I was super excited for this novella, it really gave off Shatter Me vibes from the synopsis. The storyline is so unique, and absolutely action packed. The characters are awesome and their powers are so cool.

Unfortunately this eARC never downloaded properly to my Kindle and I am unable to download it again to read it so will be unable to offer a review. I have to leave a rating so will leave a three stars which I feel is fair as I am unable to offer a view on it.

I Am the Storm is written by Tash McAdam and published by Nine Star Press in 2018. This is a dystopian science fiction story aimed at young adults, though middleschoolers would also likely enjoy it. I was given a digital copy through Net Galley. This review is my opinion.
I Am the Storm is set in a dystopian world where ten percent of the population has telepathic abilities. The government—called the Institute—uses these individuals by brainwashing or forcing them into using their powers for the betterment of the government. A rebel group—called the ARC-- uses these abilities against the Institute. This book follows two telepathic kids, Sam, who is fourteen and is the only known techno-path, meaning he can control electronics, and Serena, who is telepathic training in the ARC. When Sam goes for a doctor’s appointment, he is abducted by the Institute and must try to escape from their brainwashing facility. Serena passes her final test and is assigned to rescuing whoever the Institute is trying desperately to capture along with her best friend turned enemy, Abial. The rest of the book follows these two story lines in alternating chapters until the two meet and have to escape the city.
After reading the description, I was really excited to read this book. The world sounded interesting, the characters fun, and the telepathic powers were a good twist on another dystopian tale. However, I found the execution . . . poorly done. Maybe I was expecting too much and should have lowered my expectations to a more middle-grade level book, but I feel that that is also unfair. 
The world building is too heavy handed, including an entire chapter where Serena is sitting in her room and telling the readers all about her life and the ARC and what the world is like from her perspective. An entire chapter! Sam does something similar, though at least he’s actively using his powers to entertain himself while waiting for his appointment—which in my opinion, is the reason he gets caught making everything his fault—but it’s too much and not well done. I nearly stopped on page 35 but kept going only because the book is only 175 pages long. Despite all this telling, there are several things that I am confused about. One, why is the City so drastically separated between the poor and the rich? What caused this and why is it so enforced—the poor aren’t given medical aid or education—when there doesn’t seem to be a reason for this? Maybe if the themes were supposed to focus on socio-economic inequality this would work, but that’s not really a theme that is prevalent or expanded on in this book. Second, why on earth is “Google” used as a swear word? What world or time period are we supposed to be in that this particular word’s meaning has changed from mega-corporation used to find things on the internet to a swear word? “Nuke” I assume would refer to a nuclear war which may have led to this society and would make a little more sense, but “Google” . . . I have trouble with that one. 
I also have to admit I really didn’t care about Serena and Abial’s story arc. I was happy that McAdams doesn’t make Serena the love interest for Sam. She has a crush on Abial but their friendship is strained since Serena hasn’t said anything about it and Abial is now actively trying to sabotage their friendship. At first, I thought Serena was right in guessing Abial was either homophobic or maybe she was just angry that Serena hasn’t fessed up to it yet, but later we learn it’s because she’s jealous of how much attention Serena is getting from their trainer, Kion. Abial cheats and actively tries to stop Serena from passing her training by telepathically projecting an image of Serena’s dead baby brother into the arena . . . because she’s jealous. I was pissed. And on top of all that, Kion payed attention to Serena because they’re related—which I hadn’t realized either which seems odd since we’re in Serena’s head and not Abial’s. First, I think that bit about being related to Kion was just thrown in at the end as an excuse. Second, it made me not care about Abial at all. I don’t care if you are jealous; you do not make your “friend” see their dead baby brother. Period. Nothing is really resolved through their actions on the mission and I don’t feel bad for them when Abial is killed. Also,  Why is the death of the romantic interest such a common thing in lgbtq+ literature? It annoys me so much!
I do like Sam’s story line. His escape and how he plans his revenge is cool. I did wish the plot line with his father and the reader—a telepath who is can trace someone’s path by “reading” what they’ve touched—had been developed a bit more. It would’ve created some more internal conflict for Sam, given more insight into the world, and given more elements that could create more trouble for the characters in general. But it’s mentioned, used as an excuse for how Sam can escape, and then never mentioned again. 
Finally, the ending was a bit disappointing. Serena and Sam escape the city into the desert, they are being chased and have no way of escape, Sam manages to get rid of the guards, and they are left to drive into the unknown with reinforcements on their tail. If they had even just made it to the ARC base or both been captured, something a little more final than “runaway round two,” maybe I would have accepted it. But this ending doesn’t feel like an ending. It just stops.
Overall, I was disappointed. I love the concept and Sam is cool, but there is too much exposition, plot lines aren’t developed or at least not developed well, and I did not care about Serena’s story or her relationship with Abial. I wanted to like this book but it just fell on its face for me. I was reminded a bit of the Alex Rider books so maybe this would be appealing to that demographic or maybe middle schoolers in general, but I felt the end result wasn’t worth the time and effort and I feel bad about that because I wanted to like this book. Apparently there is another book, so maybe I need to read that one in order to understand this one better, but right now, I can’t bring myself to do it.

This was an interesting one, I struggled with this.  The plot sounded so good and I wanted to like it more.  For me the pacing was off and this affected my enjoyment of the book. I enjoyed the characters and found them likeable and funny.  But due to the pace issues and the plot seemed to get a little lost unfortunately not for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Ahhh!! It ends in a cliffy, damnit! LoL
Hopefully the next comes out soon. 

This was a thrilling ride featuring 2 young adults. One trained in combat and telekinesis, the other can talk to electronics. The story is told from both perspectives. Serena in one part of the world and Sam from another. Each follows their own story until they finally meet up near the end. Now they're struggling to escape the clutches of the evil government and their soldiers "The Watch". 


It's fast paced and action packed and will have up absolutely cheering for these characters. The world building is awesome, and reminds me of a few books I've read in the past, but with their own twists. Like the world is split into sectors and the main city is sealed in by The Wall. (Reminds me of Eden from The Beyond Series by Kit Rocha).

Anyway, there's zero heat in this book, this is not a romance. I've not read one like that in awhile and it was actually kind of refreshing. Highly recommend if badass YA/Dystopian/Adventure/PNR is your "thing" :)

I Am the Storm is a dystopian, young adult book where people can have telekinetic powers and a corrupt government strives to control and harness these powers whilst a rebellion tries to fight back from the outside - in. 

We get to read from the point of view of both Serena, the rebellions youngest ever inducted operative and Sam a technopath (someone who can control technology) who is on the run from the corrupt government.

Serena rescues Sam to help the rebellions cause.

The characters are quirky, funny and have their own sweetness and distinct personalities. I also like that Tash was ruthlessly realistic in terms of character injuries. This is not a happy fairytale but what I'd consider an accurate depiction of the losses and pain sufferred during a time of conflict.

The pacing was off for me. Initially the story starts with lots of action and holds your interest. A few chapters in I found the book lagging and losing any meaning and quite a lot of dialogue that didn't progress the plot or really help with characterisation. Saying that, it did pick up again near the end when the action revs back up a gear and finishes with a cliffhanger.

I would have given this book 4 or 5 stars based on the writing style and characters and plot potential but unfortunately the pacing issue above and certain elements of the plot that were left totally untouched (family members missing, reactions to infamous peoples deaths, a point of view from the institution hunting the telekinetics) brought it down to a 3 star book.

Overall it was still an enjoyable read and that cliffhanger did leave me wanting more and hoping all the plot holes above are covered in upcoming sequels.

This book had potential and I'm so disappointed that it turned out like this. There was so much unnecessary boring description of the surrounding and stretched out internal monologue. I could neither get to know the main character or the characters around them. There was hardly any dialogue and the dialogue that it had were either bland or cringey. There were potentially suspenseful and emotional moments but I didn't feel them because I had no connection to the characters.

This book has alternating POVs in each chapter- Sam and Serena. The first 50% of the book was just Sam trying escape from the dentist. Nothing big happened even after he escaped. 

The whole story was just something that would normally happen in the first 50 pages of a book. There was no plotline and it was just really disappointing. 

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

There was a lot going on here. At times it was a bit hard to follow, and there were some logical jumps that were a bit difficult, but all in all I would say it's a pretty decent YA novel. The latter part read a bit more like a cartoon than a novel but I could see that be appealing to some. The premise was good, the execution just wasn't entirely my thing I guess.

The problem with <i>I Am the Storm</i> by Tash McAdam is that I just couldn't take this book seriously. Following the stories of a young man called Sam with psionic abilities to control technology as he hides from the government who would love nothing more than to take him, experiment on him, and use him for their own benefit and twisted goals and a young girl with mind reading capabilities desperate to find her younger brother who had unfortunately suffered the very fate Sam is trying to avoid, <i>I Am the Storm</i> had a <i>lot</i> of potential.

And yet, I really didn't like this book.

I was excited to read it at first. Unfortunately, the very beginning completely threw me off, setting the scene for me to grow tirelessly frustrated with the writing, the pacing, the characters, and the overall cheesiness of the language. To begin with, the society uses phrases like, "Google, I hate this," and "Nuke me now." And I suppose this quirkiness could have been fun had I been a little bit more impressed with the rest of the novel.

We're first introduced to this world with a giant info-dump of telling and speaking at the reader, leading up into an ironic assumption that we would understand pieces of the world simply by inferring from the related unnecessary information that is presented. I couldn't stand the way Sam's voice was introduced, how he existed as the sort of character that "thinks" everything readers need to know within the first chapter. And then there are points where, instead of naturally inserting the information into the story, Sam references a word and then gives its definition. I just couldn't stand it.

And unfortunately, that seems to be how a lot of the character development in this novel happened, by the novel simply telling the reader something rather than showing events and experiences that would actually grow the characters. Sam himself was also exceptionally annoying in general. Serena was a little bit more likable, which I appreciated, but there was an unfortunate pettiness in her fight with another character that just left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a dislike for the way the rebellion was organized.

Speaking of the rebellion, it's no surprise that the one thing that could really help them turn things around is Sam's abilities--not that they're aware of who Sam is at the beginning--and so as I progressed through the story it genuinely felt as though literally nothing happened. I think pacing was quite a problem in this novel, sometimes moving too quickly for me to develop any ability to care about the characters and at other times dragging out so much that I grew regularly bored.

While I won't say that this was a horrible novel, but it definitely wasn't <i>good</i> by my standards. I can see a lot of people really enjoying it because the plot was definitely fantastic. The execution could have been better with a little bit more happening throughout the book and less filler. Ultimately, I'm not so sure that the book ended where it should have and it felt as though McAdam was adding a bunch of superfluous scenes in order to drag out and end in a specific spot. I don't foresee myself bothering with the sequel.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>

I’ve read lots of books for young adults  but I am the storm by Tash McAdam is just not for me. It started out fine and interesting but I found myself distracted by other things while reading it.

But I want to thank NetGalley and NineStar Press for this copy.

I've heard this is a debut novella, and although I was apprehensive in going into this, it was surprisingly good! There are themes of rebellion, survival, danger, and a lot of emotion! The writing is fluid and not boring at all. The descriptions helped paint this picture of a world where imagination runs wild. I haven't read many books with a present tense perspective but this was fresh and invigorating!

Highly recommend!!