{Book Review} Twinepathy (IDIA #1) by C.B. Cook

 

Albany York has a secret.

Albany and her twin sister, Brooklyn, have spent years successfully hiding their telepathic connection. But when a girl falls unconscious at their doorstep, the girls learn that they might not be the only people in the world with extraordinary powers and that a memory thief is on the loose. As the twins try to help the girl find her memories, they discover that the superhero world might be bigger—and more dangerous—than they ever imagined.

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The best way I can think to describe this book is: A rollicking good time! Because it WAS.

SO. This is a contemporary superpowers YA thingamabob which is something I’ve NEVER read before, BUT NOW I NEED MORE. Because woooow. This was so fun! Oh. And there’s twins. TWINS. Superpowers and twins. Do I even need to say anything else? I really don’t think I do. SUPERPOWERS AND TWINS, PEOPLE. Okay, okay, fine!

 

The Rundown:

Albany and Brooklyn (our twinsies) secretly have telepathy and can literally speak to each other’s minds even if they’re in DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. #convenient (I’m sure they save a lot of money on phone bills.) Super Twins status here. But, other than that, their lives have been normal. Until BOOM some little girl falls unconscious on their doorstep and wakes up with amnesia. Next thing the twinsies know, they’re joining IDIA, a secret (gotta keep them secrets) superpower organization thingy. Basically a place that recruits “enhanced” people to be agents and whatnot. Albany and Brooklyn are thrown into a case of a MEMORY THIEF (coolest. idea. EVER.) which ensues much mystery and danger. Also much of it takes place in ANTARCTICA.

Sounds fun, yes? YES.

And how about dat cover? <333

The book is in first person, present tense which is. . .not my favorite. But I actually forgot it even was in present tense after like the first 3 pages. So it obviously worked! This was my first thing to ever read by C.B. Cook. And let me tell you, SOMEBODY HAS SERIOUS TALENT. She puts words seamlessly together to give us a quick, easy read. The descriptions are short and sweet and yet I ALWAYS felt like I was right there. I could see everything perfectly without being bogged down by descriptions somehow. MAGIC STORYTELLING. I just loved the whole style of the book. Albany is our narrator and it FELT like we were inside the head of a teenage girl. Everything was so realistic and witty and well put together. A+ writing right here!

There were two things that struck me within just a few chapters of this book. One, the pacing. The pacing is spectacular! I’m quite picky about pacing in books. Actually in anything. (Probably because I used to be the wooooorst at pacing and have poured out blood, sweat, and tears in my stories trying to get the pacing right. So I think I pay extra attention to it as a result.) The story opens up with the twins playing Go Fish with their older brother Denver (their parents named them all after cities, is that not the coolest idea???), so you get a slight taste of their life, then a few paragraphs later the doorbell rings. CUE THE STORY. No slow parts! But also not overly hectic either. It had just enough information to keep my ever curious mind satisfied, but enough action to keep my short attention span happy.

Which kind of brings us to the second thing that struck me. This book felt like a TV show. And I mean that as the highest of compliments! I absolutely love when a book feels like a good movie or TV show. Some books don’t translate well to movies, but some do. The Hunger Games for example. Those books worked wonderfully as movies because the books just FELT like epic movies. Twinepathy was the same. The entire time I felt like I was watching a new superpower TV show put on by Marvel or DC or somebody. The pacing, the characters, the plot. Total fun TV show feel.

But what about the characters??? Ah yes, my favorite subject!

 

Characters:

Albany: She is our narrator, as I said, and quite the little rash human bean. While perusing other reviews, I noticed a lot of people disliking her hasty, irrational decisions because it constantly caused trouble. But I actually. . .liked it? It felt human and realistic to me. She’s naturally a super curious person and can’t stand waiting around. Also following orders isn’t exactly her forte. But I never saw it in a, “NO I SHALL REBEL AND SAVE THE WORLD MYSELF BECAUSE I’M SO BRAVE AND AWESOME” kind of way that does tend to be common with main characters. Her actions were more out of curiosity and wanting to protect everyone. I mean, she only just discovered this secret superpower agency place, and is getting thrown headfirst into all kinds of dangerous situations. Not to mention she suddenly has to trust the judgment of the leader of IDIA after knowing her for like a DAY. I couldn’t entirely blame her (even though I’m a total rule-follower and pushover myself, heh). She also has a lovely character-arc, which I think was the point. And character arcs/growths are my faaaave. So yes, I didn’t have any problems with her recklessness. It was handled well, added good tension, and made for some healthy character growth.

And, as I said before, being inside her head totally felt like being in a modern day, teenaged girl’s head. For example, this is from the 2nd page of the book:

“I fly into the kitchen. I’m no cook, but I had to try
the bacon cookie recipe I found. I mean, hello,
bacon and cookies! –Twinepathy

I get ya, Albany, I get ya.

Brooklyn: Albany’s twin Brooklyn is a total sweetheart and I want to be her friend in real life. She’s the softer, more social butterfly of the twins (one of the reasons Albany was always trying to protect her, despite orders), and can literally coax ultra powerful, scary men into giving her a cookie recipe. (It happened.) (Also ALL THE COOKIES. Donuts as well are involved in this story. I APPROVE.)

Denver: The twinsles (I like making up words for twins, okay???) ever concerned brother. He was a total awkward penguin and I liked him very much. I’d love to see more of him in later books.

Maddie: She is an adorable girl whom I want to hug forever. The end.

Ezra: This girl was awesome because she’s an introvert with purple hair and does cool things and I just think her character was very unique. So yes.

Jen: This woman intrigued me greatly! Maybe not the easiest person to be all buddy-buddy with, but her cool-headedness always kept things together. I just really liked this woman and MUST KNOW MORE ABOUT HER.

Speaking of which. . .

Anvil: GIVE ME ALL THE ANVIL DETAILS I NEEDS THEM. At first this scary dude seems, well, scary (I’m so eloquent). He’s very detached, but you KNOW he’s actually a deep, deep pool of awesomeness and mystery and I must have answerrrrrssss! (We need more Anvil, C.B.! *puppy dog eyes*)

Blaze: BLAAAAAZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If this isn’t your type of story READ IT ANYWAY. Because BLAZE. He’s a teleporter and just shows up eeeeverywhere, which is the most fun thing EVAH. BUT THIS BOY. He’s witty and hilarious and actually NICE. At first I was thinking he’d be the dark, sarcastic guy I always tend to fall for (oops?). BUT, actually, he’s the other type of male character I love with all my being. The fun, sweet, I’ll-save-your-life-while-making-hilarious-comments type of charrie. But also he has a mysterious (possibly tragic) past. AND JUST LET ME HUG HIM. I want a Blaze in my life, yes I do.

There are others, too, such as Finch and Keller and probably a bunch more I can’t remember right now. But basically, it was a very diverse, fun cast! (BUT BLAZE. <333)

One of my most favorite things about this book were the unique powers. I feel like most superhero things tend to have very mainstream abilities—super strength, invincibility, flying, etc. But not Twinepathy! Sure, there are a few “normal” superpowers. (Funny how we live in a world where we can call superpowers normal. I blame Marvel! Or. . .thank Marvel? Yesss.) Such as the teleportation and telepathy. But then we have other entirely original abilities that made my unique-loving heart flip with joy. SO MANY COOL IDEAS. It was just a blast!

Though I do have a little tiff. The whole title is a play on twins + telepathy and yet there. . .wasn’t a lot of twinsing (totes a word) and telepathy going on. In fact, I wondered multiple times why the twins weren’t speaking to each other with their telepathy. I may have just gotten confused (because that’s what I DO) but on a few occasions Albany was worried about Brooklyn and I couldn’t understand why she didn’t just speak to her sister through their telepathy connection, since it’s apparently easy and natural for them. Also Brooklyn got left in the background a lot which made me sad. Gimme all the fun twinsing and telepathy(ing?) please!

Another thing is it wasn’t a super deep book. Such as we never get an explanation of WHY some people have superpowers. I mean, it seems to be a thing certain people are born with but. . .why? And how have Albany and Brooklyn handled it all their life? We just never get very deep at all into any of the characters and I really wanted to know everything about EVERYBODY. BUT I know some things are coming, because this is only the first book of a series. Also I’m not really saying this wasn’t real deep as a BAD thing. I think the sole purpose of this book is for FUN. And it fulfills its purpose completely.

Oh, and did I mention this book was inspired by MARVEL? Yesssssh.

 

Content Cautions
NOTHING. This book is perfectly clean. And even though it’s a superhero book, there’s hardly any gore and such. People get beat up and things a bit, sure, but C.B. did a wonderful job of keeping it light. There’s not even any romance! (I suspect there maaay be a tinge in later books? I’m actually hoping for it because certain characters. *cough* BUT STILL. YA book with no romance. ‘Tis a miracle!) It’s just a fun, lighthearted read.

I’d say it’s mostly written for pre-teens and teens. (And people in their 2os like me who refuses to EVER stop reading YA. It’s my faaaave and I have no regrets!)

 

Conclusion
Well, I apparently had many thoughts on this book! But it was just that good! It’s not a very deep, emotional book, but sometimes we just need something to have a good time with. And that’s precisely what Twinepathy is. With a cool cast of characters, unique abilities, and smooth writing, it’s a quick, fun read. If you’re a fan of superhero/agent things and want something fun to read, I’d definitely recommend this one! It was the perfect little summer read! After finishing it, I felt like I had just delved into a cool TV show. (Like seriously, I reeeally want someone to turn this into a television series!)

Also cookies and penguin jokes. Yes. You need it.

Now I want to go find ALL the superhero and/or secret agent books! I had no idea what I was missing! (Any recommendations?)

For giving me such a fun time (AND BLAZE) I can’t help but give Twinepathy a. . .

 

5 out of 5 stars

 

Have you read Twinepathy? Are you going to nooow???
*grins* Have you ever read any superhero books?
Any Marvel fans? (*waves hand excitedly in the air*
Well, I’ve only seen the movies. . .but yeah.) What is your
favorite superpower you’ve ever come across in fiction?