Perry Moore (1) (1971–2011)

I love this book, but perhaps that's because its protagonist is gay, and when this book was first published over a decade ago, gay superheroes were incredibly rare. But I also think the book stands on its own merits....while Moore does borrow from the well known superhero archetypes for the background characters in the book, his main characters are clearly unique and fascinating. Its an exciting book that has both an adventure storyline while also spending a lot of time in character show more development. I would have loved to have seen more stories in this universe and more stories were planned....a sequel and tv series at the very least. Sadly, the author died before he could see these plans to fruition, a tragedy for much more important reasons, but also sad for fans of this book. show less

A wellwritten and engaging superhero bildungs roman.
Apart from a little too many Bridget Jones style embarrasing situations, and a heavy reliance on existing superhero lore when fleshing out some of the characters, there is not much to fault in this YA novel. The characterisation of the main characters is strong, if at times somewhat stereotyped, and although the plot isn't particularly innovative, it works very well, and draws the reader in.

Thom is a high school student with a lot on his show more mind.
His father is a much maligned failed hero, still waiting for his fellow hero wife to return to him while working long shifts at a factory to give Thom a better life.
Thom himself is trying to deal with his sexual orientation and his emerging superpowers without disappointing his father.
He is invited to the superhero League tryouts, and soon juggles two summerjobs, heroing, and an budding romance.

It is a good story, with interesting characters, but it main strenght is the way it uses the superhero conventions to tell a story of parent-child relationships, and the sacrifices made by parents out of love for their children. It echoes the strong tradition of examining social and economical issues in superhero universes such as Superman and Spiderman, contrasting the reality of family ties and poverty with the fantastic powers the superheroes possess. The juxtaposition between the 'real' hero, the parental figure without superpowers, but with very strong morals, and the troubled superhero is also a recurring theme that is used to its advantage in this story. show less

I started reading this book in fits over the years and never got past the first chapter. I don't really know why. It wasn't badly written, that first chapter, but it never grabbed me. So I turned to the audiobook, finally, and sat down with some knitting and my headphones.

I was completely hooked - so hooked that I turned the audiobook off, put down my knitting, and dug the hardcover out from the recesses of my bookshelf. As lovely as the narrator was, I could read much faster to myself.

As a show more comic book fan, this book is full of superheroes that I recognized, though given new names or had parts of their backstories farmed out to more than one superhero. (Also, very very obvious that Perry Moore was a DC Comics guy. Not complaining, I'm a DC gal myself.)

I really liked the plot, the mystery, and Thom's merry band of misfit heroes. I loved Ruth, and hope I have her sass when I reach "wise old broad" status. I liked that this was a coming-of-age story disguised as a superhero book.

I did NOT like (view spoiler) it was still a huge cop-out and sloppy plotting.

So I really liked most of the book. But it loses a star for the unappealing start for me, and the one very major plot point. show less

Thom Creed's father is a disgraced superhero. There's a lot Thom can't talk to his father about--like how he's developing superpowers, that the superhero League wants him to join them, and especially not that he's gay.

I read the whole book in one day. 428 pages, only breaking for food and the water closet. It was just that good. It's *sob* *pause* *gasp* over and over the whole way.

Thom is a totally relatable character that I loved to cheer on, especially speaking as a teenager. He makes show more mistakes, and he doesn't always have a very realistic image of himself, but he never gives up. He goes after what he wants, and he doesn't mind working for it. The other characters mostly made me want to tackle them and hug them to death, but even the characters I didn't like were fascinating. Most of the established heroes are thinly veiled versions of DC heroes--Uberman, Warrior Woman-- but they became archetypes to work from and ideas to explore, rather than the parodies I was worried about.

The plot was intricate, 428 pages is long for a YA novel, but it was easy to follow, one event flowing naturally into the next. Perry Moore slammed right to the heart of what superheroes mean, both the fantastic and the terrible but mostly the amazing.

I highly recommend this book to anyone. YA, otherwise, superhero fan, otherwise, GLBT, otherwise, whatever. I hear there's a TV series in the works and I can't wait... I'm sure I'll be mentioning this book in other reviews, but as yet I don't have anything I can recommend that wouldn't fall flat after reading this. Maybe go read the classic graphic novels. show less