Review: XGeneration 1: You Don't Know Me

XGeneration 1: You Don't Know Me by Brad Magnarella

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I got this book as part of the Riot Girls box set.

I love superhero prose, but I didn't love this. Though it was well-edited and read smoothly, I found it very slow-moving, with a lot of detail about the characters' everyday lives, and just a gradually-building sense of Things Amiss that didn't build fast enough to keep my interest.

What really put me off it, though, and caused me to put it down after reading about a quarter of it, was the constant 80s references. I expect some cultural references in a book set in the 1980s, sure, but it isn't necessary to drop a brand name, celebrity name, or other pop culture item on every page. The brand names were the most frequent and pervasive. Nobody could just look at their shoes or smooth their shirt or put laundry in the washing machine, there had to be a brand mentioned. At first it was mildly annoying, but eventually (combined with a not-yet-exciting story) it drove me out of the book.



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