Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse by A.D. Shaddox
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeAmaya Reed never asked to become an Active.
One day, she’s a normal high school junior. The next, she’s cycling through eight unpredictable powers—mind-reading, gravity control, phasing, speed—each one replacing the last, each one harder to control than the one before.
There’s just one problem: once she uses a power, she can’t use it again until she’s burned through all eight.
When a disastrous rescue attempt goes viral, Amaya is branded a danger instead of a hero. But before she can even figure out how to live with her abilities, the mysterious Agency comes calling with an offer she can’t ignore:
Go undercover on the biggest show in America—The Next American Popstar—and stop a killer who plans to strike during the live finale.
Now, Amaya has to survive high school, master a volatile cycle of powers, and compete on a national stage where one mistake could cost her everything.
Because this time, failure won’t just go viral.
It’ll be deadly.
Being a teenager is complicated enough even before magical abilities start developing.
The descriptions of Amaya’s eight powers and how she learned to use them were detailed and memorable. I liked the fact that each ability was not only associated with a color but also had a special name. Once the characters explained them all, it was easy for me as a reader to know what to expect next based on what she’d done recently and which power was next on her rotating list. I should note that it did take a little while for this to be fully explored, but I didn’t mind the wait and thought it felt very natural to learn the last few bits of information when I did. Sometimes life does get in the way of lengthy conversations about important matters, after all!
It would have been helpful to have stronger character development, especially for Amaya. As much as I enjoyed learning about the incredible things she could do, I found myself wishing that I knew more about her personality and the interests she had that were unrelated to her role as an Active. Her relationship with her younger brother, for example, could have been explored more deeply in order to round out her character and give the audience a glimpse of what she was like when she was doing typical teenage things.
Many of the young adult books I read tend to shy away from including social media or reality television in their storylines, so I found it refreshing to see how the characters used and were affected by both the Internet and this style of programming. There are some key differences between teens who grew up in previous generations where these things either didn’t exist at all or were much more niche and people in that age group today who know that anything they say or do could be immediately shared and dissected online.
I was intrigued by Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse.
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