Cover Image: Radiants

Radiants

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Member Reviews

5.5 / 10 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/07/23/radiants-by-david-b-coe-review/

Radiants is a decent enough supernatural thriller from an author busy exploring a number of new genres and ideas. But… it’s not his best pitch. I mean, it’s an alright read; a quickly moving story that remains interesting and entertaining throughout.

It’s just that… it’s not realistic. Like, at all.

Government agencies are all incompetent enough to be taken to school by a couple of teens. They’re filled with sadistic, sexist, psychopathic assholes, like some classic evil-villain henchmen: incompetent sadists. Now it’s not that I’m saying government agencies being dicks is unrealistic—I’m saying that government agencies being filled with overly sadistic murderers that are <i>also</i> horribly incompetent isn’t realistic.

The tropes—including terrible and incompetent government types—are all old and overused. Even though the story itself is entertaining enough, it’s nothing new. Radiants tries nothing new, and does none of it exceptionally well.

TL;DR

While Radiants is a new entry into the supernatural thriller genre, there’s not especially anything new about it. Old, overused tropes that every supernatural thriller is born with coupled with a decent plot, decent characters, and a decently entertaining story… I think you can see the problem here. The simple fact is that Radiants tries very little (if anything) new. It’s an alright read if you want to kill a few hours, but it’s not in any way inventive, instead falling back on the same uninspired tropes that the genre has sold for years. Nothing about Radiants upset me, instead I found it a bit of a middling read, with nothing to differentiate it from any of the other thousands of related stories. I would recommend this solely on its entertainment value, but not if you want anything new or different, unafraid to try and fail, or push the genre in any way or direction. A decently entertaining, if uninspired, read.

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Radiants is an excellent thriller with young teenage NC’s fighting to escape from being captured and forced to work for government agencies with dark hidden agenda’s as DeeDee uses her powers and exposes herself as a valuable asset to be obtained at all costs. I really enjoyed the book and I look forward to continuing the series!

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Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

I liked it, not usually something that I would read but I enjoyed it.

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Dede has a secret that she’s been keeping her whole life. After a traumatizing event, she’s successfully pushed down the part of her that makes her unique, that is, until now. See, Dede can force her own consciousness out of her body and into others, essentially turning them into a puppet. And she’s going to be learning to use it a lot, apparently.

After using her power at school to protect and get revenge for her her friend Kyle from bullies, she comes home and tells her mom. Little does she know that her family will change forever, from that day on. Hunted down by the government, Dede and her little brother Miles are eventually separated from their mother and forced to work alone to save everyone involved, including themselves. They’re on the run, because if they stop, they’re facing incredible tests from the government to essentially map out every aspect of their unique abilities. At whatever the cost.

A good book, ,they story was more about finding yourself and staying strong in tough situations. From sticking up for your friends, to being blamed for murder and finding out your little brother’s powers, you have to do what you know what’s right, even if it’s scary and hard to achieve.

I enjoyed the book, but it’s not my new favourite. That being said, I would read more from the author in the future. It was written very smoothly, and suitable for readers fourteen an up, due to violence. Check it out if you think it would be something you’d like!

(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

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This book was a nice surprise! It felt a little bit like the X-men cartoons I used to watch on Saturday morning where I saw Jubilee, a teenager who suddenly came into her powers. Here it's Dede who can jump into people's minds and control them, ofcourse this makes her an interesting case for lots of different goverment agencies who want to get their hands on her. She goes on the run with her mom and younger brother, hoping she will still be able to live a life she wants to.
The book immediately starts interesting and turns out to be a fast paced story with many different players, yet the author does a good job of making them distinct enough to not get lost in the plot. The ending is, luckily, setting up a sequel and I am very happy about that! Hopefully in the second book we can also dive into DeDe and her brother more as well since character wise it didn't go very deep, but that was not an issue as it fit the happenings. Oh, and a non binary love interest, the fact that I almost forgot to mention it is a testament to the natural way this was written in the story. I liked how it was handled.

***Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review this book***

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This is a great book! Dede can control peoples thoughts, and one day she has to use her power, which sets off this thrill ride. It was a bit reminiscent of fire starter for me. There are various agencies that want to capture her and her brother. I was totally on Dede’s side the whole time! The story flows well, and the characters draw you in.

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I had a lot of fun reading this book, it had a fun scifi story, and was really well written. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed getting to know them and their powers.

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