SHUTDOWN

Fans of Anastasiu’s science-fiction trilogy who grew to love Zoe in all her telekinetic, girl-power glory, particularly in Override (2013), will likely feel cheated by the final installment.

As the Chancellor closes in on the Rez, destroying their base and forcing the surviving resistance fighters to disband and seek refuge on the Surface, Zoe and Adrien’s only hope of outrunning the Regulators and reuniting their misfit band of freedom fighters is to work together. This should be the perfect setup for more of the steamy love scenes and high-stakes action that made the second book in the series such a great read, but fans shouldn’t get their hopes up. Still recovering from his lobotomy, Adrien has no memory of his love for Zoe and spends the better part of the novel recoiling from her touch. Not that this deters Zoe from trying and getting burned time and again. Though her telekinesis allows her to do some pretty cool stunt work when she needs to, Zoe spends far too much time bemoaning the loss of Adrien’s affections. When she isn’t pining about what could have been, she’s a physical wreck, dependent on Aiden to survive.

With far too few glimpses of the self-confident freedom fighter readers have come to expect, Zoe goes from girl on fire to girl you want to set on fire.