The Fifth Vertex by Kevin Hoffman

Not bad but pretty average. It has strong premise in terms of having our main protagonist being unable to hear those around him and therefore being forced to guess his way through a whole lot of things but does not quite fulfil that promise. He is the broken boy who discovers he has magical powers when he tries to kill himself. There is no way he will ever pass the tests so it feels unrealistic from the start. It's very violent so despite the cartoonish artwork on the cover I would not recommend this to anyone under 12. The cast of supporting characters is interesting and brings colour to the group but at the same time it was hard to place them as they did not seem to super consistent. They all come into the book while major everts are taking place in their life so their is not a lot to anchor on....unless you just ride the action the whole way through which is entirely possible as there is lots of it and it is well written. Not sure if I will pick up the next book yet, I will see how it settles in my mind.