Release-Day Review: The Dysasters by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast (The Dysasters #1)

The Dysasters (The Dysasters #1)
P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Published: February 26, 2019 (Wednesday Books)
Purchase at: Amazon or Book Depository
Review Source: Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for and honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 3.5 Stars

Foster Stewart and her adoptive mother have been on the run for the past year. From what Foster’s not exactly sure, but she knows it’s probably linked to the abilities that she’s been slowly developing recently: subtly manipulating the clouds, influencing flowers to grow, using her “Jedi mind trick” as she calls it.

Foster has become used to the unpredictability of constantly moving from one place to another. Then, on her eighteenth birthday, everything changes.

When a tornado touches down during a local high school football game, Foster and one of the players are miraculously able to divert the trajectory of the tornado, thus discovering they both have the power to control the element of air.

Foster and the boy, Tate Taylor, don’t have long to ruminate on this, however, before they’re being pursued by people who are clearly interested in using their powers for some kind of nefarious purposes. While on the run, Foster and Tate begin to understand the affinity they have with air, but they also come to the realization that where there’s air, there’s also water, earth, and fire. Foster and Tate will have to work quickly to find the other elements before those pursuing them do.

As is the case with any book you read, there are always things that work for you, as the reader, and things that don’t.

I was kind of irked about the lack of information that our characters receive. Specifically, the idea that Foster’s adoptive mother basically told her zero about what they were on the run from, prepared her in no substantial way for the future, and when circumstances dictate that Foster and Tate are on their own, they have to follow close-to-indecipherable clues. I will say that Foster is at least a bit more aware of the situation than Tate, but when Tate tries to garner any crumbs of information Foster is quick to shut him down. I don’t know about you, but I’d be asking questions too. Don’t leave me hanging in the dark and then get pissy when I try to figure out what’s going on.

Which leads me to my next problem: the characterization. There was an abruptness to the way the relationships formed and proceeded that I felt changed as quickly as from one page to the next. Foster’s treatment of Tate doesn’t get much better from the above example, yet almost as quickly they both begin to fall for one another. I felt like there wasn’t enough development for me as a reader to even begin to like and/or understand Foster enough to get past her original treatment of Tate. I can only hope this is something that will even out with more books and as we get used to these characters.

Regardless, the story itself has a really strong premise and it’s clear that the development of the elemental powers is the main focus. We see these powers from two perspectives. The people pursuing Foster and Tate—a group of adults who each have an ability—and Foster and Tate plus the as-yet-unknown other elementals. The way the Kristin and P.C. Cast chose to show the manipulation of the elements along with some unforeseen consequences in using the power was really cool and paired nicely with the idea of a kind of omniscience where the elements themselves are concerned. I’m very interested to find out how these aspects apply to the remaining elements that have yet to be introduced.

What The Dysasters does in regards to how it deals with the elemental powers, it does really well. Enough so that I can easily overlook some wobbly characterization. If you’re looking for a well-handled subject matter with the future potential of its characters, you can look no further.

Sexual Content: Kissing