Review: Swarm by Scott Westerfeld

*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Title: Swarm (Zeroes #2)

Authors: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: September 27, 2016

ISBN:  9781471124914

Synopsis from Goodreads:
They thought they’d already faced their toughest fight. But there’s no relaxing for the reunited Zeroes. These six teens with unique abilities have taken on bank robbers, drug dealers and mobsters. Now they’re trying to lay low so they can get their new illegal nightclub off the ground. But the quiet doesn’t last long when two strangers come to town, bringing with them a whole different kind of crowd-based chaos. And hot on their tails is a crowd-power even more dangerous and sinister. Up against these new enemies, every Zero is under threat. Mob is crippled by the killing-crowd buzz—is she really evil at her core? Flicker is forced to watch the worst things a crowd can do. Crash’s conscience—and her heart—get a workout. Anon and Scam must both put family loyalties on the line for the sake of survival. And Bellwether’s glorious-leader mojo deserts him. Who’s left to lead the Zeroes into battle against a new, murderous army?

I will confess, I’m not sure why I didn’t realized, but I did not know that this was book two in a series. Silly me! That being said, there was hardly any need for me to read book one, and going back now would merely be out of curiosity. Book one, I believe, would probably provide me with a better understanding of characters and how they came to be who they are–their development so to speak, but these authors do a wonderful job of providing enough information about how the characters got to be where they are so that I was fully informed of the story up until this point.

I’m glad of this series, because after reading Westerfeld’s last novel, Afterworlds, I was so disappointed. I’m a huge fan of his Uglies series and this last novel was a huge let down for me. But he’s back in business with Swarm! It’s an excellent collaborative work. I’m not often a fan of YA novels with multiple authors, but this one is quite cohesive and compelling. The story is strong, the characters are diverse and very interesting. Their powers are completely fascinating.

The only thing I would have enjoyed seeing more of–and again this may be something that I missed out on in book one–is reading about the characters practicing their powers. They do this to some extent in Swarm however, it’s minimal and I would have loved to see the authors touch on it a bit more. I always enjoyed reading about characters who are working on self development to further their story and their quests.

This is definitely a series that I’d encourage YA readers to try out. I very much enjoyed it.