Hush Money - Susan Bischoff

This, my first review as Madam Reads-Alot, was originally posted on Goodreads (will link to my Goodreads profile soon).
A bit about Susan: she's an indie author who specialises in superpowers. Hush Money is her first novel, hopefully to be followed by second soon. I quite liked this one.

-->Be normal, invisible. Don’t get close to anyone. Kids with psychic abilities tend to mysteriously disappear when they get noticed. Joss has spent years trying to hide. Now she has an unasked-for best friend, who is the victim of an extortion plot by the school bully, who used to like Joss, who is best friends with her long-time crush, who is actually talking to her. Life just got more complicated.

In her first novel, Susan Bischoff brings us this original beauty about common kids with terrifying Talents, and what becomes of them when they get caught out. She’s managed to write a used idea in a way that could quickly make superpowers the new vampirism. 

While there are typical teenage girls and boys written into the story, the main characters have qualities which many teens (and older) can associate with. Realistic attitude, not too attractive and awkward teenage emotions carry the relationships into a zone that’s easily understandable and a little bittersweet, given the circumstances. The dialogue has a nice zing to it, with the perfect amount of young sarcasm and nerve. The narration of more than one character allows a better insight to the complications of supernatural teenage love. It’s a great way to watch the relationship between characters develop throughout the story.

One thing that bugged me was the focus on a fellow student as the main antagonist. Of course, there was the government agency that was threatening the lives of all those with Talents, but there wasn’t enough focus on that. Instead, we see quite a bit of Marco, the blackmailing, abusive jock, menacing people into getting his way. This kind of character may seem like a huge problem in a teenage world, but I think that the higher power of the government should’ve had a more dominant and foreboding role in the story.

Having said this, Hush Money is an excellent and easy read. The writing was clear and in no way convoluted. I’d recommend this to fans of Cassandra Clare and Claudia Gray. Hot stuff!