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This ended up being a pretty brief read, and kind of just serves as a means for the author to get the reader acquainted with the world she's built. For the most part, we're introduced to a reality where certain people in our population are born with superpowers, who kind of operate a secret society to hide from those that wish them harm.

The world-building is pretty great, as we start to learn about the mystery of a world-class illusionist who is on trial for the murder of his brother - the caveat being, of course, that no one can find a body. There's a lot of promise to the internal rules that come with the lore, such as the fact that all of these Supers rely on energy systems to indicate their emotional and physical status, along with details of how their powers work.

By the end of this, I was ready to leap into the next book, Kat & Mouse.

I'm honestly not sure what this book wants to be - it attempts to combine a tell-all expose with an instruction manual with random musings on women, sex, and psychology. It also clumsily attempts to shoehorn in a Hollywood love story.

This book focuses on the underground world of pickup artists, or more specifically, online communities and workshops started by them. Some parts of the book are legitimately interesting - for example, the background on how these kinds of communities come to be, and why men are so driven to be a part of them, were actually somewhat insightful. Sadly, these more interesting notes get lost in a self-obsessed narrative about a protagonist trying to hone his craft and be so mindbendingly awesome that the perfect woman will find him.

Though there are moments of self-awareness, the book seems to lose those moments of lucidity quickly in the pursuit of pretentious bravado. It's noxious and tends to liken people, specifically women, to basic computers that can be hacked with simple exploits.