Reason for Reading:
- My dad actually came to me with the name of this book and told me I should pick it up.
Summary from GoodReads:
My name is Michael Vey, and the story I’m about to tell you is strange. Very strange. It’s my story.
To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is an ordinary fourteen-year-old. In fact, the only thing that seems to set him apart is the fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome. But Michael is anything but ordinary. Michael has special powers. Electric powers.
Michael thinks he’s unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor also has special powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up this way, but their investigation brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric children – and through them the world. Michael will have to rely on his wits, powers, and friends if he’s to survive.
My Review:
I’m going to split my review up into two completely opposite views. Because I both loved this book, and there were parts that made me roll my eyes a little bit, even while I understand what the author was trying to do.
What I loved:
- I loved that Michael Vey was a sort of outcast and that his “sidekick” friend was insanely smart.
- I loved that Michael Vey has Tourette’s and that the book attempts to educate younger readers about the disease.
- I loved the explanation behind the electricity phenomenon.
- I loved the adventure, the reasoning, the clear good/evil, the message on bullying, peer pressure and doing what’s right.
- I loved the pace of the book. It was perfect.
Here is what I didn’t like (and it’s a shorter list, but it’s still there):
- I didn’t like that Michael had Tourette’s. (Explanation to follow)
That’s it. So, you may have noticed that one of my “didn’t like’s” (the only one!) was also one of my loves. There’s a reason for that.
When a character has a disease or abnormality or handicap, I appreciate it quite a bit when the author doesn’t use that as a tool to promote the story, to bring it to the attention to the audience, but instead, portrays the character realistically. You might say that’s a silly thing to expect in a science fiction or fantasy book, but really – it’s not.
Recently I read Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier. His main character was blind. But instead of using the blindness merely as a tool, Auxier worked with the blindness – I never once forgot that Peter was blind. Contrast that with Michael who, quite often, I would forget had Tourette’s. Because it was a tool used by Evans to sell the story.
Does that mean I don’t appreciate what he’s trying to do? Of course not. I do appreciate it, I just wish he’d done more with it. I should not have been surprised when, at certain scenes, the Tourette’s would flare up. By the time I was three-fourths of the way through the book it should have been a common enough occurrence that I wouldn’t have batted an eye at it. But it surprised me, even that far into the book and that tells me that there was something lacking in the translation from a “Character who has Tourette’s” to a “Character who is afflicted with Tourette’s”. I’m not sure really even that afflicted is the right word to use there, but it should have been something that I knew Michael had, and something that I would have come to accept as normal for Michael. But instead, it still felt strange and alien to me when I closed the book.
I’m hoping this changes as the series progresses and Richard Paul Evans finds his footing with Michael – his “most exciting character” as he proclaims on the books jacket. I’m sure I’ll pick up the next book, hoping to see it improve – but if it doesn’t, I’m afraid it’ll just end up being another series that let me down.
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