Fun (but not funny) book about a world of superheroes and supervillains, and an apprentice to the Guild of Reformed Villainy. I will likely pick up the sequel. ( )

I had quite a few issues with the book but I dropped it because of something that is arguably just preference.
A lot of different things just rubbed me the wrong way.
The book has every conceivable POV and I am not exaggerating here.
I don't think there was a single character with a voice line that didn't get a POV section and there are a LOT of characters.
For me, this robbed all the mystery because of course most of them thought/stated their motivation and background and for all the most important characters we basically get a crash course on everything important about them. And the author goes even further and just straight up tells us sometimes big parts of their future via an omniscient narrator. I couldn't even remember the names of everyone.
Beyond that, it honestly just got boring to just keep switching POV. I don't care about all these random people I've never heard before and what they are doing. Maybe others are far more patient with this and I am just spoiled by all the fast-paced urban fantasy out there but to me, this was a major pacing issue.
It's obvious that all those characters, even the totally random unrelated ones, will all play a relevant role in the later plot but I already waited for like 4 hours without anything actually interesting happening. It's just setup and setup and setup.

The world very much seems like it's strongly inspired by the Worm web series. I generally don't mind too much if something is rather close to another story if it brings something fresh and interesting to the table. It's not too close to Worm to feel like a ripoff but there wasn't anything original that made it interesting.

Let's get to the actual characters and plot now. The MC is basically forced to join the bad guys club but she just takes it as a given. While I can admire a character that doesn't mourn lost opportunity and deals with the cards as they are dealt to her, there isn't even any resentment. She is kind of scared because if she doesn't measure up she will literally get executed. But she doesn't blame or resent the people that intentionally and knowingly put her into the situation. It can never be reverted for her entire life. Her only other out is to die but she is so blasé about it like there is nothing wrong with doing this to her.
I expect the reason for all this half-baked shit is that I am just very much still stuck in the setup part of the book and its only purpose is to get everything ready for the actual story to start but I am already tired of all this lazy and drawn-out shit.
I am not willing to spend my time on lazy setup if the author couldn't be bothered to at least make it right.
This is by far not an exhaustive list of the countless complaints and nitpicks I have which includes a number of tired tropes, clichées, and stereotypes.
The author might have a lot of cool and exciting new ideas for this clone world but he really needs to learn the ins and outs of proper storytelling. ( )

Nice idea and pretty good and memorable characters. Sometimes it seems as it could have been shorter but overall I liked that story and I'm pretty sure I will grab the second one (but not now :)). As for narration - very well done! ( )

I don't think I've ever come across a book by Drew Hayes I haven't enjoyed no matter what series it's part of. Slow to start but I absolutely loved it once things got going and the world established. Now I have to see if library has book 2 ( )

Yep, I keep coming back to this one - a definite favorite. Solid, inventive, well structured characters make everything else work. Even the completely crazy bits. ( )