Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

Billy Jakobek is a super powerful psychic who popped up on a super powerful egomaniac’s radar when he was only a child. Now 16, Billy is stuck in Heaven’s Hole, the latest and star guinea pig for Caleb Thorne’s evil enterprise and megacorporation, Thorne Century. Heaven’s Hole is where Billy meets Natalia Gonzalez, a fellow student and gifted herself. But not in a way that interests good ol’ Thorne. Lucky for her at the time. But after she meets Billy she’s suddenly front and center in Thorne’s sights. Trust me. That’s not a good thing. At all. *shudder* All Billy wants is to help people with his powers and to be with Natalia. But that’s not going to happen while Thorne controls everything around him. It’s up to Billy and Natalia to break the back of Caleb Thorne, but are they strong enough to do it?

This isn’t just Sci-Fi, Young Adult, and Dystopian. It’s also Horror. Yikes. The things that Caleb Throne is capable of are shudder-worthy. And then you add the Shape that stalks Billy and if that doesn’t give you nightmares then you are one tough SOB.

This is a future I would prefer not to see become reality. Caleb Thorne is completely unbalanced. And he runs a megacorporation that exploits his workers big time. Sound familiar? There are a lot of parallels to this world, but hopefully we can fix the mess before it gets to this point. Of course, I don’t know of anyone who has super powers, not even rumors of them, so we’d be on our own on that front.

Billy and Natalia’s POVs are the majority of the book, but there are chapters for Caleb and another character named Roseanna to give a well-rounded feel for this world. The plot is a bit murky, but gets clearer as the story flows along. The characters of Billy and Natalia are in-depth, Roseanna not as much, and while Caleb Thorne is also front and center he seems too evil and also a bit pathetic at the same time. I’m leaning towards the feeling that it’s deliberate, but I can’t say for sure.

This book is one hell of a gut-wrencher. If you seek out that type of book then don’t hesitate to pick this one up. ( )

An unusual cross-category novel, Nicholas Conley’s Knight in Paper Armor uses the template of young adult fiction to stretch the boundaries of that classification, with mixed results. The setup is a familiar one, and well executed. Centred on the characters of Billy, a teenage boy of Jewish descent, and Natalia, a girl of similar age whose family emigrated from Guatemala to settle and forge a life in the United States, the book soon introduces its driving themes. Endowed with anomalous abilities with supernatural qualities, Billy is lives under the guardianship of a man and women with no blood connection to him. Known as Father and Mother they are entrusted with monitoring Billy. It soon becomes clear that a special destiny had been planned for the boy since childhood, a destiny perhaps not in his, or the wider world’s, best interests. When Natalia appears, her natural effervescence and determination attract the boy, this attraction having unclear implications for his powers. As dark corporate forces make their move, those with a vested interest in Billy and his potential close in on the couple.

Conley handles the supernatural elements well, incorporating imaginative weirdness and skilfully introducing threatening mysterious forces. These elements are one of the novel’s strongpoints, being reminiscent of Stranger Things in particular, and the film Chronicle also.

The novel is wide in scope, and tackles many pertinent societal issues. Whilst the novel is effective in portraying the political idealism and energy of youth, this aspect does suffer from being quite one-dimensional and unsophisticated. There are very clearly defined good guys and bad guys, and while that isn’t necessarily a hindrance, and, although I felt the author did attempt to address this, here I felt it didn’t do the surrounding narrative justice.

The novel’s dominant strength, for me, comes in the representation of Billy and his genuine family, and also the portrayal of an altered state where chilling visions are experienced in a haunting and visceral manner.

Overall, a novel with some flaws but a unique vision. ( )

I never review books that I don't finish but I am making an exception for this one. I made it a little over halfway through the book, before having to quit reading due to triggering material for me, but I enjoyed what I read. I thought the plot and the setting was interesting, and I was intrigued as too how it would turn out. I did feel the romance was a little rushed, but overall I enjoyed what I read of it. I would recommend to fans of dystopias, and paranormal romance. ( )

KNIGHT IN PAPER ARMOR by Nicholas Conley is a dystopian fantasy novel about a child with psychic powers.

This is a placeholder review and should not be taken to be complete until I have assigned a star rating.

I was given a copy through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program so I would be able to write a voluntary review.