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Bright Decay
It’s a dangerous world, whether you have power or not.
Everyone knows there’s something off about Skylar, including herself. She wades through high school being normal, but ever since the disappearance of her only friend, her life spirals out of control. Humans with uncommon abilities live closer than she thinks.
Skylar wants nothing to do with the government-sponsored superheroes that inhabit her world, yet a near-death experience makes her one of them: she can stop time with a thought. The entire world, frozen in stasis, can become her playground.
In the city of Duskim, she has to adjust to her new reality. Her powerful ability can’t save her from past regrets, though it attracts the attention of all kinds. If she wants a rank among the heroes, she must stop the resurfaced terrorists threatening to burn down everything she knew.
She may be powerful. She may be powerless. Who is she when it matters the most?
Everyone knows there’s something off about Skylar, including herself. She wades through high school being normal, but ever since the disappearance of her only friend, her life spirals out of control. Humans with uncommon abilities live closer than she thinks.
Skylar wants nothing to do with the government-sponsored superheroes that inhabit her world, yet a near-death experience makes her one of them: she can stop time with a thought. The entire world, frozen in stasis, can become her playground.
In the city of Duskim, she has to adjust to her new reality. Her powerful ability can’t save her from past regrets, though it attracts the attention of all kinds. If she wants a rank among the heroes, she must stop the resurfaced terrorists threatening to burn down everything she knew.
She may be powerful. She may be powerless. Who is she when it matters the most?
332 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 16, 2019
7 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 14, 2019
I am disappointed in this I wanted to like this so much, it was interesting but the book I read was far from finished and needs a lot more editing and revisions/drafts, I think it would be good but at the moment it’s just not there, sorry
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
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April 25, 2019I've marked this book as "read" because Goodreads only allows you to move a book from "Currently Reading" into "Read" or "To Read", not anywhere else. This is the first time in my life I have ever stopped reading a book entirely and just given up on it. I will not finish reading this.
I don't want to say anything overly mean or negative, because it's clear that this was a self-published book by a non-native English speaker who did not have it edited or even proofread. It is, quite frankly, unreadable and should most likely not have been released in this state. The fact that it often shifts between grammatical tenses multiple times within the same paragraph, sometimes even within the same sentence, really should have driven me off much sooner than it did.
Ultimately, it's my own fault for not looking more carefully at what I was about to start on.
I don't want to say anything overly mean or negative, because it's clear that this was a self-published book by a non-native English speaker who did not have it edited or even proofread. It is, quite frankly, unreadable and should most likely not have been released in this state. The fact that it often shifts between grammatical tenses multiple times within the same paragraph, sometimes even within the same sentence, really should have driven me off much sooner than it did.
Ultimately, it's my own fault for not looking more carefully at what I was about to start on.
August 7, 2019
⏳⏳ BOOK REVIEW ⏳⏳
I found this book really interesting and really frustrating 🙈
The storyline concept is great, superheroes, villains, aliens and the destruction that comes with those relationships. However, the story itself was quite jumpy, it was full of conversation but sometimes I had no idea who was talking. It was just ok for me. I don’t think I’ll read the next two, it has so much promise and could be a really enjoyable and exciting read but it was clunky and just lacked something for me.
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Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to access this early.
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I found this book really interesting and really frustrating 🙈
The storyline concept is great, superheroes, villains, aliens and the destruction that comes with those relationships. However, the story itself was quite jumpy, it was full of conversation but sometimes I had no idea who was talking. It was just ok for me. I don’t think I’ll read the next two, it has so much promise and could be a really enjoyable and exciting read but it was clunky and just lacked something for me.
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Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to access this early.
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October 15, 2019
Clearly self published by a person with a tenuous grasp on the craft, and indeed the language in general, at best.
August 8, 2019
This was a difficult one for me. I always say that I believe there is an audience for every book. This book has an interesting concept but is flawed in ways that made it unenjoyable for me to read.
There were some things that were good about this book and some things that made reading it more challenging. The young people in this book are referred to as “uncommon”. They have near-death experiences that give birth to a “superpower”, an idea that was initially written skillfully by V.E. Schwab in Vicious (Villains 1).
Some of the powers in this book are really imaginative: the ability to turn everything into gold and control it, tattoos that can be pulled off the skin and become real objects, blood that causes the time to speed up dramatically. The author did a good job of exploring the nature of a world in which superpowers exist. There is a complex structure set in place to attempt to wrangle the uncommons and within that, there is a social pecking order.
Skylar’s power is complex and I assume it will be further explained in future parts of this series. She is able to manipulate time. At first, all she is able to do is stop time around her. As she learns more about her abilities, she finds that she is able to control time in smaller pockets. She is able to freeze all but certain individuals in a crowd, she is able to age herself to heal herself, and her blood has some very interesting qualities.
The main character, Skylar, was difficult to connect to. I felt that she was very one-dimensional on the page. At times when I was expecting some kind of reaction from her…there was nothing. It’s generous to say that there is an asexual character in this book. The only time it is mentioned is when she is asked directly during an intake interview. Her sexual orientation is completely irrelevant to the plot (which is fine!) so I wouldn’t go into it looking for an asexual character you may identify with.
The author writes on Goodreads that the book has been recently edited. I read some other reviews and it sounds as though it has improved dramatically from its original release, however, there are still some cumbersome areas. There are still quite a few grammatical challenges that pulled me out of the story. There were a few points at which I had to back up and re-read and was still left confused by what was supposed to be happening. The last 50 or so pages of the book was a real challenge to read. It was choppy and disconnected and I felt as though there were some paragraphs missing altogether.
There were some things that were good about this book and some things that made reading it more challenging. The young people in this book are referred to as “uncommon”. They have near-death experiences that give birth to a “superpower”, an idea that was initially written skillfully by V.E. Schwab in Vicious (Villains 1).
Some of the powers in this book are really imaginative: the ability to turn everything into gold and control it, tattoos that can be pulled off the skin and become real objects, blood that causes the time to speed up dramatically. The author did a good job of exploring the nature of a world in which superpowers exist. There is a complex structure set in place to attempt to wrangle the uncommons and within that, there is a social pecking order.
Skylar’s power is complex and I assume it will be further explained in future parts of this series. She is able to manipulate time. At first, all she is able to do is stop time around her. As she learns more about her abilities, she finds that she is able to control time in smaller pockets. She is able to freeze all but certain individuals in a crowd, she is able to age herself to heal herself, and her blood has some very interesting qualities.
The main character, Skylar, was difficult to connect to. I felt that she was very one-dimensional on the page. At times when I was expecting some kind of reaction from her…there was nothing. It’s generous to say that there is an asexual character in this book. The only time it is mentioned is when she is asked directly during an intake interview. Her sexual orientation is completely irrelevant to the plot (which is fine!) so I wouldn’t go into it looking for an asexual character you may identify with.
The author writes on Goodreads that the book has been recently edited. I read some other reviews and it sounds as though it has improved dramatically from its original release, however, there are still some cumbersome areas. There are still quite a few grammatical challenges that pulled me out of the story. There were a few points at which I had to back up and re-read and was still left confused by what was supposed to be happening. The last 50 or so pages of the book was a real challenge to read. It was choppy and disconnected and I felt as though there were some paragraphs missing altogether.
July 30, 2019
3.5/5 stars.
I'm a bit conflicted on how many stars to rate this. I'm more inclined to give the first half of this book 3 stars, but the rest of the book feels more like 4 stars to me. Maybe I'll figure it out as I type out this review.
So Bright Decay is the first in a YA Sci-Fi trilogy. We're brought into a world where everyday people can develop uncommon abilities. Basically super-powered humans walk among the rest of the normal population. Some of these people live out in the open, while others prefer to be concealed. We get introduced to Skylar, who pretty much wants nothing to do with powers and everything else related to them. Unfortunately for her she gets involved in a near-death experience and guess what? She thinks she developed a power! This gave me some major VE Schwab Villains vibes because of the whole nearly dying thing, but hey it works! So now we have Skylar, who wanted to avoid super-powered anything, as she gets into this new world of hers.
As I said before, the beginning of this was rough for me. I had a hard time connecting with Skylar, and I was able to guess how things were going to go. I didn't feel like there was anything to keep me in the world, but it was still interesting enough for me to keep reading. I luckily found the second half to be much better. I enjoyed Skylar a bit more, even though she still hasn't quite won me over. The other characters we get introduced to as we delve into the super-powered world were also interesting as well. While a lot of it felt cliche, the second half moved much better than the first. I also noticed that this book was cut down a bit in terms of page length, so I believed that helped out the book.
Overall, this is a Sci-Fi book that I personally don't think stands out enough. While it has great moments and leaves an open path for the sequel, I still consider the first half to be a bit lackluster. If I was to reread this, I'd skim over the first half and go straight to the second. This would probably be one to hold off on for a bit if you're unsure. However, if you're a total Sci-Fi junkie (which I totally am not btw), this may be worth checking out.
I'm a bit conflicted on how many stars to rate this. I'm more inclined to give the first half of this book 3 stars, but the rest of the book feels more like 4 stars to me. Maybe I'll figure it out as I type out this review.
So Bright Decay is the first in a YA Sci-Fi trilogy. We're brought into a world where everyday people can develop uncommon abilities. Basically super-powered humans walk among the rest of the normal population. Some of these people live out in the open, while others prefer to be concealed. We get introduced to Skylar, who pretty much wants nothing to do with powers and everything else related to them. Unfortunately for her she gets involved in a near-death experience and guess what? She thinks she developed a power! This gave me some major VE Schwab Villains vibes because of the whole nearly dying thing, but hey it works! So now we have Skylar, who wanted to avoid super-powered anything, as she gets into this new world of hers.
As I said before, the beginning of this was rough for me. I had a hard time connecting with Skylar, and I was able to guess how things were going to go. I didn't feel like there was anything to keep me in the world, but it was still interesting enough for me to keep reading. I luckily found the second half to be much better. I enjoyed Skylar a bit more, even though she still hasn't quite won me over. The other characters we get introduced to as we delve into the super-powered world were also interesting as well. While a lot of it felt cliche, the second half moved much better than the first. I also noticed that this book was cut down a bit in terms of page length, so I believed that helped out the book.
Overall, this is a Sci-Fi book that I personally don't think stands out enough. While it has great moments and leaves an open path for the sequel, I still consider the first half to be a bit lackluster. If I was to reread this, I'd skim over the first half and go straight to the second. This would probably be one to hold off on for a bit if you're unsure. However, if you're a total Sci-Fi junkie (which I totally am not btw), this may be worth checking out.
August 18, 2019
This a book you want to like. You want it to be good and it is...sort of. If you can get past the sometimes clumpy and confusing plot devices which hamper the stories progression.
The main character Skylar was likeable and very well written.
This has the makings of such a good read, all it needs is a real good edit and look at the plot devices and obviously some of the grammar (which is to be expected for an ARC)
The main character Skylar was likeable and very well written.
This has the makings of such a good read, all it needs is a real good edit and look at the plot devices and obviously some of the grammar (which is to be expected for an ARC)
September 22, 2019
I enjoyed writing it, and I hope others will enjoy reading it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews