Outshine - Nola Decker

I was disappointed. Please let me explain why...

 

Gabe and Jessa are the POV characters for this book, but they are SO different. It's repeated every single chapter. Gabe is a weird loner, Jessa is supercool and popular. They would never ever hang out together. (But truth is they do). Did I mention just HOW different they are?

 

When Gabe's brother Watts goes missing, Gabe is at first relieved. Terrorized by his younger brother, he feels he might now get some attention from his mother (and perhaps other people). And from what I've seen of Watts, I can only agree with Gabe, for Watts turns out to be a really annoying, uhm, person. I thought this would be interesting, as Gabe is conflicted between willing to clear his name and not wanting his brother back. Unfortunately, it never went deeper or more interesting than 'I hate him and secretly hope he never returns'. This was even accompanied by a happy dance. Gabe's also some kind of human lie detector (but himself incapable of lying). I don't know a thing about lie detectors, but I expect that they can't detect things that are factly untrue but the person saying it is unaware of it being a lie. Then how is history class the perfect way to detect lie detectors?

 

Jessa on the other hands has her own - very important - reasons to want Watts back. She pretends to be your standard popular girly girl to mask her super human strength. What a strategy. She's constantly annoyed/accompanied by her even girlier friends who's only problem seems to be who gets to fantasize over the random hot Spanish barrista. As you can see, those are the real problems in life.

 

Finding Watts turns out not to be the hardest part, keeping him (and themselves) save is much harder. The eugenicists' new human order have have not only ditched Gabe's speciality (who needs to know the truth), they have also decide to Ex-ter-mi-nate him. Such a bad luck, for a boy who's already such a weird, friendless loner.

 

The story did not impress. I was annoyed by the constant repeating of things that were apparently important that I'd got the first time (or the second) and that didn't need constant repeating. The finding was made to easy with their 'superpowers'. The ending was okay, though it was an easy way to solve some of the other plotlines.

 

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!