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Illusive - Emily Lloyd-Jones

As the blurb suggests, this was the perfect blend of Ocean’s Eleven style thievery with X-Men style characters. To me, this book felt very similar to Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, but with slightly stronger characters. I enjoyed the criminal parts of this book, but I didn’t feel like we got a very balanced view of the world or the various sides of the conflict. We get alternating points of view, but never enough details or insight for me to feel close to any of the characters. Worse than the character connection is the insight we are given into the overarching society--it is basically nonexistent. The societal tidbits we do get feel outdated and very often totally out of place.

The different reactions to the vaccine and the powers resulting from it were highly creative, and although we do see some of the ramifications of these powers in the every day lives of those affected, I wanted to know more. Magnus is the best example of this, but I find it very hard to believe that he is the only person in the entire world who struggles to cope with the burden that has been placed upon his shoulders.

Overall this was a fairly good read with some unmet potential. My main issue with the book comes from the fact that we just aren’t given enough insight into the characters and the world around them, making the story feel very two dimensional and leaving the reader uninvested in the ultimate fates of the characters. I’ll probably pick up the next book in the series of I come across it at the library, but I won’t be buying it.