Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti was published in 2015 and is the first book in a YA trilogy that blends the intrigue of superhero fiction with the raw emotion of teenage rebellion. Set in Cambria, California, the novel introduces a unique group of teens born in the year 2000, each with strange and unstable superpowers. They are not heroes in the traditional sense but rather “Zeroes” – misfits whose abilities often cause more harm than good. With a cinematic narrative and shifting points of view, Zeroes explores what happens when powerful outsiders collide with real-world danger.

Plot Summary

In Cambria, California, a boy named Ethan hunches in a diner booth at dawn, his eyes locked on the bank across the street. Under the table sits a duffel bag packed with stolen money, and the coffee in his cup is cold, bitter, and unnecessary – he’s already too wired, too anxious, waiting for the bank to open so he can disappear the cash into a vault and maybe vanish himself with it. His gift – a voice that isn’t his own but always knows the perfect thing to say – got him into this mess. The voice lies. It charms. It destroys.

The trouble began the night before. A date with a girl far out of his league ended with no money, no ride, and too much pretending. When Ethan tried to hitch a ride home, the voice whispered the right lie to the wrong man – a bulky thug named Craig, who believed Ethan was sent by someone named Taylor to help with a job. One lie stacked onto another until Ethan found himself in a stolen car, miles outside town, beside a duffel bag full of dirty club money. The voice was silent when Ethan needed it most, and he escaped only by tricking Craig into diving for cover while Ethan peeled out in the Ford, the bag still in the backseat.

Across town, Kelsie drifted through the glow of post-club dawn, collecting people like puzzle pieces. She lived for the feeling of a crowd – not just being in one, but controlling it. Her power stirred when bodies gathered close: she could amplify joy, calm a riot, or burn the fear out of a trembling room. The leftover dancers she gathered from Ivy Street moved toward pancakes, sticky syrup, and fluorescent lights. But when her father appeared – in a car circling the block, face briefly glimpsed through a window – something inside her froze.

He hadn’t come to see her. He’d come to rob the bank.

At the bank, Ethan joined the morning line, the bag still in hand, barely aware of the girl beside him – Sonia, with her pink-tipped hair and retro name tag. She hummed to her music until he, or rather the voice, broke the silence between them. The voice said all the right things. Then it said the wrong one. Sonia turned cold. Ethan watched the bag like it might bite him.

Then the doors crashed open, and three men in hockey masks stormed inside with rifles and rage. A shot shattered the ceiling. The crowd hit the floor. Sonia’s fingers clutched her phone, filming. Ethan’s breath held. One of the masked men approached – the biggest one, limping slightly – and demanded to know what was in Ethan’s bag.

The voice took over. It called him Jerry. Spoke truths Jerry didn’t know anyone knew. Mentioned his daughter. Cast suspicion on his partner, Nic. It burrowed into his head, spun lies too sharp to ignore. The room trembled under the weight of the voice’s calm. Then sirens howled in the distance.

Panic exploded. Jerry turned on Nic. Guns fired. Screams and thunder tore through the marble quiet. One robber was down. Another wounded. The bag went forgotten. Ethan’s plan to hide the money had just collided with something bigger than a scam.

Outside, Kelsie leaned against the brick wall, feeling the crowd inside through vibrations in her skin. Fear radiated through her like heat. Her father was in there – and she couldn’t tell if he was alive or bleeding. The bank’s silent alarm blinked above her. Police would arrive soon. She had to do something. But all she could do was keep the fear from boiling over inside the walls.

The gunfire ended, and a new kind of crowd gathered – press, neighbors, strangers who smelled panic and wanted a piece of it. Kelsie waited until they pulled her father out, handcuffed and pale. He wasn’t shot, but he was ruined. The wave of anger she held back snapped loose. The crowd outside turned wild, pressing against the tape, roaring, furious. Only when she pulled her energy away did they begin to settle.

Inside, Ethan was pulled aside by detectives. He gave them a fake name – Terrence – and the voice handled the rest. Calm, clean, collected lies. But they had video. Sonia had filmed the moment Ethan called the gunman by name. They knew he’d said too much. The duffel bag sat beside him, unopened, heavy with a truth no one had yet noticed.

The rest of the Zeroes began to stir.

Bellwether, the leader with the power to direct any group toward a common purpose, started pulling strings. Flicker, the blind girl who saw through others’ eyes, listened to the truth behind the lies. Crash, who could annihilate electronics with a pulse of emotion, stirred uneasily. And Anonymous – the boy no one remembered unless he was in the room – slipped between the chaos, unseen and unmissed.

They had all been Ethan’s friends once. Friends who understood what it meant to be broken and powerful at the same time. Friends the voice had driven away with a hurricane of brutal honesty. But this wasn’t something Ethan could clean up alone. And whether they liked it or not, they were all involved now.

The voice had ripped through the center of a crime scene and thrown Ethan into the spotlight. Kelsie had nearly burned a crowd to the ground trying to protect her father. And the bank robbery was just the beginning. Secrets were cracking open, powers were bleeding into the open, and the Zeroes – scattered and mistrustful – were being pulled back together, not by choice but by necessity.

Some had run from their powers. Others had buried them beneath normal lives. But when the dust cleared, when the media screamed about masked robbers and brave teenagers, the Zeroes were no longer just the weird kids with unstable abilities. They were people who had survived chaos – and maybe caused it. And they were going to need each other again.

Because Cambria had just become the kind of place where nothing stayed secret for long.

Main Characters

• Ethan “Scam” – Gifted (or cursed) with a voice that knows exactly what to say to get what he wants, Ethan is manipulative, impulsive, and haunted by his own power. The voice speaks truths and lies Ethan doesn’t consciously know, often leaving destruction in its wake. His arc is shaped by regret, self-discovery, and an urgent need for redemption after a major betrayal.

• Kelsie “Mob” – Kelsie can control crowds, manipulating their emotional energy to heighten or suppress collective behavior. Abandoned by her unreliable father and craving community, she uses her gift both to uplift others and, sometimes unintentionally, to incite chaos. Kelsie’s need for belonging and her complicated love for her father drive her internal conflict.

• Nate “Bellwether” – The strategic leader of the Zeroes, Nate possesses the ability to command and unify people in a group, making him a natural manipulator of crowds. Charismatic and cerebral, Nate constantly plays the long game, often leading the group in morally ambiguous directions to keep them safe.

• Chizara “Crash” – A technopath who destroys electronic systems when her emotions surge, Chizara is both a powerful asset and a liability. She struggles with guilt, isolation, and the ethical implications of her power, which feeds off her anxiety.

• Riley “Flicker” – Blind, yet capable of seeing through the eyes of others around her, Flicker is insightful, empathetic, and often the emotional compass of the group. Her unique vision gives her a deep understanding of others, making her the group’s heart.

• Thibault “Anonymous” – Always forgotten the moment he leaves someone’s sight, Anonymous is defined by loneliness and detachment. His invisibility is not just literal but existential. He longs for connection but is frequently overlooked even by his closest friends.

Theme

• Power and Responsibility – At the core of Zeroes lies a question of what power truly means, especially when it is volatile and unearned. Each character’s ability comes with unintended consequences, forcing them to confront how their actions ripple through others’ lives.

• Identity and Belonging – As teens with powers that set them apart from the rest of society, the Zeroes wrestle with loneliness, alienation, and the desperate need to connect. Their group becomes a surrogate family, a place where their broken parts are understood.

• Control vs. Chaos – Many of the characters’ powers are unstable or unconscious, mirroring the chaotic impulses of adolescence. The novel explores how control—over emotions, abilities, or social systems—is both sought after and resisted.

• Truth and Deception – Ethan’s voice exemplifies this theme, but all the characters lie in different ways—to themselves, to each other, or to the world. These deceptions complicate trust and reveal the blurred line between manipulation and influence.

• The Crowd as a Character – Through characters like Mob and Bellwether, crowds become living entities in the story. Collective energy, whether in nightclubs or riots, is something to be feared, harnessed, or soothed, showing how individuals dissolve into mass behavior.

Writing Style and Tone

Scott Westerfeld and his co-authors employ a sharp, cinematic style that shifts fluidly between multiple third-person perspectives. Each chapter is named after a character’s codename, anchoring the reader in their unique voice and power. The pacing is brisk, with high-stakes set pieces (bank robberies, chases, emotional showdowns) punctuated by intimate, reflective moments that dive into each teen’s psyche. The co-authorship allows for varied emotional textures, blending vulnerability with tension.

The tone alternates between edgy and introspective. While there’s humor, much of it is dry or bittersweet, echoing the characters’ growing awareness of how dangerous their world is. There’s a tangible sense of yearning in each character’s inner monologue, as they navigate adolescence, trauma, and morality. The writing often leans into sensory detail—especially in crowd scenes—conveying intensity through rhythm, heat, and sound. The effect is immersive, evoking the confusion and beauty of being a teenager on the edge of both selfhood and collapse.