Powerless, AI, and the Joy of Terrible Books: A Book Review
By Kharis Ott
This summer, I served as a counselor in training at Camp Ton A Wandah, watching over kids from elementary to high school. Most noticeably, all of the preteens read “BookTok” bestsellers. Every meal in the dining hall, someone would have a copy of The Cruel Prince or People We Meet on Vacation. Their rave reviews and persistent nagging led me to pick up one specific novel: Powerless by Lauren Roberts.
Powerless reads like a poorly written Hunger Games fanfiction. In the Kingdom of Ilya, Elites, people with magical powers, oppress and hunt Ordinaries while ruling with an iron fist. Paedyn Gray, an Ordinary pretending to be a psychic, accidentally saves the prince of the kingdom, Kai Azer, ultimately leading to her being entered into the “Purging Trials.” These circumstances culminate in a sickeningly sweet enemies-to-lovers mushy mess. I can’t even count the number of times Roberts describes the principal character’s eyes, comparing grey eyes to smoke, fog, and an all-consuming storm. For a book that clearly draws inspiration from Suzanne Collins’ masterpiece, it normalizes violence to a shocking degree. Characters are murdered and no one bats an eye, yet when a character important to the plot dies, the rest of the cast’s reactions feel melodramatic by comparison. The love triangle made me want to vomit, and I was physically uncomfortable when the love interests merely touched Paedyn. Also, I understand that this is nit-picky, but as someone who taught archery at summer camp, the archery scene was painfully inaccurate.
Despite my hateful rambles, I admittedly enjoyed reading Powerless. It was fun and stupid and, yes, I did finish it in three days–thank you for asking. There’s something so pleasurable about investing yourself entirely into a cringy fairytale world.
Though I was unaware of the controversy whilst reading, Roberts is currently facing criticism for allegedly writing the Powerless series with AI. Some argue that the author plagiarized Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Others point to awkwardly phrased sentences and plot holes. Others still defend Roberts by asserting that the original book was published in 2021, before large language models were widespread and relatively capable. I think the biggest concern, whether Roberts used AI or not, is her core audience’s nonchalant reaction to these concerns. Though AI is in many ways helpful, it makes art and stories soulless. When we take importance away from uniquely human capabilities and traditions, we start to devalue life itself. What would the Mona Lisa be like if Da Vinci didn’t study anatomy like a madman and painstakingly tweak it until the day he died? Would the world have cared about the moon landing if there wasn’t grit, creativity, and human spirit behind the space race? While AI is a tool, it is not an artist. It is not a poet. It is not a storyteller. It is simply not human.
Bad books and guilty pleasure reads aside, I will always enjoy reading a story made with a soul, no matter how cringy. However, Powerless raises questions about AI regulations within the publishing industry, and ultimately foreshadows a disheartening future: one where human work is devalued, and artificial creations are impossible to tell apart.
