YA
Brilliant Trash is one of those books where the premise arrives wearing steel-toe boots. It’s doing a lot, and mostly it gets away with it.
What kept me interested wasn’t the scale of the idea so much as whether any character could survive inside it. That’s always the test, really. Big concept is fine. Thin people are not.
Still curious about books that take a swing this hard, even when they’re a bit messily ambitious. Better that than another perfectly tidy nothing.
What kept me interested wasn’t the scale of the idea so much as whether any character could survive inside it. That’s always the test, really. Big concept is fine. Thin people are not.
Still curious about books that take a swing this hard, even when they’re a bit messily ambitious. Better that than another perfectly tidy nothing.
The premise is so extreme it almost stops being a premise and becomes a dare. That can be a good thing, but only if the book knows where to put the weight.
I’m usually more interested in whether a story like this has any room for teen interiority, or if it just uses teenagers as a convenient way to turn the volume up. The second option gets old fast.
I’m usually more interested in whether a story like this has any room for teen interiority, or if it just uses teenagers as a convenient way to turn the volume up. The second option gets old fast.
The title alone feels like it’s trying to start a fight, which I respect a bit. I’m more interested in whether the cyborg angle is doing real work here or just acting as cover for a familiar good-versus-evil setup. Big, messy ambition can be a relief, though. At least it’s not pretending to be tidy.