Our adventures take place in a slightly dystopian future, where some people can tap into extra parts in their brains and gain X-men-like powers. The people who have strong powers are called Greater-Thans, because they can access more than 10% of their brains at once. Your “integration” level is the percentage of your brain you can use. Normal people can only access 10% or less, so they are called Fractions, for a fraction of 10% (which doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever.) Powers include telekinesis, telepathy, flight, healing, bullet-bending, fire breathing and more!
(Greater-Thans and Fractions. Are we going to come across some Less-than-three’s as well? Too much math speak!)
Our main story deals with the fact that there is a drug called Destiny, which can turn someone into a Greater-Than. The powers that they acquire with the drug vary, but one that is always included seems to be self-healing, on the cellular level, which allows people to heal their diseases and “turn back time” on aging, theoretically staying young forever. Forever being as long as you keep taking the drug, which costs all of the dollars. Another downside of the drug is that the user eventually “Jokers,” or goes completely bat-shit insanse. With magic powers. (I’m sorry, with “sciency” powers.)
The majority of the population doesn’t know about this world of Greater-Thans and Jokers. The whole thing is kept on the down-low. Destiny is an expensive designer drug, and the Joker part is not listed as one of the side effects. It’s also made by THE BAD GUYS (dun dun DUN!) The drug is made by kidnapping young Potentials (people, usually young girls, who have the potential to become Greater-Thans) and doing something sciency and terrifying to extract the active ingredient. One of the girls who is kidnapped is young Nika Taylor.
The Good Guy Greater-Thans work at a place called the Obermeier Institute (OI) which is mainly a research facility for Greater-Thans and recruitment. They also are the unofficial Joker cops, who find the crazies and take them down. Our main characters, Mac, Diaz, Bach, and Elliott work at OI. Bach is the head honcho with an integration level of 72% and Mac and Diaz are both at 50%, all of which are super rare. Elliott is a normal geeky techy doctor who is not a Greater-Than at all. Shane is an ex-Navy SEAL who is recruited as a Potential (who may or may not be a special snowflake.) And Anna Taylor is Nika’s sister, who eventually is at OI to wait for them to rescue her sister.
I like Elliott. I want to hang out with him, go to a bar, play Cards Against Humanity with him. If I wasn’t listening to the audiobook, I might be tempted to skip everything but the Elliott scenes. (I picked up a copy of the book from the library so I could do just that…) He’s funny, and semi-normal. Relatable. I liked him a lot better when the male narrator was reading, though. The female narrator didn’t quite catch the same feel as the male. He lost some of his quirkiness and personality with her. And his story arc is adorable.
I just listened to another scene with Elliott and Diaz, and OMG I just want to cuddle them, they’re so adorable.
Mac and Shane, on the other hand, I’m not so in love with. They have incredible sex, and after that Shane is obsessed with Mac. It’s kind of pathetic. And Mac is convinced she did something with her fancy powers to make Shane feel that way. It can’t possibly be *her* that he’s into, just what her powers make him feel. In this, she has the self confidence the size of a flea. When Mac and Shane aren’t together or thinking about each other, they’re fine. When they’re focused on each other, it kind of sucks.
Bach is under a lot of pressure, both because he is 72% integrated and because he’s the leader. He can do some pretty awesome and scary stuff. There’s a great lost love somewhere in his past. Anna Taylor is a normal woman trying to make ends meet to take care of herself and her sister. She is skeptical, honest, and blunt (she apologizes to Bach for picturing him naked) and it is obvious she loves her little sister.
There are scenarios, descriptions, and conversations that are awesome and funny, and there are some that fall flat. There’s a lot of swearing, which I don’t mind, but it seems a little excessive, and might be too much for some people. There are some sections that really benefit from the audiobook, and some that would probably come across better just reading it on the page. Also, it’s super long. I don’t know if I can deal with Mac’s whiny bitchiness that long. At the time of this review, I’m only about 1/3 of the way through. (And I *do* have that copy of the book to skip to the Elliott scenes…)