For a book with three authors, Zeros offers few clues to its team-based writing. Its an exciting, coherent narrative with a fresh take on the Young Adult superpowers genre. Its title hints at its world view: where special abilities are more of a curse than wish fulfillment, and its possessors more zeroes than heroes. 
 The title also refers to the birth year of the six protagonists. All born in Y2K, these teenagers are at the age where they're just developing adult responsibility and empathy and leaving behind their more ego-based childhood. 
 That's a terrific jumping off point because instead of exploring how the lure of super abilities drags a group into poor choices, the authors shifted the story to start from that point of group break-down. 
 A year before this story starts, five of the six characters had been a tight-knit, co-dependent group of friends, overly trusting of their leader, and without much thought for consequence. Nate, their manipulative leader, sent them on training missions, aiming at a vague plan of world domination. 
 An overdose of truth and ego destroyed this little community, and most of Zeroes relates to the story of how they come together again, with a greater appreciation for their friends and their actions. 
 The "plot" of the book isn't particularly fresh -- a heist, drug dealers, mob bosses -- but the relationships and their growth are a welcome and mature entry in the Young Adult market. There are no love triangles. There aren't thousand-year old vampires and the girls who love them for no particular reason. Instead, Zeroes focuses on mending fractured connections. 
 In this first volume (there will be three), the story spends most of its time on Ethan, a kid who can talk his way out of any situation. His gifted "voice" turns out to be as much of a curse as a blessing. He may be able to get away with scamming nearly anyone but his actions come with a high price. Watching him recognize this trade-off and learn to both accept his abilities and learn to control them forms the heart of the story. 
 Less well developed is Kelsie, a girl who can channel the mood of crowds. She's the damsel in distress and has a touching but not particularly original background. Kelsie is in trouble and she acts primarily as a foil to Ethan's story. 
 The secondary plot, centering on Thibault, a boy with the worst curse of a "power" ever, and Flicker, a blind girl who can see through a thousand eyes, charmed me. This little romance, which may not have been as "earned" as it could have been (how could it, given Thibault's particular disability), added a lovely and original thread that wove itself through the less engaging heist story. 
 The character I really wanted to see more of was Chizara, the daughter of immigrants with a knack for electronics. There wasn't much for her to do in this volume and I hope she gets the spotlight in the next. Both she, and Nate, the "leader" of the Zeroes acted only in limited supporting roles in order to keep Ethan's story on-track without dragging. 
 Zeroes was a quick, entertaining read that combined an unusually gritty world with the fantastic. If this description sounds familiar, it is the hallmark of why I so love the books of Dianna Wynne Jones. Like Jones' stories, Zeroes doesn't have perfect solutions for its characters or clean happy endings. It is far richer for that. 
 Recommended.