Book Review: Hero

Hero by Perry Moore

I've been meaning to review this book since it came out in August, but my blog was on hiatus then. I absolutely jumped for joy when I saw it on the shelf, as I had recently enjoyed Soon I Will Be Invincible so I quickly scooped it up for later reading. Since, I have seen many reviews on other comics blogs, and almost all of them were nothing but good. I have to wonder why, as to me it fell way short of what it could have been, and suffered from an overabundance of plotlines and minor characters, as well as sloppy storytelling.

Let me take a minute to "establish my credentials" as it is, as a conossieur of young adult literature. I'm currently working in the children's section of a bookstore (which is how I got my awesome advance reader copy of the aforementioned Invincible) and have also worked in a middle school library. Also, I read YA literature like a madwoman. It's because they're like candy. I can easily read two novels in a night, and I'd say I read about fifteen teen books to every adult novel. However, one thing about teen fiction is that most of it is absolute trash, but there's still a lot of great books mixed in.

Hero is neither teen trash nor a great book. It is OK. The main story is of Thom's discovery of his healing powers and his desire to join "The League," against his ex-hero father's wishes. That story is the best handled one, and so it's what would make me reccomend the book for all it's failings. Said failings are the ten bajillion other plots, all of which are intriguing, but none of which are satisfyingly dealt with. There's the mystery of Thom's disappearing mother, the public hatred for his father (Hal), the story of the "old" league and Hal's career, the story of Justice, or Uberman, two of the established heroes of the book, all of whom are interesting, but put in as two-dimentional throwaway characters. The main supporting characters also don't get enough attention, so even Thom's teammate, Typhoid Larry, is never really developed beyond his joke powers.

There's a lot right in the plot too. Thom's superteam is great fun in their interactions, and Moore writes the fight scenes quite well, they move quickly and contain great turnarounds and banter. Also the romantic subplot is excellent, with just the right amount of presence in the book that it didn't turn it from a book about a gay teen superhero into a book about a GAY teen superhero. There are a couple of moments where the book does threaten to lapse into that, but it avoids it well. There is a very odd concentration on the superman-analog's nipples at the beginning though, I'm not quite sure three pages were necessary for that analysis, but Thom's crush on Uberman (the Supes of the tale) is great in the book, even if we never really find out what he's really like after Thom meets him, except that he's all publicity and show. Most of the heroes are, which is a novel part of the book.

As much as I'm complaining in all this, I would have been much more forgiving if the resolution to the book hadn't been so horrid. Deus ex machina! Thom turns into a "Gary Stu"! Conflicts resolved instantly! Plus, the climax event wasn't even hinted at before, bringing out a "yabuhwha?" response.

All in all, I'd say it's a good light read, but don't expect too much out of it. It's nice to see teen novels with gay main characters where the main story is not about their gayness, and this book fits that bill. It's the only one I've read so far (that I can recall), so hopefully others will follow in it's footsteps.