothing felt natural about it.

Then there’s the world. This book may come with a beautiful map of the galaxy where it takes place but the one thing it doesn’t have is word building. Apparently people bleed GREEN? Some people have webbed feet? What the heck is moonchew? There are so many things in this universe that aren’t developed and fleshed out at all which makes reading so confusing. The first time Dex bled green blood I had to do a double take because this had never been mentioned before and it was never explained. But later in the story people were bleeding other colors and the entire time I was so confused. You can’t do stuff like that in a story and act like it’s normal. Also “moonchew” has been bothering me so much. My mind screams that it’s a moon pie ( I love moon pies) but it seems like it’s some sort of drug. Maybe.

This book is a big mess of what could have been and what should have been. It missed marks and fell short of things that shouldn’t be new concepts like world building. This duology could get better, I’m trying to have some sort of faith in what this story could become but now whenever I see this book I just a sigh and feel disappointed.