Stars: 2 out of 5.

DNF at 50%

The blurb for this book sounded very interesting: a child prodigy stuck in a sort of parallel dimension where she can see and hear what's going on on our plane of existence, but not interact with anything. Her fight to get back into our world and prove that her father is innocent of her murder. Sounds like a wonderful story, doesn't it? That's why I picked that book up. Unfortunately, the blurb is misleading.

Oh, Rowyn is stuck in a parallel dimension, alright, watching helplessly as her father is convicted of her murder. However, this situation is resolved within the first four chapters of the book, and without much effort on her part, I must add. What happens after that is a story about a group of super-powered young adults who are trying to save the world against a big bad with super powers. Some reviewers drew a parallel with X-Men, and I can see where they come from. 

And I would have stayed for this X-Men like adventure, even if that was not what I was expecting when I picked up the book, but the characters were simply not interesting enough. Their POVs feel "rough", like the author tried too hard to give them distinctive quirks to make them more memorable. Well, their "voices" sound stilled and unnatural instead. I saw their individual powers, but I never saw the actuals individuals behind those powers. 

I think it was also party because the author chose to tell us a lot of things instead of showing them. So we are told that Alexia hates her powers and that they make her toxic to everyone around them, but I don't see that turmoil in her POVs. The problem also lies in the story itself, or, more precisely, it's execution. There are way to many plot holes and deus ex machina moments. The whole team seems rather ineffective and bumbling through their missions on sheer luck and because the author needs them to succeed. I mean, just because Hakim has a brain that is better than a super computer, it doesn't make him a good leader. There is a lot more to leading a team of troubled super-powered people than smarts. Empathy goes a long way as well. 

And that's what this book lacks - empathy. Horrible things happen to characters, but it's never addressed afterwards. We never see the emotional fallout of Rowyn's father suicide, for example. It's just assumed that these people will brush this off an continue like nothing happened. As if having a super power makes them immune to psychological trauma. 

So I left this book disappointed, even though I might have enjoyed it better if the blurb had prepared me for what it really was - a thriller with superheroes, instead of a mystery about a girl stuck out of sync with our plane of existence and desperately trying to get back to it

.PS: I received and advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

No one has been able to see Rowyn for 1573 days, yet even as a ghost, she's trying to prove her father is innocent of her murder. But Rowyn soon discovers she's not the only one with strange powers.

Strong X-Men vibes from Bona Fides, I think fans of superhero fiction might well enjoy this book. Personally, as it was shelved in the LGBTQIA section of NetGalley, I was hoping for more of an emphasis on this aspect of the storyline. Based on the blurb I was intrigued by Rowyn's storyline, but there are quite a few other characters' perspectives in the book and other storylines followed, which for me personally made it a less compelling read.

I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of Bona Fides. These opinions are my own.

This book was hard to read. Not difficult to understand, exactly, although there are some esoteric, science-y stuff that made me feel a little slow. It has a great premise, but the interpersonal relationships get in the way of the actual plot and action in the book. Don't get me wrong, character development is a huge part of reading for me. It was just a bit overdone, for my tastes.

I didn't like all of the characters (especially Guy & Henry), and a lot of it felt forced.

All in all, it was an OK read, but I won't be checking out the sequel.

Thank you to Netgalley, Ash Whitley, and her publisher. All opinions are my own.

Abysmal. Derivative, amateurish, and not for me. Maybe if you like bad TV with falling anvils and logic faults every thirty seconds, this is for you? I picked it up because the hook -- a girl is stuck being invisible -- grabbed my interest, but it turned out to be a book about a wildly incompetent Scooby Gang with superpowers, rather than that girl's journey to force her way back into the world.

ARC