Literature Side: Strength review
The writing is average, not bad but too bland to stand out. Descriptions are mostly lacklustre and vague, with a lack of focus in giving the scenes more punch, shape and image. The fighting scenes about Jeremy's ability to manipulate bullet trajectories may be cool a la Wanted, but the writing makes the scenes mostly clunky and repetitive. Most of the emotional scenes that Jeremy goes through are clearly meant to make the reader sympathise with him, but the lack of detail and focus means that usually these are skimmed over very quickly; the only times these scenes aren't are when he's with his girlfriend or mother.
The first chapter stands out in having an evenly distributed pace that was not overwhelming and at least balanced out in terms of pacing. The rest of the book doesn't display this, being far too slow and longwinded in the beginning and speeding up too fast only during the climax and the denouement. The occasional infodump slows down what already is a slow story to begin with.
It was difficult to focus on what the characters felt and understand them, let alone root for them, because of how unfocused the writing was. The characters are stereotypical in personality - the cocky, confident, wiseass kid; the no-nonsense love interest; the workaholic father; the camp teacher. None of the characters seem to develop in any way throughout the course of the book. Everything they do appears to be on impulse and the writing makes it sound like we should be on their side for that.
The worldbuilding shares the same fate as the writing: uncertain, only focused in some areas. I find it difficult to believe that Jeremy pays little attention to his surroundings, for a teenager with a job that should be reserved for young adults rather than adolescents, because he seems to lack a sense of responsibility and awareness for the people working with him. What's even more disappointing is that given the world is where the government pretends it is a utopia when it really is a dystopia at individual level, it has plenty of potential for engaging material. But it's only about Jeremy's personal conflicts, and all the reader does is watch him change his opinion but never change himself.
I can only give credit to the writers for actually buckling down to write the book and having it published.
Literature Side: Justice review
The second book follows Teremy Itsubishi's side of the story from the first book. I don't judge the story based on how bad the character names are.
Good things about the book: There is more variety in characterisation, and characters often have their own voices. The protagonist is a lot more intelligent with his deductions, and actually has opinions. There is subtle character development for him, an improvement over Jeremy. There is a lot more worldbuilding information to help readers understand the world of Geminate City, shown instead of narrated in the style of the big infodumps that ruined the pacing of the first book.
Bad things about the book: Some characters are still one-dimensional, especially Dan Dynamo who seems to be just a less flamboyant and more evil version of Edward Loveless from the first book. The book still tries to force us to hate on antagonists solely because they are antagonists. The story also makes the unfortunate implication that people in general are inherently stupid. Characters also start acting like they're in an anime past the 270th page. While Teremy is not as petulant as Jeremy, side characters are more memorable and easier to sympathise with.
It doesn't end there. The extra worldbuilding information, which should serve to enrich the world, also unfortunately exposes plenty of plotholes which shouldn't have been there in the first place.
The fighting scenes are still clunky and drawn-out instead of exciting. The bland writing has shown no improvement in this regard, only focused on spitting out action as fast as possible. Effects to the environment are skimmed over as if they aren't significant to the fight at all, and only affect the fighters when the author feels necessary. This is a shame considering the fighting scenes are clearly meant to play a major part in the book.
Despite the improvements, the book is no different from its predecessor apart from the fact that 484 pages of bland writing is far too long for any avid reader to put up with. It says a lot about the book when the reader keeps checking the pages to see how much they've got left to read out of boredom.
I will not be buying the third book and I wouldn't recommend buying any of them either.