Monday 18 August 2014

Heroes of the Horde Book 1: Unleashed by Jennifer Hartz

Title: Heroes of the Horde Book 1: Unleashed
Author: Jennifer Hartz
Series: Heroes of the Horde
Read Type: Desert Breeze Publishing
Stars: StarStarStarStar

You can purchase a copy of this book from Amazon UK and Amazon US
You can find out more about the author on her Website
 photo UnleashedCoverArt_zps610ce5ab.jpg Six mismatched students at Deacon Proprietary are about to discover the demonic legend of their school's origin is actually true. Not only have they obtained amazing powers, but they've also unleashed the demonic Horde. Now it's up to these six high school freshmen to stop the Horde before its evil spreads throughout the school and beyond. 



Strong language: Mild
Drugs: None
Violence: Some, semi-comic
Sexual content: None

I received a copy of Heroes of the Horde: Unleashed, in return for an unbiased review.

This novel covers a group of six High School kids, a mix of misfits and popular ones, who accidentally invoke the school's myth of how it got its name and each end up with powers far beyond the norm. these vary from fire to mental powers and even the ability to use scripture to protect themselves from the demons they find in the world around them.

This was a fun, light read, with the characters not taking themselves or what they could do too seriously. At first I was confused however as it was written in first person but seemed to jump between the members of the group. A note to readers out there: unlike me actually READ the text above the story as it says the name of the character. I did find the switching between the six characters a bit disturbing to making a connection emotionally, however they were very much in tune with each other which helped.

As for the characters themselves I could write tomes on them. Each one had a different outlook and past that I think defined what powers they got. You had:
Shelly, your average girly girl with a side of read your mind
Mike, Shelley's twin who's naturally bouncier than his basketball and seems to get the power of flubber!
Cooper, the kind, relatable strongman
Jimmy, comes across as too cool for school, but a potential leader
Maggie, the Christian who serves up flambé demon with what she's learned in bible studies
And Caitlyn, the new girl trying to change her image to not be the school punch bag she's been in her past

I felt the text could have done with a final edit as some things read a bit flat and cardboard, particularly conversations amongst the group. Emotion was also an issue at times, particularly during life or death battles. But it was a light hearted novel, designed more for the beach than University study, so I'll give it more of a pass on that than I would in a LotR rewrite.

Overall this was a light break from some of the books I've read of late and I was always eager to get back to it. I would recommend it to youths and people looking for a different sort of superhero novel, as well as people that just want to kick back and relax.

Due to a group of minor issues I give it a 3.5 but will upgrade that to a 4 for the sake or reviewing sites

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