I’m assuming I won/received this from NoseGraze given Ashley’s business card that came with it but can’t find an email confirmation or any other information.

When I started The Paladin Prophecy I had no idea what I was reading. I kept waiting for it to make sense but like the foreword said, answers lead to more questions.

Half-way through when a co-worker asked what it was about, my answer was still "I don't know but it started with a supernatural boy and his family being hunted..."

After finishing, I still don’t know. What’s The Paladin Prophecy? Not a fucking clue. We don’t even know who the teams are besides Guardian Angels and Men in Black. Nor where the school fits into it all.

Along with being confused on the world-building and overarching story line, it was often frustrating. Minorities and women are stereotypes at best. Will is a Marty Stu and these kids can do it all.

The action, suspense, and tension only comes from The Villains and lack of clarity. But there’s no need to worry, dues ex machine comes through every time.

Yeah, it was action packed. Yeah, I kept reading it. But that's more to being a completionist and HATE not getting answers.

It felt so...fake. The characters, the outrageous school, everything.

If the plot wasn't so "mysterious" pretending to be deep in an inch of water, this wouldn't fool anyone. At least, I hope not.



Will:

From the get-go he felt off. Why didn't he ask and push his parents to explain everything? Moving so much without it having a sane reason (like a job) and the rules are weird.

And he never asks how or why he can go faster and smarter than everyone else? Never wondered why he never got sick or pimples or ills like every other teenager?

He just assumes it's normal despite ALL the evidence to the contrary? You're actually stupid enough to believe every kid has parents do the doctoring? What teenager just goes along and doesn't get lonely and moody? How is he not more damaged?



He handled his mother’s take over and Dad’s disappearance far too well. No breakdowns. No grief or angst. He switches between mom and “Belinda” with unnatural ease. (And if they were running all the time, why didn’t they have better defenses? His mom went down without a fight.)

Then his specialness really shines when attending The Special School. His issues making friends? Gone. He’s a natural and gets an Insta-Crew. Gets the girl he immediately lusts after with a snap. Ice Queen? Melts for him. They risk everything for Will despite it all and for no reason find him trustworthy enough to believe the insane.

Will’s perfect. He has more abilities than the rest with no downsides or flaws. There’s a bully (no character or depth) that zeros in on him and Will is the only one who can handle him. He steps up, and the rest fall in line with him.



He's not real. He's a Marty-Stu, FFS.



Seriously.

It's pure teenage male fantasy. Clearly, not the market it for me. I'd leave it alone if it was just that, but it's not that simple.

Problematic: POC Characters

Nondo is the family man cabbie that helps Will get out of dodge. Then he becomes Will's spy and errand boy. He risks everything dodging work for this rando kid and almost gets killed in the process.

I can't accept that. No way in fucking hell.

Worse is the weak-ass wanna be guardian angel/pod person explanation. "Some disembodied voice told me to help you get out of dodge..." *shrug* *laugh* The Fuck?!?!



That is not okay. And you better fucking believe most people aren't stupid enough to fall for Will's bullshit lies. And I DAMN well better get some fucking answers after I almost DIE for some punk ass kid with no reward or reason.

I can't cheer for either Nondo being taken over/driven by a ~mysterious force~ to help the kid despite common fucking sense OR his abandoning his family and job to play servant to some privileged little cracker.

He's such a stereotype. And to add insult to injury, he was made subservient, dumb, eager to please Will and quick to be irresponsible regarding his family.

Fuck that bullshit.



It becomes compounded when Will gets to school. He promptly meets the security, which are all Samoan from the same tribe and all look alike. I mean, even those who bother to look at them can't tell the difference.

How stupid is that? Go Google image Somoans. You're either blind or racist if you say they're all the same. Fucking relatives don't all look like twins or clones. Are they saying they're are clones or some shit? WTF? That’s a hard pill to swallow from a white protagonist towards a minority group. Honestly, WTF were you thinking Frost? If the guards all looked alike and were white, people would immediately think it’s iffy and dig in. But POC? Eh, they all look alike anyways and reaffirms those close-minded judgements.



Then we meet Ajay the token POC friend. He's the unassuming, reassuring, non-threatening uber tech nerd. He's been there longer than Will, but Will automatically makes friends and gets his girl. Ajay? Pfffft. He didn’t even share his gadgets with the rest until Will. He gives Will this pep talk about dating at the academy but is single and seemingly has been.

He's there for the tech stuff and does little else. Instead, Whitey Will has to give him a pep talk on how useful he's been in the grand plan without mentioning the kickass gadgets that made a difference in the fight and all the techy sleuthing leading up to it. His masculinity and worth has to be propped up by Whitey Will.

Then there’s the Native American track coach…**SIGH** I give up.



Problematic: Women Characters
No, this isn’t about Will checking out every female he comes across. That’s natural. But they all live to serve him and stereotypes.

Ms. Robinson is the attractive mother stand-in.

Brooke is the privileged romance interest that does nothing, has zero chemistry with Will, falls for him instantly anyways, and has to get rescued.

Elise is the ice queen with her own brand of powers. If playing up her and Will’s growing “connection” wasn’t a goal (cuz omfg cat-fight and love triangles!), I’m sure the deus ex machina would’ve passed over her too.



The Gang:

They bond immediately and risk everything together after a day. They push the "We're roommates, we're your friends, you should trust us" and it's downright creepy. Being that nosy and intrusive should've rang alarms in Will's head especially after his childhood. But NOPE!

Not to mention, they clearly weren’t that close before Will. He’s the lynchpin, he completes them.

The Center for Integrated Learning:

How is it the school is responsible for educating public figures like politicians (including presidents), Nobel prize winners, blah blah blah, but no one's heard of it?

It's not possible to keep that a secret. Even before all our social media and intense internet connections, people would fucking know. And if no one heard about it, why do they need security because of the famous and rich families that go there?

The scope, the setting is just over the top. It's huge, has everything and seemingly invisible. Except Will found it on online maps, FFS.

The ONLY thing I liked was seeing Will the Genuis having his head swirl from his new classes. But it went too far in the other direction to make it fake ass bullshit. All of a sudden “Science is a foreign land with a foreign language” for Will? I understand needing help when joining in the middle but his knowledge is inconsistent.

If he’s supposedly this far behind, how the fuck is he going to make the grade there? Why’d they bother taking him? Why did they bend the rules to get him in when they’d be in deep trouble for doing so? They didn’t even speak to his parents before agreeing and buying his way there. In the middle of the night. Suddenly and while alone.

Yeah, right.

Such a great book, and I totally dig the male protagonist for a change! Definitely excited for the next installment. So many twist, plots, & endearing characters!

The chemistry between the three male characters is really engaging, but I can't say that any other aspect was outstanding....

En solid 3,5 mange gentagelse selv om man lige havde læst det et øjeblik før

I got this from a recommendation, a little curious as to what I'd think of it. The short of it is, imagine a technological/genetic-splicing version of Harry Potter and you'll have a good idea. There's an absurdly amazing school that is hidden from the public, teens with super powers, a wizened patriarch who runs the school, and even a large gruff fellow who helps out and saves the main character from the bad guys. Thankfully the author provides a rather fun world and characters who are quite wonderfully well-written intelligent teens with sass and a level of maturity one would expect from those who actually think through their lives, though of course the humor is delightfully still ridiculous at times. The genetic angle is close enough to reality to be believable and far enough away to make it nearly a fantasy, so there's little trouble connecting even as people do the fantastical. Sure there's the requisite romance angles and the stereotype teen archetypes, but they're written almost like a tongue-in-cheek way so that as you see the characters not quite fit there's some pleasant surprises. Curious where the story goes from here.

Very unique and entertaining. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the sequel.

Så här ligger det till:

Uppvaknandet som Mark Frosts bok kallas på svenska är en av de böcker som jag inte kommer att läsa ut. Inte för att den egentligen är dålig, den höll mig intresserad tills jag hade 120 sidor kvar ungefär. Men eftersom att jag är i en lässvacka och takten i den här boken inte är den snabbast, förblir den ofärdig.

Att jag tappat intresset för boken beror nog i största hand att det tog sådan tid för mig att ta upp den igen. Suget för denna bok försvann.

Så jag kommer inte att ge den någon bedömning i stjärnor.

this book was sooooo good i can't wait to read the next one.