Summary
Samantha Havardson is not an Apex. Seriously. She’s completely ordinary with a totally normal family that just happens to be moving to the Apex epicenter of the world- the manmade island city of New Delos. Although she thinks her lack of super Apex abilities will keep her out of the limelight, it quickly becomes apparent that the city has different plans, sweeping Samantha up in a world of secret identities and super powers where anyone, even those closest to her, might be an Apex.
Review
Beta was the YA superhero story that I didn’t know I needed. It is a fast-paced adventure filled with fantastic characters, an engaging storyline, and twists you definitely won’t see coming.
Just to get this out of the way first, I am not in the YA demographic but I will usually read a few YA books a year and enjoy them. There are some common YA tropes that put me off, mostly revolving around romance, and while romance does feature lightly in Beta, it thankfully shies away from the more irritating tropes and doesn’t go overboard with the teenage angst. Beta has a distinctly YA feel to it so expect teenagers acting like teenagers, but I think adults will find plenty to love about the book as well.
Zimny draws clear inspiration from well-known superhero stories for the foundation of her world, but then carves her own path from there. The story mostly takes place in a man-made city called New Delos, which is a haven for the superhumans of the world, known as Apex. Like in many other stories, people born with the Apex gene inherit superhuman powers, but most often stay in hiding to protect themselves and their loved ones. Our protagonist Sam moves to New Delos with her family at the beginning of the novel, and even though she is not an Apex, she quickly becomes embroiled in the activities of the secret Apex teams from her school. Her life starts to unravel very quickly and Zimny throws curveball after curveball at the reader, many of which you will never see coming.
The school setting features heavily in this novel, both a regular high school setting as well as the secret Apex training school within. I am usually a fan of the school trope in SFF and I think Zimny handles both of them very well. We get many of the classic school characters, the mean girl, the rude jock, the nerdy friend, and the heartthrob. And though they are stereotypical characters that could easily feel stale, the author does a great job of instantly sucking you into each one. There are characters to hate, to cheer for, to cry over, and ones that leave you guessing. The characters were definitely one of the highlights of the novel for me, they are all so instantly memorable in their own ways.
One of my other favorite parts of Beta was the way the plot progressed. Sam’s life keeps unravelling more and more as the book goes, and as we learn about the secrets everyone around her are keeping. I was able to guess some of the reveals, but there were many more twists that I did not see coming, especially the big one at the end of the novel. The way Zimny keeps you guessing, and throwing everything possible at poor Sam, kept the tension high and me glued to pages. If I wasn’t doing a buddy read of the series I would have had a very hard time not jumping into the sequel immediately.
As it stands, I loved my experience reading this book. It is fun, fast-paced, and riveting. I think it would work great as a palate cleanser or if you are just in the mood for a quicker and lighter read. So if any of this sounds interesting to you and you don’t mind some teenage antics, I highly recommend you pick this one up!