#SPFBO Book Review: Transition by Olivia Rising

After selecting our shortlist, the Bibliosanctum team is taking a closer look at our potential finalists. We are busy reading the six books left on our original list of thirty and then each of us will review two of them. Stay tuned for our follow-up discussion on all of our picks to see who we choose to go on to the next round!

Transition by Olivia Rising

Reviewer: Tiara

Genre: Superheroes, Urban Fantasy

Series: Anathema #1

Publisher: Olivia Rising (May 7, 2016)

Length: 400 pages

Author Information: Website

Transition revolves around two girls–Christina Chung, an outcast, and Sarina Baumann, a recovering drug addict–who gain powers during an event called The Pulse. During that even, the Earth’s electromagnetic field shifted briefly causing a worldwide blackout while wiping out one minute of everyone’s memory. As a result of this event, some people developed powers beyond their wildest dreams.Sabrina and Christina find their lives becoming considerably more complicated when the rogue hero Radiant enters their lives.

I’m a huge superhero fan. I love superhero themed comics, movies, shows, whatever. I’ll consume superhero stories in whatever format I can get my hands on. I love superhero origins stories, people discovering their true potential to become heroes (or villains), and their path to greatness (or infamy). I enjoyed the origin story that Rising is telling with Christina and Sabina. I preferred Christina’s story over Sarina’s. Christina just seemed the more compelling of the two, but both characters add an interesting angle to the story. While the story itself is familiar since many hero stories start with some type of huge event that gives ordinary people powers, Rising’s storytelling and worldbuilding was excellent. You can tell that she put plenty of thought into this story.

Let’s talk about a few not so great things about this book. I liked this, but it is very much a New Adult story, which may be a bit of a turn-off for some readers. It does fall into some of the Young Adult/New Adult trappings that can make adult readers roll their eyes such as Christina’s whole preferring guy friends to girl friends because girls are petty. However, she seems to be just as petty as the girls she dislikes so much. The story could’ve been knit together a bit better than it was. Some sections of this story just seem to go on a tangent that didn’t feel like it connected to the rest of the story. Parts of this story could also feel a little slow and may tempt readers to skip a few pages until they get to the good stuff.

I think this is a good starting point for the story that she wants to tell. It’s more of a slow burn as you learn about the characters, their powers, and this world they’re in. Despite some hiccups with the narrative, Rising has created a world that might be worth following into another book.

Tiara