King of Bad

King of Bad by Kai StrandBook #1: Super Villain AcademySource: PurchaseMy Rating: 4/5 starsMy Review:Jeff Mean really enjoys starting fires. Oh, he doesn’t do it to burn things down or cause harm to anyone – he’s polite like that – but to watch the flames grow and burn out. On some level, Jeff knows his pyrotechnics are wrong but he just can’t seem to stop himself. Additionally, he’s never been caught so why give up what he feels compelled to do?And then, there’s the day fire explodes from his fingertips and he gets caught . . . .Starting fires is certainly a crime and with being caught, Jeff is sure he is on his way to the pokey. Turns out, the person who caught him is actually a recruiter for the Super Villain Academy, a place where a young delinquent like Jeff can learn the best possible ways and methods to be bad without getting caught. Yeah, it sounds like a little slice of Heaven. Within days of his arrival at SVA, Jeff figures out just what an oddity he really is. His root power (or powers as he comes to realize) is confusing to his instructors, his willingness to help others is confounding to everyone (he is a villain!), and his crush on Oceanus is completely inappropriate. It takes work to be an outcast at a school for delinquents but Jeff has certainly found several ways to make it happen.What is a budding super villain to do??In Jeff’s case, he continues to be confused by his opposing nature, he continues to piss off his classmates with his insistence on using manners and being nice, and he works with a select few to further develop his considerable abilities. Oh, and he gets kidnapped. Balls but it’s hard being a teenager. The kidnapping turns out to be one of the worst and best things that’s ever happened to Jeff. Being chained certainly sucks but during his captivity, Jeff is not only able to further develop some really cool superpowers but he is also able to get some answers that have been plaguing him since the whole mess started. The valiant rescue doesn’t go at all like anyone involved intended or expected but it sure is spectacular and it turns the clandestine world of super heroes and super villains on its collective ass.The Bottom Line: This is my first Kai Strand book and it certainly won’t be my last. King of Bad is all kinds of fun with heroes, anti-heroes, a wide variety of super powers, secrets and secrets revealed, and just enough action and very light romance to keep everyone happy. Jeff is such a unique character on so many levels that it’s hard not to find something about him that you like. He’s a special breed of super that confuses damn-near everyone he encounters. His weirdness is both entertaining and refreshing. The entire story is told from Jeff’s POV so I was constantly engaged and willing to go along for the ride as Jeff (and everyone else) worked to figure out a lot of craziness. From start to finish, I enjoyed this read and will quite willingly be moving on to books two and three in the series.

It’s not easy to learn how to become a bad guy.I was fascinated by how the Super Villain Academy worked. The students there have an extremely wide variety of powers so the instructors had to use some fairly creative methods in order to create lessons that worked for everybody. Several of my favorite scenes focused on showing what these methods were and how the students reacted to them.This story had such a large cast of characters that I had trouble keeping track of who everyone was and what kinds of abilities they were learning to control. It would have been helpful to either get to know a smaller number of characters much more thoroughly or to have some kind of reference page to look back on when I needed to refresh my memory. Some of their abilities were truly amazing. I wish I could have been able to learn more about them.The world building was nicely done. This was an incredibly complex culture in certain ways, yet it was explained so clearly that I always understood what was going on. What I liked most about the world building was how slowly and naturally it unfolded. Not everything was revealed right away, but the most important facts about how this society works were shared with audience when they needed to be.There were issues with the ending. It’s tone and themes were nothing at all like what had happened earlier on. I had trouble adjusting to such an abrupt change in so many different parts of the tale so late in the plot. It would have been really helpful to have more clues about what was coming before the last few scenes so that the transitions to them could have been smoother.What I liked most about the fight scenes was how clearly they were explained. There was quite a bit of action going on in some of them, but I could always visualize what everyone was doing in them because the author spent so much time showing the audience what was happening. In some ways I felt more like I was reading a comic book during these scenes than reading a novel because of how easy it was to imagine every single attack and defensive move.King of Bad should be read by anyone who really loves stories about the dark side of super powers.originally posted at long and short reviews

Jeff is a bad boy. Not just that, but he’s a bad boy who has the ability to start fires. Uh-oh. An organization named Super Villain Academy recruits him. Jeff is surrounded by those who have different abilities…and they’re bad kids, too. Things get real interesting with girl issues, family secrets, and the dynamics of the academy.The characters and setting were interesting in this fantasy/paranormal novel. The idea of the academy and the members' abilities is brilliant and wonderfully executed by the author. I also appreciated reading a “boy book” when I usually read about girls in YA. The author provided a copy in exchange for an honest review.

So, so good!

Jeff is a teen on the verge of adulthood who needs to find his way in life but is instead spending his time setting fires in school and wasting his time but when he is approached by someone to see if he would be interested in honing his badness by attending the Super Villain Academy to make him the baddest he can be he doesn't know the half of what is to come. With Jeff discovering talents like being able to shoot fire from his hands he must question what he thought he knew to be real and find his way in a new school full of others Super Villains in training. Can he figure out everything going on around him whilst he also discovers more about himself?The first thing that I have to say is that as I read this book I found myself knowing I would be downloading the next book in the series (Polar Opposites) and headed straight over to Amazon to check out more about the book before even finishing this one (something I know you should never do). The author, Kai Strand, has managed to deliver a very entertaining book that has a great flow to it and means that whilst this is aimed at the young adult market it doesn't read in a way that is so simplistic that it will stop other readers from enjoying it too.The dialogue is well thought out and delivers a realistic feel that I really found worked well with the story and allowed me to be drawn in a lot more than other books that contain heroes or villains with "super-powers".A big congrats to the author on a well thought out story which was brilliantly delivered and thanks to the added twists and turns made for a book that stands out in a crowded arena for this genre.