I went back and forth with this book. I would force myself to read it for some time. It would start to grab me and I would have to put it down. Then I went through the process of taking a long time to get back into it the next time I could read. I love the idea and I love the genre. I believe that if I was able to have read it for longer, I would have enjoyed it more. I am having a strange relationship with super-abled people stories. It seems to be oversaturated and overdone. By the end, I was again interested enough to want more. A little conflicted about this one but I overall enjoyed it.

I'm a huge fan of books involving superpowers and secret groups. So I was super excited to start The Nobody People. A lot of people have been comparing it to X Men, and I 100% see the similarities between the two. This was a really interesting and fun book. The pacing seemed a bit uneven, but overall, I had a great time reading this book!

One of my struggles with this book was that sometimes it felt like things were dragging super slow, and then other times the story moved so fast I had to reread bits because I wasn't sure what exactly had happened. I really enjoyed the plot and reading about these characters, but it was hard to stay focused and engaged when the pacing was a bit all over the place. The ending in particular felt a bit rushed. Although part of my feelings might have been due to the fact that I didn't realize this was part of at first.

The characters were what really saved this for me. Because this book spans over a bit of a long period of time, you could really see these characters grow and develop. I loved getting to know these people and see how they think/react to things. I particularly enjoyed getting the perspectives of people who weren't the "heroes" but still desperately wanted to help. There were a lot of really strong characters in this book!

This was a really interesting book and I think Proehl did a great job making a theme like superhuman powers feel fresher and not as overdone. I'm interested to see where he takes the story next. If you like science fiction and/or fantasy books with superpowers and lots of emotion, you should give this book a read!

I was given this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I first saw this on NetGalley, the cover seemed interesting. Then I read the synopsis and I knew that this was a book that I had to read. Today our society is enthralled with superheroes and villains that have extraordinary abilities. We love to read about and watch movies about people like Captain America, Spider-Man, and Iron Man who gain abilities that we could only dream of. We love to see the impossible become possible and see heroes rise in order to save the world. The Nobody People is just another way of those impossibilities becoming true, only instead of being set aside and looked up to, those that display abilities are ultimately looked at as other and looked down upon. This story goes through a roller coaster of emotions and tells a story unlike any other.

The Nobody People follows the stories of millions told through the eyes of four main people: Avi, Fahima, Carrie, and Owen. Avi is a freelance journalist injured in Afghanistan approached to write an article about the existence of those with Abilities. Fahima is a teacher at a school created to help those with Abilities learn how to control them. Carrie is a student at the school when we first meet her and has the ability to disappear. Owen has the ability to turn things into Null and uses it… often. When the news that there are people among the population that exist with these abilities, it’s a brand new thing with the common consequences: people think it’s the best thing and are jealous or they think it’s the worst thing and are frightened.

Within this book, we see each of these characters navigate what it means for them now that the news is out there in the world. This book is full of surprises, twists, turns, and storylines full of hope and heartbreak. We can also see parallels of what it means to be different in our society today and often those with differences can quickly turn into ‘less than.’

Proehl has created something that truly kept me on edge. I couldn’t get enough of these characters, their story, and the world similar to our that he has written. I can’t wait to read the next installment in this duology.

What starts with a horrifying killing spree turns into a story about specially powered teens and adults and their alienation from society in this hefty story by Bob Proehl. Avi is a reporter who's always chasing the the big story, at the expense of his marriage and his faltering relationship with his young daughter, Emmeline. An assignment in Iraq cost him his leg, and while he recuperates at home, a phone call from a police contact starts Avi off on the hunt again: a teenage boy has seemingly disappeared a chunk of a shopping mall food court and a church. How? As Avi begins an investigation into the case, he discovers that superpowered people walk among us, and that his precocious Emmeline is one, too. From there, we get what reads like a dark X-Men alternate universe, complete with a school for Resonants (the name given to the special-powered) run by a benevolent gentleman named Bishop, and a rebellious group of by-any-means-necessary Resonants, with a shadowy player pulling strings behind the scenes. Avi becomes more of a backdrop character to history as the clash between Resonants and "Damps", as non-powered folks are called, becomes more tense and leads to a violent conclusion.

There's an incredible amount of character development and world-building in The Nobody People, and the cast is diverse, making characters of color and gender identity primary characters, rather than relegating them to background or "friends" parts. The first half of the book is by far the stronger half, as the second half of the book gets caught up in itself, changing up a strong subplot to rapidly switch gears and justify the inevitable conflict at the conclusion. Overall, I enjoyed The Nobody People and think dedicated SFF (Sci-Fi Fantasy) readers will like it.

The Bishop Academy in NY hides a secret. Its students are different than other people. They have special abilities....the equivalent of superpowers (although they don't like that word). Called Resonants, they've been in hiding from the general population of the world for a long time, mostly because people fear things that are different or that they can't understand. Avi is a reporter contacted by this group to help them announce their presence to the world. It's a lot for him to take in...especially when it's revealed to him that his young daughter is also a Resonant.

I enjoyed this story. It's well-written and the characters are engaging and mostly well developed. But....I have to be completely honest and say I felt the entire time like it was too much like the X-Men. Wayyy too much like the X-Men. This type of story has been done before.....supers reveal themselves to the world and the S hits the fan. I get that the purpose is to hit at the issues of racism, immigration, etc. But lately that's pretty much been done over and over and over again. I wanted something new from this story.....and it never really materialized.

Enjoyable tale....but nothing new here. A bit disappointing.....

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Random House via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Rating: 4 1/2 Caffeinated Stars
Trigger Warning will be at the very bottom of this review. Please know that the Trigger Warnings will contain spoilers. I do not want to spoil anything for anyone, but I feel that for some people, these trigger warnings will be incredibly important.

I first found out about this book at the Denver Pop Culture Con. The cover immediately caught my attention, and the blurb was perfect. I kept thinking about this book the entire night so went on NetGalley and requested it immediately. I was so excited when I was approved. The Nobody People is one of those books that will stick with me for a while. It's horrifying yet utterly fascinating. I couldn't put this book down yet at the same time I didn't want to finish it. The story was so dark and horrifying so much so that I found it hard to finish it at times. This book took me two weeks to complete, which is unheard of for me.

Though this book took me two weeks to read, it was well worth it. The highlight of this book was the characters. They were well developed, and I loved how much depth each character had. I felt like they were friends, family, and everything in between. Each character had a role, and each role was significant. I was in awe of Bob Proehl's ability to write such strong characters.

The plot of this book is something that many people will recognize. It parallels our society as well. It is an "us vs. them" type book that at times, became too realistic. It was horrifying and fascinating. I couldn't put the book down yet I didn't want to read it at the same time. For the length of the book, it did have a quick pace. The Nobody People was actioned packed, and each page was there for a reason. I am genuinely impressed with Bob Proehl's ability to create a world that is at times too realistic.

Trigger Warnings: Bleakness, Concentration Camps, Drug Use, Death, Murder, Sexual Assault, Suicide, Child Abuse, Cliffhanger Ending.

The Nobody People is an interesting well written book. It’s also a statement on growing up different in a society from a Sci-Fi perspective. I found this book to be a strong statement on our society.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

I wish I got into this more. It had so much potential—varied perspectives, X-Men style superheroes, a school for ‘gifted’ children, etc. I was really expecting to love it, but alas, I ended up skimming more the further I delved in.

I didn’t care for any characters, and that’s beyond just “likeable” or “unlikeable”. They all had one personality trait and that’s...basically it. Some, like Fahima, leaned so hard into playing against type that it became a whole new, even worse characterization. She wasn’t funny and blunt; she was an asshole. Avi’s entirely lame personality amounts to ‘journalist’, and he doesn’t even seem to be that good at it. And honestly, his (and our) inevitable introduction to the ‘supers’ is one of the worst I’ve ever seen played out. It’s like they each thought of the best way to approach an outsider in this situation...and then intentionally did the exact opposite.

The book was also 500 pages long. It felt even longer. I think there were a lot of interesting ideas Bob Proehl was playing with, but he needed to pick a few and put the rest away. Was his editor on vacation? I feel like if you’re going to recycle so much from different sci-fi and comic tropes/plot-lines, then there has to be something revelatory in all of those pages or else just leave 150-200 of them on the cutting room floor.

I think I’m being so hard on this book because I expect more from a super-powered ensemble story at this point. He’s a competent writer, and most of the ideas on their own were good. I probably would have had more positives to say if I liked the characters more or it dragged less overall, but it didn’t. It’s not bad, but I really struggled to maintain interest.

The Nobody People is about a growing number of seemingly ordinary people with extraordinary abilities essentially hiding in plain sight. Their loose leadership has decided to finally bring them into the light, let the world become aware of their existence and abilities, and hope they can at least shape the reaction, if not control it. It does not go well. Every Us/Them scenario is magnified to extremes - discriminatory laws, violent mobs and lynchings, concentration camps, a desperate battle to define humanity. And the Nobody People, most of whom simply want to be fellow citizens, find themselves reaching for untapped skills and powers simply to survive.
This is the first of a two-part series and stops practically on a cliff-hanger. The story at first seems to follow just one or two characters, but it is more about a group of people, and is a somewhat different set by the end of the book, which can be a bit frustrating, especially when the book just abruptly ends. The plot is very twisty; I'm looking forward to seeing where this will all turn out. Like in Justin Cronin's The Passage series I know a certain young girl is integral, but other than that... The characters are quite diverse and well-written, thought the bouncing point of view can slow down the story a bit. All in all it was quite original if repeatedly upsetting (to misquote a certain person There were bad people on both sides). How will the author get us out of this one? Or will he?

In THE NOBODY PEOPLE, by Bob Proehl, a group of outcasts, called Resonants, have been living in hiding from the world because they all have special abilities. Much like other mutant stories, a man named Bishop has created a school for young Resonants to hone their abilities and learn how to function in a world that shuns them for being different. When a journalist, Avi Hirsch, is challenged with the reality that his daughter has special abilities, Avi embraces the Resonant community and tries to help them when it is time to reveal the Resonants, school and all, to the world; a coming out party of sorts. But does this big reveal make everything better or worse?
What a world that Proehl creates. On the surface, this story could feel like an mirror to X-Men mutant stories that are so ingrained in our pop culture. And in the basest of levels, I guess you could say it is similar, but THE NOBODY PEOPLE is so unique, so gritty, and so thought-provoking that it's hard to even compare. The characters are very grounded and unique and each have the own perception of how the think the world should be. That is the driving force of the book that each of the main characters are working towards their own goal of how the world should be. Acquiescing to each other and re-evaluating their perceptions come along the way, but ultimately each person is pushing their own vision of their desired future. Proehl tackles issues of bigotry and acceptance with careful consideration to both sides each argument. The book also has some good action sequences the Proehl writes with special detail to really convey the feelings of the moment.
THE NOBODY PEOPLE is an epic novel that spans over a few years, and Proehl really captures the growth of each of the characters. I look forward to see how the characters continue to grow in the next book in the series.

This was just not a book for me. I don't think I'm the intended audience for it . I have tried several times to read it and just can't get into it.

The Nobody People by Bob Proehl is a science fiction novel.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Random House Publishing - Ballantine Del Rey, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

 
My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

The Nobody People.  They are also known as "Resonants".   Carefully hiding themselves for decades, one of their members decides it is time to go public.  They want the world to accept them as they are.  They are just people with extraordinary abilities.  For example, Carrie can become almost invisible, and Fahima's mind creates machines that can solve even the most intricate problems.  Some can fly, some can talk to animals, some can light fires.... But even within their own members, there are some that should stay hidden.  In any group of people, there are the good and the bad, and sometimes it is hard to differentiate between the two.

Avi Hirsch, a war reporter,  learns that his 9 year old daughter Emmeline is one of the special people, and agrees to enroll her in their school, where he hopes she will finally fit in.  He also agrees to be the one to share their news with the world, under the guidance of Headmaster Kevin Bishop.

Unfortunately,  the Resonants are treated by most as inhuman, and the bigots have found a new target.  The government seems to side with the bigots, and talk about registration starts to sound an awful lot like concentration camps.  Although most fear a war, there are some who feel it may be the only way.


My Opinions:  

An interesting book, although I found it dragged every now and then.  I had trouble getting into the story.  It was long and sometimes my mind wandered.  I occasionally found myself skimming.  Never a good sign.  As well,  I have no idea of the time-frame of the book, and I hate that. I know that at least a year passes, but it could be 5 for all I could tell, and it felt that while I was reading too.   As well, I was unaware that this was Book 1 when I picked it up, and I hate not continuing a series so, now I'm a bit annoyed that I'll have to read more.....

On the plus side, the premise was good, and I loved most of the characters, which were deep enough that you could somewhat relate to them, although I lost track of Carrie somewhere along the way.

The main topic covered the differences between people, whether it be religion, race, disability, or in this case special abilities.  It was handled well.  We have seen it in our own culture of black vs white, Muslim vs Christian, etc.  There are always those who treat the other as a monster, as an abomination.  But there are also those that care.  It is often fear or resentment, envy or jealousy,  that really drive hate, and so it was here.  Fear of the unknown, envy of the ability....

I found it difficult to rate this book.  The length and slow pace had me barely hanging on, but the overall premise was good.  Some people have compared this to the X-MEN comic book series....I'm not a fan of those either.  I know a lot of people loved this book, it just didn't do it for me.

Oh well, I guess I'll wait for the next book and hope for an epiphany.

This took me way too long to read and I'm not sure why. I love the X-men so this type of book is up my alley. I think there were so many characters that it started to make my head spin a bit and there were things that just didn't suspend my disbelief totally.

Avi Hirsch is addicted to adventure and danger. He has traveled the world as a reporter until an IUD took his leg. When he discovers the world of Resonants he finds his new calling. However there comes a point where they turn on him and I'm still not quite sure why. Emmeline his daughter is a resonant, and a powerful one, no one really says what exactly she can do until late in the book and still I'm not quite certain of how it works. Then there are all the other Resonants that play a significant role in this story and the main antagonist who is a resonant who literally just devours people and things. He feeds them to what is termed the null but he is following the wishes of someone else - a dark entity in his head.

Of course after the Resonants go public the government goes into a frenzy and there are hate crimes galore and military camps set up, people snatched off the streets, and talk of registration and legal internment camps.

This is the first book in at least a 2 book series. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I really hope that Proehl can tie some of these lingering questions together in the next installment.

The Nobody People is a book about the people hidden throughout the world with X-Men like powers. One day they announce that they exist to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the Resonants are NOT considered superheroes. They’re just people trying to exist. Most of the normal humans are fearful of the Resonants and hate them.

For whatever reason, I had a hard time getting through this book. There were definitely times when I flew through some of the chapters, but for the most part, I just couldn’t connect with the characters. I did enjoy a few of them and those were the chapters that were really good. But there were so many characters to keep up with and I had to keep stopping to go back to reread certain parts to figure out who was who.

I enjoyed the premise of the story, and really liked the bizarre powers of some of the Resonants. I especially enjoyed the Resonant kids’ school.

The book was ok and I’m glad I read it. I’d like to see where this story goes in book 2.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for an advance copy!*

I really wanted to love this book! I heard such great things about it. It’s a great premise with people with abilities living among us. It reminded me a little of Harry Potter but more grown up. It just felt like it took too long to get there. I found myself bored in certain parts. This book was not for me but it was well written. Thank you for the opportunity to read it through NetGalley.

A group of people with amazing powers who call themselves the Resonants want to let the world know that they exist. Their leader turns to Avi Hirsch. Avi is a reporter and he also has a daughter who is one of the the most powerful Resonants.

The Nobody People tells the story of what happens once the world knows about the Resonants. There is definitely a resemblance to the X-Men; A school for the gifted kids run by a powerful leader. However, once I really got into the story, I saw it was it's own thing. I found the idea of the Hive to be fascinating.

Ok, will stop there before I blurt out spoilers! I'll just say I really enjoyed the book though the ending was abrupt and the cliffhangers will bug me until the next book comes out and hopefully ties up the loose ends..

This book’s scope is ambitious. Whether or not that’s a good thing is open to interpretation. I have a list of reasons why it didn’t work for me.

First, the plot is all-encompassing, taking on so much that it never seriously addresses anything. The subplots include PTSD, racism, sexuality, a wide variety of special abilities, good versus evil, marital and relationship issues, adolescent issues, crime, power, politics, war, and scientific advancement.

Despite the wide reach, the pace is, at times, agonizingly slow. The story drags, mired in its own misery and meandering about aimlessly.

Then we have an enormous cast of characters, most with narrating parts. Whose story is this? It feels like everyone is supposed to matter equally, and yet no one really matters at all. We jump from one character to the next with little rhyme or reason. We have long backstories and storylines that don’t add anything of consequence. The narrating parts lack cohesion, so the story feels scattered and far too broad for any emotional connection.

Character development is lacking, largely due to the lack of focus. Emmeline, who is central to the story, never feels like more than property. She’s her parents’ daughter and the school’s prize, but I never got a sense of her emotional journey.

I felt all 500 pages of this book. When I finally reached the end, it was as if the story ran out of pages rather than having reached any sort of conclusion. Or maybe dust settled over the destruction, and we’re left with the shattered mess to ponder.

If you enjoy X-Men this book is definitely for you!!! The book was ok for me. The ending felt abrupt and left the readers with no answers.

Thank you Netgalley for this advance copy for my honest review.

Admittedly, I won't say I'm a proper fan of sci-fi. But after being very much into such gems as Blake Crouch's "Recursion" earlier this year, and Nnedi Okorafor's speculative "Who Fears Death," I began to fancy myself as someone who could flirt with sci-fi. Bob Proehl's "The Nobody People" is speculative-type sci-fi of the "the secret superhumans who walk amongst us" variety and reading the synopsis, it seemed interesting to me. I expected a superhero story and a the story of a dad who just wanted to save his superhuman young daughter.

That is NOT what you get with this book. It's nearly 500 pages of ponderous, dragged out, slow-moving, meandering prose that in my opinion, doesn't really live up to the excitement of the premise. This book features an interesting, if frequently used concept. The early chapters are interesting enough to keep you turning the pages as you wait for the adventure to unfold. And then you find yourself turning and turning and turning waiting for it to get to the point whilst it meanders on, showing you a multitude of random events and ideas without ever weaving them into an exciting story. This is one of those paradoxical books where a lot is going on but nothing is going on at the same time. Basically, progress in the plot is unnecessarily slow and the whole effect feels unfocused and a little indulgent. This book at 500 pages felt like it was a million pages long and could have done with some more editing of content to make it tighter and better. Certain events (like the (non-explicit, I promise) orgy) were just thrown in randomly and you were left thinking what was the point of that? What does that add to the story that we didn't know.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. The author's use of realistic historical events and news stories and contemporary contexts makes this feel incredibly real. And as someone new to sci-fi as a genre, I think the plausibility factor can be pretty compelling, almost an amuse-bouche for the imagination. And in this, the treatment of Resonants, mirrors the treatment of people considered "other" (racially, religiously, sexuality-wise etc) are treated in societies with a privileged majority. The overall theme of the slippery slope of separating people for otherness or trying to control otherness brings to mind how something like genocide can so easily happen in a society considered progressive, democratic and "equal." Engendering this sort of narrative is a strength of this book.

However, from a technical standpoint, one of the major issues I had is that this has too many characters that get a voice and all these characters and their thoughts and emotions are somehow separate. There is interaction but it never feels like one cohesive plot or storyline. You're not quite sure where to focus- whether on Avi, or Owen or Cassie or Fahima, and in the end, it doesn't even matter because it felt they were dropped and picked up randomly in the threads of the plot with no rhyme or reason- just whenever the author happened to remember them. Some of the "main" characters had their storylines resolved in this book but then at the resolution, you're utterly confused because it's strange that with all that tedious building, the resolution feels like the author just got tired of the characters and didn't know quite what to do with them anymore. But that's fine. I found nobody likeable in this entire story, there was no one I cared about except maybe Emmeline, who is more or less used as a device, and whom I feel it would have been better if she had featured more in this book as someone other than her parent's child or Fahima's big plan. It's hard to read 500 pages of a super tedious book when you don't like or care about anyone and feel like character's emotional development was rather stunted. But that's subjective. Others may have more patience than I do.

The final thing I'll say is that evidently, this book was NOT for me. It's not bad. It's competently well-written and well edited and one thing the author did really well especially in a novel with these themes was embrace diversity. There were LGBTQ characters, racially diverse characters, religiously diverse characters, a character living with a disability. There was also a lot of REALLY EXCELLENT discourse on "allyship" when it comes to being someone from a position of privilege looking to be an ally of people who are marginalized and discriminated against. The author had a lot of smartly-crafted editorials on this which he disseminated through his characters and even though sometimes this felt very heavy handedly done, it was a very important conversation to includ in this book. Also note that this ends on a cliffhanger and my understanding is that there is going to be a Book 2 out sometime next year.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Del Rey Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book. Imagine a world where everyday people have special abilities and you just found out about them. Would you be intrigued or fearful? This isn’t a book about super heroes. It’s about everyday life, it’s fears and hopes and dreams. It’s about acceptance. Maybe even the end of the world. I’m not sure because this is book one of two. Which is good because The Nobody People just ends (not even a cliff hanger) and now I need to find out what happens next.