Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Before I requested this copy, I did research to see what the average rating for this book was. I found that not many people had reviewed this book at the time. The description seemed like the book was going to be chaotic. I love books that are superhero related and ones that involve a little last world vibe. This book was not the worst I have read but I also wasn’t falling head over heels for the storyline or characters. I was right that this book was a little chaotic. There were a bunch of characters and descriptions that somehow all connect one-way to other characters. If you really don’t mind a chaotic read this may be for you.

First of all, 1200 pages!!! There was a LOT going on, almost too much to keep track of a times and a lot of it wasn’t needed. It felt as though there were four stories happening at once that could have been split into different books as they didn’t need to happen simultaneously and then people also wouldn’t have to read 1200 pages!
This book had a lot going for it, characters were pretty well developed, but I still didn't like them very much.
A large and interesting world, but it was all a little overwhelming to learn about at once.
The premise is great but I think it needed to be less? Break it into smaller stories maybe?

Superheros, super villains and bank heists! Whatelse could you possibly want from this fantastical book. Embrace your inner super while reading this book. I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All of these opinions are my own.

I feel like there is likely a good plot to this book and interesting character development; however, I did have to DNF it. I would have loved to see where the relationship between Dean and Tori goes and I did enjoy some of the other characters such as Rudy and Harden. There are also many thought-provoking scenes about our current society that transfer over into this new Super world.

The reason I had to DNF it was due to graphic violence. I was not expecting as much of it as there was and I am 100% the type to turn away at the gory parts of movies. I think this will be a great read for people that can handle that type of thing and if there was a tad less graphic violence, it would be the type of book that I truly enjoy.

This one’s a no from me.

I persevered all the way to the end of the 1200 pages!!! I’m sorry to say, it just wasn’t worth it.

First of all, it was 1200 pages!!! There was a LOT going on, almost too much to keep track of a times and a lot of it wasn’t needed. It felt as though there were four stories happening at once that could have been split into different books as they didn’t need to happen simultaneously and then people also wouldn’t have to read 1200 pages!

There were a few good elements and I found the two main characters semi likeable which is why I’m going for 2 stars instead of one, but it was a close call.

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but the imagery of Masked sets the tone perfectly. There's plenty here for fans of everything from The Boys to Suicide Squad to enjoy, as you'd expect, but I was surprised to be reminded of Stephen King's The Running Man as well, the underrated film adaptation in particular. Ultimately, Masked has its own tone and style.

Superheroes and villains make a dystopian alternate reality their playground as the normal world falls apart from the antics of both. In the midst of the chaos, Dean and Tori have their own problems to sort out but they find themselves drawn into the world of the supes, and drawn closer together.

This is not a love story, but it's not a loveless story, either.

Fast-paced and intense. For mature readers.

This book was okay. It reminded me so much of the TV Show The Boys. Almost like the whole story was basically that.. and I dunno how I felt about that. It didn’t feel original for that reason. The main character was very likeable. The story building was super good. I would deff give this author another try in the future. Maybe something a little more original and a little less already done.

I´m not sure what I was expecting with this book, but this was not it. I´m a big fan of super heroes and I was excited after reading the synopsis, but after I started reading, I was just confused the whole time. It felt like there were some pretty big things missing from the story that made the plot super hard to understand. Even now I can´t tell clearly what happened. I also found the characters uninteresting or hard to like, specially Dean. It had the potential to be something really good though, it just wasn´t for me. My thanks to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was really excited to read this book and thankful I got an ARC.

Now once I actually started reading it, that was a different story. I went to goodreads to see if this was part of a series, and I was just missing it or what. I was really lost at the start, there is a lot of world/ character building that is trying to happen but does not hit the mark. I read a variety of books, and have no problems with alpha males or males who don't like women, but Dean just did not click at all.

I was so excited for a fun twist on superheroes after just finishing The Boys, the twist make the stories better. This one missed the mark.

I read Masked from netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

This is the only reason I’m leaving a review.

This is going to be difficult because honestly, I did not enjoy this book. I wanted to. I like dystopias with things to say. I like superhero stories that take a critical look at superheroes as a concept.

I think there were two major problems in this book. One was personal. I didn’t like the two main characters that we spend the most time with. While the book is in third person and follows a variety of people from supervillains, to the “heroes”, to the main character Dean’s best friend Ruby: Dean and Tori are who we spend the most time with and act as the main love interest and driving force when it comes to the themes of the story. That leaves Tori as an abrasive, tsundere who really just wants to be loved by the right guy but has been hurt too many times, and Dean, the nicest of nice guys who has dated a million girls who either dumped him for petty reasons or were “broken” and then got stuck on one girl until he met Tori. It honestly wasn’t just their personalities; it was that these two couldn’t seem to exist without dating or at least trying to be in a relationship with someone. I can’t relate to that type of person, and that was all they talked about in the majority of the book first as they were trapped in the Bank and then when they were on the run.

They talked about their past a lot. It was relevant to the plot, but the whole thing also felt forced and irritating and for a long time I didn’t want to be following them anymore and to be anywhere else because they weren’t affecting the plot, just talking at each other and because I was going to be reviewing this, I had to pay attention and couldn’t skim.

The second one could also be personal but seemed a little more troublesome to the overall narrative flow of the story, and that was the play of the dystopian themes and the parody of the superhero world that was going on. It isn’t that this can’t be done well. The Boys and Umbrella Academy are ones that usually blend the criticism and parody or humor well together. Here, I had a hard time sometimes trying to figure out what was a critique of today’s world. Fake News obviously was a reflection on today, but where superheroes would seem an obvious reflection on the police and how they get away with unnecessary force at times, the police in this story are underdogs (though mostly they just seem to be ineffective sighers to me as a reader). Masked has world-building where superheroes would fight each other, sometimes to the death on television to become the next hero, and we got a little of how that became normalized. but I feel that still didn’t completely explain how people would then just allow what were obviously psychopaths killing people who hadn’t done anything bad could then go to fight without regulation beyond the people in power let it happen because they were all comically evil.

We had some protests going on, but I felt like both sides of the protests seemed to be villainized as just mindless anger and reaction that was playing into the government’s plans.

That said, a lot of thought was gone into the background. It was clear that the author was trying to create relatable characters. He was building a bigger world. He made a lot of characters connect in more and more ridiculous and I’m sure imaginative ways. I didn’t notice anything grammatically incorrect, but I’m not the best judge of that sort of thing.

Honestly, this book wasn’t for me, at all, but maybe it’ll be for you. It’s a 2.5 star since Goodreads asks for stars. Definitely readable but rounded down to a 2-star here because I’m just that irritated with everything

The premise of this story is interesting, in a world where some people have superpowers, what is there to force any of them to follow the law? In this story there are supervillains and superheroes, defined more by their self image than their actual deeds. Some supervillains are mostly harmless to civilians whereas some superheroes cause death and destruction in the name of “justice”. We follow one main character, Dean, who hates “supes” as anyone with superpowers is referred to in this book. Due to a chain of unfortunate events he gets tangled up as a hostage in a supervillain bank robbery that may be just a front for a bigger scheme. Caught with him is the love interest Tori. We also get the perspectives of several other minor characters. The writing is ok, and the story is promising but after 100+ pages I have to DNF this book, because unfortunately I have reached a point where I’m sure I won’t enjoy the rest of this.

The reason is the misogyny that permeates this book. After reading the first 25% of the story there is not a single female character that has not been described as selfish, stupid or a slut, usually all three. Our main character Dean is pretty much the definition of an incel, except the entire narrative confirms that his ideas about women are actually correct and not a reflection of his warped world view. Since he is the main character with about 50% of the POV so far I find the story really off putting to read. Dean is extremely shallow and sexist, yet continuously surprised when women don’t love him. In light of this it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that mostly female characters are getting maimed and killed off (sometimes before even appearing on page, only referenced as victims), and the supervillain team is extremely sexist towards their only remaining female member.

I have highlighted 9 passages in the first 100 pages that were so sexist they made me angry just to read them, most are spoilery or strange out of context so I won’t quote them here. I really had high hopes for this book but clearly it’s not for me. It’s also possible that the sexism gets challenged later in this book and that Dean has some significant character growth, since I didn’t finish I can’t know for sure. But unfortunately what I read so far put me off so much that I don’t even want to find out.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Writing Bloc and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A fun, exciting novel that's a bit different then I usually read. Well worth trying something new.