1/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The main character, Jay, ran into some bullies on his way to an old friend’s party. The friend who invited Jay to the party had been distant and aloof for a while until she suddenly gave Jay a ticket to her party. The bullies stole his ticket. He tried getting it back but it didn’t work. So he continued to the party. Once there, he debated turning back but decided to continue.
He pushed his way through the guards and ran to the person who was hosting the party, and one of the friends with her started beating him up. He fell unconscious. When he woke up, he was healed and he was with the person who had invited him to the party.
It was revealed to Jay that his friend (the person hosting the party) was actually a godly being and she invited him to be part of the System. He and some other teens got their classes. He chose the Freak class and got a gravity affinity. A side effect of the Freak class is that the people who have it are so closely intertwined with their affinity that they slowly become insane. It was a 50/50 chance that they would become evil. After he chose the Freak class, Jay for some reason got glowing purple irises and black sclerae instead of normal eyes.
The characters went through a dungeon, defeating evil toy monsters. They acquired a toy monster that the main character was determined to get out of the dungeon because he determined that it was his new toy.
The characters fought their way through the dungeon, then at the final boss, the toy monster they adopted dealt the final blow to the last boss.
The main character broke the rules because of his gravity Freak class (he somehow talked to the defeated dungeon core and received the core’s power), and ended up being able to take the monster toy out of the dungeon.
The monster toy was transformed into a faerie with the dungeon core’s power, and was the main character’s familiar.
When the characters exited the dungeon, they were detained by government military men. Then their god friend found out and proceeded to go on a rampage and destroy a lot of equipment.
The admins of the System were displeased by what the main character did, so they wanted him killed. His god friend convinced them to not kill him, and that he was only acting that way because he was enamored with her. So they reached an agreement that if he renounced his attraction to her, he would be left alone. He said no way, the god friend then issued a challenge to him that if he failed it, he’d have to renounce his attraction to her.
The main character completed the challenges.
Then the main character and his god friend talked with his mother. Then there was a neighborhood potluck. The potluck was crashed by a local gang. And then they were attacked by assassins and the main character’s mother fell into a sinkhole, and died.
But then during a random point of view shift to a military commander, it was revealed that the main character’s mother was alive, and had freaky magic that let her control the commander.
And then the main character beheaded the military commander and the book ended.
Review
I liked how unique the main character’s powers were. I thought it was interesting that he could sense the emotional weight, the emotional gravity, people were carrying around. I was not sure how his gravity powers could tell him the gravity of certain decisions, conversations, or words, or how he could see the emotional weight people were carrying around, but it was interesting.
But…this book was really weird.
The book didn’t feel like a story. It felt like a random amalgamation of characters. The first part with the dungeon felt like a story. The characters had a goal they were going toward, and they had to struggle to reach that goal. But then the story fell apart into random events that didn’t seem connected. To give the author credit, he did mention early on in the book that the characters would be in danger from assassins, and that is what happened at the end of the book, but it just felt disconnected from the story.
The characters were very cliquey in the beginning. It was annoying and further reinforced the childish feel. I believe the characters were all in high school still, so the cliquey behavior certainly fit with their age, but I felt like it detracted from the story.
Honestly, the part with the system admins bargaining with the main character’s god friend on whether or not she should kill him was so weird, I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t think it made much sense. I honestly don’t know what the plot of this book was.
There were several random different point of view shifts that were annoying and took away from the story. I think it would have been better to not bother with changing the point of view. Especially during a fight. I was reading, trying to figure out what the main character was doing, but then there was a random point of view shift. A lot of the time, the point of view shift would switch to someone who could watch the main character fight. Then it would go back to the main character. It would have been better if it was all from one perspective, especially the fight scenes. When the author switched characters right in the middle of the fight scene, all of the built up tension was destroyed.
The book was described as a comedy, but I didn’t feel like it was a comedy. The “jokes” fell flat or were crass. I didn’t find the main character to be funny at all, even though he frequently described himself as a joker, as the comedic relief. His version of comedic relief was to irritate their group leader until the leader muttered things like “kill me now.”
The main character’s obsession with his god friend was a little disturbing to me. And sad. She told him multiple times that she was way over his league, that she far surpassed him in power, etc. He still pursued her constantly. He even went into an agreement with her that if he completed her test she would have to date him. Coercion is romantic, I guess? As a result of the test, the main character’s eye was burned out, and the god friend replaced it, but then the main character’s familiar permanently scarred the god character over her eye because of…justice? Prevention of tyranny? Once again, that part didn’t make any sense to me. The guy deserved it in my opinion because he kept pursuing her even after she told him to stop. I’m guessing the author wanted that scene to be a powerful, symbolic…something, but I don’t know what the point of it was. The book went on to say that it was a good thing that happened to both of them because it prevented the god friend from becoming a tyrannical monster years down the road. How? Why? What was it all supposed to mean?!
Frequently through the book, the main character was described as whimsical. He followed his whims, and so therefore he was whimsical? The word whims is defined as a sudden desire or change of mind. So yes, the main character definitely followed his whims. But whimsical is defined as playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing or amusing way. No, that definition of whimsical didn’t fit the main character. Maybe the author was going for the other definition of whimsical, which is acting or behaving in a capricious manner? In that case, yes, the main character fit that definition. But he would also use whimsy to describe the main character, which is defined as playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor. Once again, I don’t think that word fit the main character. Because he was not playful or humorous. He was annoying and had a tenuous grip on sanity.
I was really confused about the characters’ ages. They were described as teens, but the main character would frequently drink rum throughout the book. The book was set in the USA, so the main character can’t legally obtain alcohol until 21 years of age. But I think he’s 17 or 18 in the book? I was not really sure. At the end of the book the author said that his mother gave him the rum early in his teen years, so I guess he got it from her. I don’t even know what the point of him drinking was. He was even drinking in the middle of the dungeon as they were trying to fight their way through. His teammates kept asking him if it was a good idea to drink in the dungeon. He said it was to keep him “loose,” but it didn’t make any sense to me. If you were in an area that required your full concentration to survive, why would you want to impair yourself with alcohol? It would have been better if the author removed the alcohol completely from the book.
I don’t know how the mom got magic because I started skimming the book at around the 80% mark because it was just not interesting. The plot of the book didn’t make any sense. I don’t know what the goal of the book was. The characters were in the dungeon from the beginning of the book to the 50% mark. I felt like that was either an excessive amount of time, or the book should have ended then. The dungeon was fine; it was interesting enough, but it was bizarre. The characters had to work together toward a common goal, and grow as individuals and as a team. The boss fight was intense, and would have served as a fine way to end the book. Instead, it was at the 50% mark, and the rest of the book was meaningless fluff. In my opinion, what the author should have done was either end the book after the characters left the dungeon, or made the time in the dungeon shorter and had the characters have a goal throughout the rest of the book that they were working towards. Then have a bigger climax than the dungeon boss fight.
Fireheart Books 