The Filipina Booknote

Originally posted at The Filipina Booknote


What to do when you come across a blurb that screams superheroes and highschool flick together? You click request and pray that they allow you to read it.

The Psi Fighters are nothing like comic book superheroes. We're more like awesome vigilantes. We practice the Mental Arts, which are like martial arts with extra caffeine and awesome sauce.

Rinnie Noelle is an ordinary highschool student who has a popular bestfriend, Kathryn, and is bullied by Mason, her arch-enemy. But what her crush, Egon, and her school doesn’t know is she’s also a Psi Fighter. Psi Fighters are superheroes in this book which uses mental arts as their weapon. They just use their mind and voila! they just kicked your ass. Rinnie’s life revolved around two things, surviving highschool were bullies and evil classmates lurk, and busting this big drug case which involves people who hurt her family. You know everyone who keeps big secrets is bound to find trouble sooner or later right? And Rinnie did have her own troubles, mainly setting priorities between her ordinary life(mainly her love life) and her superhero life. If you want to find out about her conflicts, you better read the book.

I was really excited to read this one after seeing this at Netgalley. I thought the blurb really sounded interesting and having a kickass heroine was what made me looked forward more to reading this. It was really ”grool”(cool and great) seeing the life Rinnie had. She had this amazing mind power that makes her weapons, flips villains without breaking a sweat and she was not an irritating character. Except the part where she got sidetracked by her love life, I liked her personality. I also adored her bestfriend, Kathryn. She was the perfect side-kick to Rinnie. She was talkative, curious, and loyal. It was funny how their girl problems got mixed with all the superhero duties Rinnie had to face. Kathryn was like a neutralizer and Rinnie’s much needed break when saving the world from evil gets exhausting.

The story was also well written and it explained what or who lead to those events. I must say Rosenteel did a good job with this debut book. This book was funny and exciting at the same time. The story might have been a little clichéd at times but it didn’t ruin the story for me. Hey, highschool lives are meant to be clichéd at times, right? Another thing I noticed was how this book subtly addressed the issue of bullying and cliques in our schools. That once and for all, those in minority groups get to have backbones too and learn how to stand up to those who step on them. So to readers out there who are big fans of superheroes and likes to imagine them living with us, this book is a good read and you’ll enjoy this one. But I have to be honest here, although I did like this book and I do anticipate for the second book, I still feel it was a so-so. It's lacking a bit of kick and I hope the second book brings that.