I started listening to the audiobook, and I still think this sounds great. I will get back to it. But I'm not in the mood for YA right now, especially YA audiobooks. So I'm going to wait and read this book when I'm in the mood to appreciate it, rather than struggling through it when I'm predisposed to dislike it.

(Originally started 10/12/17. Hibernating as of 10/27/17.)

This book is amazing. I wasn't sure what to expect, and the initial going was just a little slow. Then everything starts to pick up, and you're rooting for the ... villain? I ended up very topsy turvy over this story, and I loved the characters on both sides of the fight. I am definitely looking forward to book 2! ( )

My best friend recommended this book to me, and all was thinking through the first 100 pages is, this is so her. This is so her.
Not really ME, but so her.
And then the plot started, and it was ME.

So about the first 100 pages of this are world-building, but not in a bad way. Like, I mean the entire book could have been world-building like that and I thin it would’ve stood on it own. I mean, it was hilarious and awesome and you really got to know the characters REALLY well.

((It actually brings to mind [b:Origin|13455112|Origin (Corpus, #1)|Jessica Khoury|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346121755s/13455112.jpg|18982971] by Jessica Khoury, which I also described as world-building for the first 100 pages. Out of the two, this one is DEFINITELY better, and that is one of my favorite books.))

Now, about the characters… I don’t know how you can’t just love them all! Even the villains, are so captivating and funny and awesome. Lucyfar, Bull, Cybermancer… all of them. In fact, some of the more unlikable characters were among the heroes. Mech, for instance.
That might be because we did not interact with the heroes as much as we did with the villains, but whatever! It was awesome!
I was just a little confused (all right, a lot confused) on who Claudia is. I mean, she must have been mentioned during the first 100 pages, but I guess I forgot about her and then she showed up a later and I’m still wondering who she is. Was she one of Marcia friends? I think so, I can’t be sure.

This is the best, I love the Inscrutable Machine, and I can’t wait for book 2.
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I would like to thank Curiosity Quills Press for a copy of this e-book to review. Though I received this e-book for free, that has no impact upon the honesty of my review.

Goodreads Teaser: "Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents. She's got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn't understand. She has two super-powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear.

In real life, nothing is all that clear. All it takes is one hero's sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She's good at it.

Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shapeshifters and ghosts, no matter what the super powered world throws at her, Penny and her friends come out on top. They have to. If she can keep winning, maybe she can clear her name before her mom and dad find out."

Without a doubt I found this to be extremely entertaining, filled with unusual situations, great characters, and just plain fun. The characters were very well done, and seemed pretty much spot on for the age group they represent. Penny is like any other middle schooler, happy to be a kid and yet ready to start testing her boundaries. Add being the child of superheroes to that and you know those boundaries aren't quite the same as those any of us have gone through!

Penny, Ray, and Claire make a great team, probably because they were best friends long before they became supervillains. Of course Penny was aiming for the superhero side of things, cause that's what she grew up idolizing. Superheroes were her role models, daily and in regular life outside the house. Ray on the other hand never speaks of his family situation to either of the girls, but they know it must be beyond bad. Then there's Claire. Her mom is a superhero now, but before she reformed she was an excellent supervillain. So when Penny's powers suddenly start to develop her friends are right there supporting her. And when things don't quite go as planned they happily lead her into the world of villainy. But the balance between the three remains fair, and they always, always support each other.

Sadly for Penny she gets stuck with one of the worst, most clichéd supervillain names out there, which is of course a horrible pun on her own name. With a supervillain name like hers how's she supposed to keep her folks from finding out her secret before she can reverse the direction her new super-powered career has taken? Even though she gets a terrible alias she managed to give Ray a cool name. And of course Claire ended up using one of her own online names, which, being Claire is simply a too-cute-for-words play on her own name. Inwardly Penny wonders how the mastermind of their supervillain team get such a rotten name? Together the three of them make up The Inscrutable Machine. As far as supervillain names go, it fits them since no one knows much about them, which of course makes them inscrutable. Thus far no one, not even themselves really, can figure them out.

As much as I enjoyed this book I wonder if it isn't a bit on the long side for a middle grade book. But that may be the adult in me talking. The constant hurdles and challenges the trio face seem to drag on a bit to me, yet I suppose they were necessary in order to set up the big finale. And it was a great ending, with lots of bang for your buck action, and a great message built in so well that it doesn't feel as if it's being force fed to you, or that you've been preached to. It just feels natural and honest, which is how this book felt to me. Pretty surprising given the science fiction/fantasy aspects that are the very framework of the story. I know I'm certainly looking forward to the next book in this series, and I think you will to after reading this one. ( )

Penny Ackk, daughter of super heroes Brian Akk and The Audit has been desperate for her super powers to finally kick in – and when they did they came in with a vengeance!

Of course, her dad thinks it’ll be years before they fully develop. So keeping them secret and then springing them on him as a surprise sounds likes a great idea. Until a little problem at the school science fair means she and her best friends kind of become Super Villains.

Ooops

And trying to change sides just digs them deeper in the villain put. And maintaining a secret identity when your parents are super geniuses isn’t easy anyway

But one thing no-one expected was how good they’d be at supervillainy – or how much fun it is!

This book is so much fun! I can’t remember the last time I had so much amazing fun reading a book! I literally spent my entire time reading this book with a big, silly grim on my face, broken only when I had to laugh.

It’s campy, it’s a little silly, but it’s so incredibly fun! Super heroes and super villains duking it out in the street – oh not your dark and gritty super villains who have become so popular. Far less stylish than that! These are fun super villains and super heroes – with the super heroes (perhaps) taking things pretty seriously but recognising limits and the villains are just enjoying themselves immensely. Yes, sometimes a villain takes it too far – but then their fellow villains will quietly feed them to the more extreme heroes (and then they “accidentally don’t survive a fight”). I love this sense of everyone having fun so long as everyone knows the rules, kind of, even though no-one’s ever going to expressly state it.

But, hey, there are RULES. Like you totally don’t hit people’s families or their secret lairs. That would be cheating!

I love the fact that even though they are supervillains they cling to the hope they can change sides whenever they find a suitably dramatic moment. And yes, of course it has to be dramatic – how else are they going to make sure they have an awesome backstory? Switching sides from evil to good can make for an awesome origin story, they just need the right moment. Lucyfar changes sides on a completely random basis! (Perhaps best summed up with, when they betray some fellow villains they meet a response of “you kids are awesome!”)

Did I mention it was so much fun?

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