Overtaken

Overpowered #2

by Mark H. Kruger

Nica struggles to decipher the nefarious forces ruling her small town in this electrifying sequel to Overpowered, which VOYA says "offers all the conspiracy and intrigue of the best dystopian fiction."

After the mysterious pulses changed Nica Ashley’s life forever, she was sure things could only get worse when Dana Fox returned. Her reappearance after having gone missing for months surely means not only that Nica will lose her friendship with Jackson, but also that something more ominous is simmering under the surface of quiet Barrington.

When another pulse occurs, Nica discovers that she can be invisible at any time. She tries to talk to her friends about how bizarre things have become, but they all seem to have no idea what she is talking about. Nica soon realizes that Dana has a strange control over the whole town, including her undercover, government-agent father.

Now on her own, Nica must stop BarTech from using her and her friends as weapons. But can she figure out their ultimate plan before it is too late?

Genres: Young Adult

416 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2015

About the author

Mark H. Kruger was born in New York City and grew up in Long Island, where he spent much of his misbegotten youth watching scary movies and reading Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson and Charles Dickens. These days, he is a film and TV writer specializing in edge-of-your-seat thrillers and suspense. He has written and produced for The 4400 and Necessary Roughness and has worked with filmmakers Wes Craven, Clive Barker and Bill Condon. He lives in Los Angeles.

OVERPOWERED, his debut novel, will be published by Simon & Schuster in August 2013.

Reviews

[LilyCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope.

I was super excited about this book, because I really liked Overpowered. However, this book simply didn't deliver the thrills and action of its predecessor.

First off, the plot. Overpowered is predictable to a certain extent, but Overtaken is incredibly predictable, and I had pretty much the whole book figured out before it even happened. Dana was super suspicious from the first time we meet her, and it's pretty obvious she's in league with Bar Tech and has some mind power thing. Well, there's like, no good guys who can do mind control, except Cinder, I guess. So there was that. There's a functional reason for Dana's fate, though: she, as Jackson's former girlfriend, gets between Jica/Nackson, the romance between Jackson and Nica the author had built up. To make it look like Jackson might actually end up with Dana, the author did some half-arsed "heel-face turn" to make Chase (an egotistical snitch to his Bartech CEO papa in the first book) into an actually decent person and love interest to Nica, which was pretty obviously not going to happen. That's kind of adding insult to injury there.

And then the villains Chase's dad and Dana go all mustache twirly: "We will take over the world! Sell the mutant teenagers! Muahahhha!"



Also, the whole thing about Blackthorne and the creepy dude who is stalking Nica? It's 99 percent a red herring. And the ending? FREAKING WHY IS IT A DUOLOGY!? It was so terribly done. There's an explosion... and people die... but then Nica talks with her parents and friends and they have a kumbaya moment... and then what? Nothing. 'Cuz it's a duology. There are just so many loose ends and no feeling of conclusion at all.

The action scenes were kind of hard to understand. The action in the first book was minimal, but now, with a bazillion kids with superpowers, things get really crazy, and I felt like I was in more of a low budget action flick than a book. Seriously, it was like Michael Bay was directing this thing. Kid with superpowers! Explosion! A flying bus! Explosion! People running places! Explosion! More running! Explosion!

Also, the characters gradually became unlikeable and unrealistic. Dana started out like a real person, but she turned into some guy-stealing conniving backstabber who just wanted to make Nica's life miserable for no reason. Jackson became a cold jerk, Oliver became an irritating guy with daddy issues wrapped around Dana's finger. And Nica herself becomes a jealous Mary Sue who's so mad at *the perfect popular girl.* Chase had the opposite problem. His heel-face turn into a nice, actually good person bugged me, especially because he was so mean to Maya in the first book. It just didn't seem realistic he'd change that fast. Maya was the only character I liked, especially when she goes all Carrie and blows up the school.

So yeah. Read it if you want to know what happens, but don't expect anything as good as the first book.

[Samantha Rojewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling sequel to Overpowered! It kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting more! An unbelievable and action-packed climax that left my mouth hanging open in shock. Overpowered and Overtaken are a brilliant duo with a perfect mix of romance, struggles between making the right decision, exciting action, and a huge mystery! There is much to unravel, but is concluded with a beautiful ending.

[Kate Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.

[Elzbeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good two-book series. It's original, fast-paced and witty. But my complaint in this book is the same as my one from the first book. Could we PLEASE get our hormones under control? She needs to be saving the world, but all Nica can think about is which boy she wants to be with and how to explain to her friend that she's not dating her ex-boyfriend. I get it, you're in love with all the boys and they're in love with you, but Nica really needs to get her head out of the clouds and start saving the world.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Kruger's first novel (Overpowered) was a bit like The Stepford Wives mixed with Footloose. His second book is like The Stepford Wives with a Carrie-like denouement. And that's okay with me.