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ridesthesun's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was such a fun silly genuine time đ
Definitely YA, but some really vulnerable, beautiful themes throughout. Under the layers of banter and silliness and comically goofy superhero content, runs a really beautiful story about this boy and his relationships with his family and friends.
Just lost a star from me because while I know the second hand embarrassment is purposeful, I just can't handle it, I'm too weak đđ
Definitely YA, but some really vulnerable, beautiful themes throughout. Under the layers of banter and silliness and comically goofy superhero content, runs a really beautiful story about this boy and his relationships with his family and friends.
Just lost a star from me because while I know the second hand embarrassment is purposeful, I just can't handle it, I'm too weak đđ
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
notalightbulb's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I went into the book blind, only reading it because TJ Kluneâs name was on the cover. It did not disappoint. Itâs the right amount of awkward you expect from any boy simply existing and exactly the right dosage of Kluneâs romance for this super hero novel. The âoh, yeah Im in love with this boyâ moment had me giddy. The relationships (Nick and his dad, abs Ginny and Jazz being my favorites) in this book felt real and genuine. The way almost every character feels so much like they could be their own person has me wanting to write self insert fanfic about me just being their friend in try Nick Bell fashion. Itâs a hilarious, heartwarming story with some tension about an oblivious boy obsessed with super heroes and his friends who love him to the ends of the earth, itâs very worth the read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Sexual content and Vomit
ginfizz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Violence
Minor: Police brutality and Toxic relationship
bunnybunny_mp3's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
2.5 stars - this may contain some minor spoilers
I have many feelings about this book. Most of them arenât nice feelings. Also, Iâm not that good at making reviews or writing in English since it's not my first language, but Iâll try my best because I feel like ranting about this book.
First of all, I decided to read this book after reading that it had a neurodivergent main character. I was super excited to read it since I found out recently that there is a very high possibility that I myself am neurodivergent. I have been learning more about the community and was anticipating reading this book as fast as I could.
At first, I was having a blast reading this. The book starts with a fanfic. It was really fun and it made me feel connected to the main character right away because of it. I loved to see the cliché fanfic tropes, it was extremely fun and I gave this book 4 stars right away. The fanfiction elements are strong in this book, they gave that sweet nostalgia of late-night questionable fic stories that I used to and still read sometimes.
The characters play with the inverse cliche trope and the plot is a cute superhero cliche story that should warm your heart. Should. But I had a few issues with some parts of the story.
The description of some of the characters did not sit well with me, especially the minorities. There's one BIZARRE scene at the end of the book with a homeless lady that made me cringe so bad I had to stop reading for a few minutes.
Also, as many people have highlighted over the reviews, this book has a weird relationship with the police. First of all, the work that the police do in this book is more of a real-life firefighter than the police, in my opinion. Second, there is a glorification of the police that is really hard to swallow. It gets weird around the 180 pages mark, Nick's dad is described as this great, hard-working guy with a big heart that made a mistake - the so-called mistake was to actually physically assault a witness (?) and it's said in the book later on that his friends helped him so he would get just a demotion instead of being fired as he should. That... was really weird. Really really weird. If he's violent he should be fired and the fact that his friends could influence the final decision was such a weird thing to put on a book that should be heartwarming? There's also a scene where his dad slams his hand on the table so hard that it shakes, he also says in this scene "why do you have to be the way you are?" and there's also another scene where he - for some reason- forgets the ONE thing about Nick that is really important and it leads to Nick having a panic attack. He does apologize but these other scenes plus the physical assault to the witness made me feel like this guy really should be fired. Nick also seems to have knowledge about police brutality and the fact that he doesn't see a problem about his dad punching a witness could have been more explored so it didn't seem like one of those "he made a mistake but I promise he's a nice guy!" kind of excuse that is normally used. This kind of excuse takes away the responsibility of the cop's own acts. The way that nick's dad handles Nick's ADHD is also disappointing. He forgets Nick's triggers and when Nick is grounded he makes Nick live without wifi, games, tv, or anything that could be used as comfort for Nick to the point that it made me think "if I were in Nick's position I would have multiple panic attacks as I would have nothing to comfort me". Everyone knows that Nick has special needs but no one seems to actually understand and respect said needs. And that's actually another thing that made me a little pissed. The way that people react to Nick's hyperfixations.
Through all the book there's this funny habit of every single character where they repeatedly mock Nick's interests to the point that I was like "OK, WE GET IT, EVERYONE THINKS NICK'S INTERESTS ARE STUPID, I GET IT" Because it happens ALL THE TIME, OVER AND OVER. Friends tease each other sometimes, that's normal. But the fact that hyperfixations are described as cringy, stupid, annoying and the fact that "obsession" is used almost as a synonym to hyperfixation was so frustrating. The only time that someone seems ok with the fact that Nick has a hyperfixation with superheroes in this book that I can remember now is around page 270 where Owen is trying to manipulate Nick.
Hyperfixaations are normally healthy and are used for comfort for neurodivergent people and I'm just so tired of seeing it being mocked over and over. It can be something healthy as long as it's managed well and it can bring so much knowledge. Even with things not seen as important. Nick loves superheroes, the story could focus on showing how because of it he learned more about the history of Extraordinaries or the biological aspects of superheroes or even what materials are best for costumes. Even with fanfiction and/or fan art, there are elements of creativity and writing strategies/visual art knowledge that could be explored more. I'm just tired of seeing hyperfixations being mocked. The author says at the end of the book, in the "about the author" that "Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important -now more than ever- to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories" and I love that! I really do! but I wish that at least one character treated Nick as a person that is allowed to have feelings and interests that are not usual without making it negative or seen as annoying. I'm sure that the author had good intentions but I also wish that he had been more gentle with the way that he wrote about Nick's ADHD because there are a bunch of neurodivergent youth reading this.
Besides that, I love Jazz, Seth is an adorable romantic interest and the main plot twist was really nice. The final battle is satisfying and funny.
Overall, there were some elements that I hated about this book but I did have a good time. Not really sure if I'll recommend this. I heard that there's a second book, if I read it, I'll be updating this review :]
Favorite quote:
"French toast waits for no man"
Thank you for reading this and please remember to drink water today. My apology for any spelling errors :D
(Fun fact â I started reading this book while waiting in the line for my first shot of the vaccine. It could have been the worse 2/3 hours of waiting in line of my life if I didnât have this book with me and for that I am grateful)
I have many feelings about this book. Most of them arenât nice feelings. Also, Iâm not that good at making reviews or writing in English since it's not my first language, but Iâll try my best because I feel like ranting about this book.
First of all, I decided to read this book after reading that it had a neurodivergent main character. I was super excited to read it since I found out recently that there is a very high possibility that I myself am neurodivergent. I have been learning more about the community and was anticipating reading this book as fast as I could.
At first, I was having a blast reading this. The book starts with a fanfic. It was really fun and it made me feel connected to the main character right away because of it. I loved to see the cliché fanfic tropes, it was extremely fun and I gave this book 4 stars right away. The fanfiction elements are strong in this book, they gave that sweet nostalgia of late-night questionable fic stories that I used to and still read sometimes.
The characters play with the inverse cliche trope and the plot is a cute superhero cliche story that should warm your heart. Should. But I had a few issues with some parts of the story.
The description of some of the characters did not sit well with me, especially the minorities. There's one BIZARRE scene at the end of the book with a homeless lady that made me cringe so bad I had to stop reading for a few minutes.
Also, as many people have highlighted over the reviews, this book has a weird relationship with the police. First of all, the work that the police do in this book is more of a real-life firefighter than the police, in my opinion. Second, there is a glorification of the police that is really hard to swallow. It gets weird around the 180 pages mark, Nick's dad is described as this great, hard-working guy with a big heart that made a mistake - the so-called mistake was to actually physically assault a witness (?) and it's said in the book later on that his friends helped him so he would get just a demotion instead of being fired as he should. That... was really weird. Really really weird. If he's violent he should be fired and the fact that his friends could influence the final decision was such a weird thing to put on a book that should be heartwarming? There's also a scene where his dad slams his hand on the table so hard that it shakes, he also says in this scene "why do you have to be the way you are?" and there's also another scene where he - for some reason- forgets the ONE thing about Nick that is really important and it leads to Nick having a panic attack. He does apologize but these other scenes plus the physical assault to the witness made me feel like this guy really should be fired. Nick also seems to have knowledge about police brutality and the fact that he doesn't see a problem about his dad punching a witness could have been more explored so it didn't seem like one of those "he made a mistake but I promise he's a nice guy!" kind of excuse that is normally used. This kind of excuse takes away the responsibility of the cop's own acts. The way that nick's dad handles Nick's ADHD is also disappointing. He forgets Nick's triggers and when Nick is grounded he makes Nick live without wifi, games, tv, or anything that could be used as comfort for Nick to the point that it made me think "if I were in Nick's position I would have multiple panic attacks as I would have nothing to comfort me". Everyone knows that Nick has special needs but no one seems to actually understand and respect said needs. And that's actually another thing that made me a little pissed. The way that people react to Nick's hyperfixations.
Through all the book there's this funny habit of every single character where they repeatedly mock Nick's interests to the point that I was like "OK, WE GET IT, EVERYONE THINKS NICK'S INTERESTS ARE STUPID, I GET IT" Because it happens ALL THE TIME, OVER AND OVER. Friends tease each other sometimes, that's normal. But the fact that hyperfixations are described as cringy, stupid, annoying and the fact that "obsession" is used almost as a synonym to hyperfixation was so frustrating. The only time that someone seems ok with the fact that Nick has a hyperfixation with superheroes in this book that I can remember now is around page 270 where Owen is trying to manipulate Nick.
Hyperfixaations are normally healthy and are used for comfort for neurodivergent people and I'm just so tired of seeing it being mocked over and over. It can be something healthy as long as it's managed well and it can bring so much knowledge. Even with things not seen as important. Nick loves superheroes, the story could focus on showing how because of it he learned more about the history of Extraordinaries or the biological aspects of superheroes or even what materials are best for costumes. Even with fanfiction and/or fan art, there are elements of creativity and writing strategies/visual art knowledge that could be explored more. I'm just tired of seeing hyperfixations being mocked. The author says at the end of the book, in the "about the author" that "Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important -now more than ever- to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories" and I love that! I really do! but I wish that at least one character treated Nick as a person that is allowed to have feelings and interests that are not usual without making it negative or seen as annoying. I'm sure that the author had good intentions but I also wish that he had been more gentle with the way that he wrote about Nick's ADHD because there are a bunch of neurodivergent youth reading this.
Besides that, I love Jazz, Seth is an adorable romantic interest and the main plot twist was really nice. The final battle is satisfying and funny.
Overall, there were some elements that I hated about this book but I did have a good time. Not really sure if I'll recommend this. I heard that there's a second book, if I read it, I'll be updating this review :]
Favorite quote:
"French toast waits for no man"
Thank you for reading this and please remember to drink water today. My apology for any spelling errors :D
(Fun fact â I started reading this book while waiting in the line for my first shot of the vaccine. It could have been the worse 2/3 hours of waiting in line of my life if I didnât have this book with me and for that I am grateful)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Violence
there's a major glorification of the police, some weird ways of describing minorities and some aspects of the ADHD of the main character is seen as annoying and cringymegplant's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders
lilly_anne's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Police brutality, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Kidnapping
b3ck's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual content
Minor: Police brutality
nothingrhymeswithrachel's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Oh my god this book was so frustrating. First, the pro-police stance is gross. Nickâs dad should have been fired, not just demoted and then PROMOTED AT THE END OF THE BOOK. Beyond the constant police dick-sucking going on, the relationships sucked. Every. single. one. Between Nick and his dad? Toxic. Nick and Seth? Seth deserved better. Owen and Nick? What the fuck even was that? Gibby and Jazz? Theyâre fine I guess but we didnât see them much. Jazz was my favorite character in this whole book because she minded her own freaking business. Also, can we talk about how actually STUPID Nick is? Dumb. A dumb man. Just because youâre aware that youâre a dumb teenage boy doesnât make it okay. It is so infuriating to read. Oh my god. Jazz is the only reason this got any stars from me. I am mainly mad at myself because I know Iâm going to read the whole trilogy even though they are probably all going to suck like this. Oh well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
marykillian_'s review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Addiction
alibader's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I really, really wanted to enjoy this especially after reading The House in the Cerulean Sea. This book infuriated me almost all the way through.
What I enjoyed: (a short list)
1. Nick's cluelessness (until about the halfway point)
2. The romance (so cute!)
3. The overall premise (I wish I could say the same for the execution)
4. The ending.
What I did not enjoy:
1. The insensitivity towards police brutality and the character of Aaron Bell.
2. The camp - it took away from the story that could've been told and made it look like a bad parody.
3. The dialogue (teenagers do not talk like that)
4. The constant lying. It didn't make much sense when it was finally revealed and it took too long for Nick to find out the obvious that it really hindered my enjoyment. Also when he found out that Seth, Gibby and practically everyone he knows lied to him it's just.... his fault? And it's all okay?
5. The reveals (I'd like to think that these were intentionally obvious but that didn't make it any more fun - also it was super anti-climatic). The ending wrapped up way too quickly too.
6. The "comedy". One of my biggest gripes with this book was that serious moments didn't make that much of an effect and instead served as "comedic relief" - it wasn't funny.
This is my longest review yet but I truly did want to enjoy this queer superhero series but I was so disappointed. I may give the sequel a try in the future.
What I enjoyed: (a short list)
1. Nick's cluelessness (until about the halfway point)
2. The romance (so cute!)
3. The overall premise (I wish I could say the same for the execution)
4. The ending.
What I did not enjoy:
1. The insensitivity towards police brutality and the character of Aaron Bell.
2. The camp - it took away from the story that could've been told and made it look like a bad parody.
3. The dialogue (teenagers do not talk like that)
4.
5. The reveals (I'd like to think that these were intentionally obvious but that didn't make it any more fun - also it was super anti-climatic). The ending wrapped up way too quickly too.
6. The "comedy". One of my biggest gripes with this book was that serious moments didn't make that much of an effect and instead served as "comedic relief" - it wasn't funny.
This is my longest review yet but I truly did want to enjoy this queer superhero series but I was so disappointed. I may give the sequel a try in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence and Medical content
Minor: Homophobia