Zapped by Sherwood Smith
My rating: 3/5 cats
“Mom,” I said that evening. “I have a question.”
They were both there, Mom Tate cooking dinner and Mom Gwen sorting the mail, but somehow they always know who we mean. Or else they both answer. “Yes?”
“So there’s this assignment. A kind of what if scenario. Like, what if people turned out to have powers?”
“Powers?”
“Like . . .” My voice slid around my zap. “Like the X-Men, or Harry Potter.”
oh, you sneaky tor shorts—you tricked me into reading a novelette when i had only set aside the time to read a story. very uncool.
it was an okay novelette, as far as that goes. but it does go—and go and go, and there was a point where i started fretting that this was attached to some other work and i was reading something without having all the background information i needed because it seemed too involved for just a short story, but it does seem to be a self-contained standalone. just some kids with powers (including one boy whose power is basically the same as a bloodhound and if that was my power and someone else got invisibility, i would be pretty cheesed off) and it’s all about identity and acceptance and having the courage to expose the unusual aspects of yourself and your life to others and also about hate crimes with baseball bats. and cheating at sports.
i just didn’t feel one way or another about it. and i know that is a useless stance to take in what is supposed to be a book review, but i just don’t have it in me these days. too sad, too dispirited, too anxious about health and money and how no one wants to hire me for anything even though i’m the hardest woking booknerd around &etc. all i am is sad now.
so.
not much of a book review, but i’m trying to get my shit back together and then i will be a good and dutiful and helpful little reviewer once more.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2015/05/27/zapped…
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