Mini Challenge: League of Reluctant Adults - Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge

Here is another review for the New Author Challenge at Literary Escapism.

Black and White, by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge, Ballantine

Jet and Iridium are mortal enemies now, but they became friends at the Academy when they were 12 and just learning the ways of heroes - people born with genetic differences that give them superpowers.  There’s a lot going on in the telling of the story.  View points that alternate each chapter, and time frames that very every few chapters.  You get the present time, where the story takes place over days.  And interspersed with that you get year one, year two, etc., while the women were at the academy, so their backstory unfolds bit by bit, leading the reader to find out how they got where they are today. There’s a mystery surrounding the ‘heroes’ and their connection to the corporation that handles them. There’s a phobic group that hates and attacks the heroes.  There are a couple of strong secondary characters who may not be what they seem.  And there is one hero - Jet - who is by-the-book, duty-first, save-humanity and interestingly wears black and controls shadows/the dark.  And the other former-hero, Iridium, who breaks the rules, goes rogue and lords over the bad part of town, and wears white and controls the light. 

I can’t say that I’ve ever read anything like this, even in the urban fantasy field.  It was gripping and a fast-moving read.  I would have wanted to smack Jet except that Iridium did it for me (several times) so that balanced out quite nicely.  I did figure out the bad guys fairly early, but not the reason for their existence.  And I do love stories where you get to see the evolution of the characters.  All in all a very good read!