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briannareadsbooks's review
3.0
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn't a big fan of this book. I feel like writing about teenage superheroes always has a bit of a silly and juvenile feel to it. I found this same problem when reading The Extraordinaires. I feel like this really impacted my experience, because, on one hand, the superhero aspect was a bit silly and not-taken-seriously, but very serious things were happening, like teenagers being poisoned from street drugs and kidnapping and even character death. The vibes just didn't add up.
Besides that, I felt like there were a lot of plotlines that didn't add up and that weren't explored deep enough. Faith spends a lot of time talking about how she feels like she doesn't fit in with her friends, so it's hard to feel sorry about what happens to them when I didn't feel that attached in the first place. And not only that, but the love interest was clearly very fishy from the start (at least to me), and another love interest who I liked way better was forgotten halfway through. And I still have so many questions because not everything was wrapped up.
Overall, I loved hearing about a fat wlw superhero. I really liked Faith. But the plotlines and the other characters just did not interest me.
I wasn't a big fan of this book. I feel like writing about teenage superheroes always has a bit of a silly and juvenile feel to it. I found this same problem when reading The Extraordinaires. I feel like this really impacted my experience, because, on one hand, the superhero aspect was a bit silly and not-taken-seriously, but very serious things were happening, like teenagers being poisoned from street drugs and kidnapping and even character death. The vibes just didn't add up.
Besides that, I felt like there were a lot of plotlines that didn't add up and that weren't explored deep enough. Faith spends a lot of time talking about how she feels like she doesn't fit in with her friends, so it's hard to feel sorry about what happens to them when I didn't feel that attached in the first place. And not only that, but the love interest was clearly very fishy from the start (at least to me), and another love interest who I liked way better was forgotten halfway through. And I still have so many questions because not everything was wrapped up.
Overall, I loved hearing about a fat wlw superhero. I really liked Faith. But the plotlines and the other characters just did not interest me.
thenextgenlibrarian's review
3.0
3.5 for this YA superhero book with the first fat, queer female superhero I’ve ever read about. I liked a lot of this book, mostly because of Julie’s writing, but this was definitely an original and first book like this for me so I had to get used to a lot of things like the world of comics and an origin story. Joining the Maverick committee for TLA this year has definitely broadened by comic reading, but I still struggled a bit to jump on board with her origin story. Thank you Edelweiss for an ARC of this book. I will purchase for my library and all opinions are my own.
balletbookworm's review
3.0
I ran across this Faith origin story by accident. I haven't been reading much YA lately so hadn't been checking the right catalogs. But I ran across this novelization of Faith's origin story by [a:Julie Murphy|6433278|Julie Murphy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1561677712p2/6433278.jpg] so of course I needed to read it.
And this is good! If you don't already know who Faith is, she's a plus-sized superhero psiot WHO CAN FLY <3 from the Harbinger universe of Valiant comics. She's a pop culture nerd and a journalist. In this book, the plot takes place the fall after Faith's psiot abilities have been activated by the shady Harbinger Corporation and she escaped from the facility (the cover story was that she went to journalism summer camp). So now she's back home, keeping the secret that she can fly from her best friends Matt and Ches, worrying about her grandma who might have developing dementia, working her after school job at an animal rescue, writing for the school paper, and her favorite show - for which she runs a major fan blog - has started location shooting in her town. And then weird things start happening and people start disappearing.
Overall, this is a great way to get into the Faith-verse and Julie Murphy captured Faith's personality really well. Faith's world has always been very diverse and Murphy makes that very explicit in the book, both with respect to race/ethnicity and sexual orientation/gender. However, every character introduced is immediately given a physical description in one to two sentences, from Faith herself right down to the driver who picks her up at the TV show production parking lot and drives her to the office and is never seen again. After a while it got extremely rote, particularly because the book is narrated in the first person by Faith so the immediate descriptions felt awkwardly shoehorned in.
ETA: this is a prose novel since I keep seeing "graphic novel" coming up to describe this book; the character comes from comics but this book isn't a comic itself
And this is good! If you don't already know who Faith is, she's a plus-sized superhero psiot WHO CAN FLY <3 from the Harbinger universe of Valiant comics. She's a pop culture nerd and a journalist. In this book, the plot takes place the fall after Faith's psiot abilities have been activated by the shady Harbinger Corporation and she escaped from the facility (the cover story was that she went to journalism summer camp). So now she's back home, keeping the secret that she can fly from her best friends Matt and Ches, worrying about her grandma who might have developing dementia, working her after school job at an animal rescue, writing for the school paper, and her favorite show - for which she runs a major fan blog - has started location shooting in her town. And then weird things start happening and people start disappearing.
Overall, this is a great way to get into the Faith-verse and Julie Murphy captured Faith's personality really well. Faith's world has always been very diverse and Murphy makes that very explicit in the book, both with respect to race/ethnicity and sexual orientation/gender. However, every character introduced is immediately given a physical description in one to two sentences, from Faith herself right down to the driver who picks her up at the TV show production parking lot and drives her to the office and is never seen again. After a while it got extremely rote, particularly because the book is narrated in the first person by Faith so the immediate descriptions felt awkwardly shoehorned in.
ETA: this is a prose novel since I keep seeing "graphic novel" coming up to describe this book; the character comes from comics but this book isn't a comic itself
bookhoarding's review
4.0
This was a whirlwind origin story. It has super secret super hero labs, soap opera level drama and prime time production drama. I liked that we got a nice swath of characters, and the main character’s relationship with her grandma was very relatable, but overall it was just ok IMO. It wasn’t bad, just not as exciting as I had thought it would be.
xavia's review
4.0
I don't know what I was expecting, but this book definitely exceeded expectations.
I picked up this book because it had a plus sized superhero on the cover, and being a plus sized girl myself I was looking forward to reading about someone more like me. I love that while this book doesn't shy away from the fact that she is plus sized, it isn't her defining character trait. It's a fact of life. Some girls are tall. Some girls have braces. Some girls are fat.
I found myself really into the pace of this book. It felt like I was reading about an actual teenager, instead of a hyper focused superhero that only had eyes for the mystery. Faith dips her toes in the mystery sure, but she also has school and work and friends and other things that would easily distract a teenager. And then when things take a turn down mystery lane, you can see those background details slot into place.
I did take off a star because somethings didn't feel wrapped up. I don't know if this is a book that is supposed to have a sequel, but I feel like some answers we should have gotten we left up in the air, and if there's isn't meant to be a sequel, they're just loose plot threads. That said, I can appreciate that in life, things don't always resolve neatly and that life leaves you with many unanswered questions. A sequel would be nice, but it won't ruin my opinion on the book if one never comes.
Sometimes you just gotta have Faith...
I picked up this book because it had a plus sized superhero on the cover, and being a plus sized girl myself I was looking forward to reading about someone more like me. I love that while this book doesn't shy away from the fact that she is plus sized, it isn't her defining character trait. It's a fact of life. Some girls are tall. Some girls have braces. Some girls are fat.
I found myself really into the pace of this book. It felt like I was reading about an actual teenager, instead of a hyper focused superhero that only had eyes for the mystery. Faith dips her toes in the mystery sure, but she also has school and work and friends and other things that would easily distract a teenager. And then when things take a turn down mystery lane, you can see those background details slot into place.
I did take off a star because somethings didn't feel wrapped up. I don't know if this is a book that is supposed to have a sequel, but I feel like some answers we should have gotten we left up in the air, and if there's isn't meant to be a sequel, they're just loose plot threads. That said, I can appreciate that in life, things don't always resolve neatly and that life leaves you with many unanswered questions. A sequel would be nice, but it won't ruin my opinion on the book if one never comes.
Sometimes you just gotta have Faith...
headre89's review
lighthearted
slow-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
2.0
I am not usually a young adult book reader but I just had to read this story about a plus sized super hero…
Would I read it again no..but it was so cute..seeing this girl get her confidence and literally take on the world.
Plus size women can do it too is like the whole message of this book! And I absolutely loved it! We are people too we are women too!
Would I read it again no..but it was so cute..seeing this girl get her confidence and literally take on the world.
Plus size women can do it too is like the whole message of this book! And I absolutely loved it! We are people too we are women too!
yourbookishgamermom's review
3.0
First up I'm just going to let you all know that I received a Digital ARC of this book from Edelweiss from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. Everything I share here are my own thoughts and opinions on the book I've read.
PLEASE NOTE THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SMALL SPOILERS FROM THE PROLOGUE OF THE BOOK
I was so excited when I saw this book was available as an ARC. I really have come to like Julie Murphy's writing and I really appreciate the normalcy Murphy brings with fat/plus size characters in her books! As a curvy plus size person myself books like hers were something I wish I had when I was a little younger because yes, you see that slight discomfort and such with their bodies (like every human has once in a while) in her stories but most of all its acceptance and loving who they are and not changing that for anyone. Its just normal and I love it. Because everyone has different bodies and thats ok!
RATING: 3 Stars
That being said my overall rating for this book is only 3 stars and here is why.
I really enjoyed the book but I'm not sure it's something I would read again. The characters were great (I LOVE Faith so much) and the world setup was well done and believable! The book also had its fair share of intense and even creepy, heart racing scenes (no spoilers on that here). But my biggest issue with the book unfortunately was the superhero plot element in itself. The Prologue drew me in like a mouse to cheese. It was a case of insta-love with Faith and her adorable, nerdy self. We go from an intense prologue where Faith believes she is being recruited to learn more about her superpowers but in all reality it turns into this scenario where she is stripped of her name and hidden from the rest of the world and is now an experiment! Crazy right? It made me so excited for the rest of the book and excited for what would happen but then it just stopped? The next thing that happens is almost like a genre switch. We get crazy strong superpower beginning then it goes to Faith living her life as a pretty much normal teenager. Which normally yes, cause she doesn't want people to know about her powers. But that element didn't just come across right and the plot fell flat because of it. It just unfortunately felt like two stories meshed together and they ALMOST work but it doesn't quite fit. For the most part the novel is a super cute coming of age story about a bisexual, plus size, nerdy girl in her senior year of high school who meets her celebrity crush and they fall in love. Which is GREAT and super cute but it felt like the superhero element was an afterthought where it was this beautiful coming of age story but then at random points it was like 'Oh and I can fly but I can't tell anyone' and thats it and its not until the last 8 or so chapters that we begin to see a lot of that superhero plot line. We do have some parts throughout filling in gaps about what happened between Chapter 1 and the Prologue but I just wish there was more to it.
So OVERALL. Super cute coming of age story with a plus size, bisexual high school senior who is trying to figure out her life but it just fell flat when it came to the superpowers.
PLEASE NOTE THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SMALL SPOILERS FROM THE PROLOGUE OF THE BOOK
I was so excited when I saw this book was available as an ARC. I really have come to like Julie Murphy's writing and I really appreciate the normalcy Murphy brings with fat/plus size characters in her books! As a curvy plus size person myself books like hers were something I wish I had when I was a little younger because yes, you see that slight discomfort and such with their bodies (like every human has once in a while) in her stories but most of all its acceptance and loving who they are and not changing that for anyone. Its just normal and I love it. Because everyone has different bodies and thats ok!
RATING: 3 Stars
That being said my overall rating for this book is only 3 stars and here is why.
I really enjoyed the book but I'm not sure it's something I would read again. The characters were great (I LOVE Faith so much) and the world setup was well done and believable! The book also had its fair share of intense and even creepy, heart racing scenes (no spoilers on that here). But my biggest issue with the book unfortunately was the superhero plot element in itself. The Prologue drew me in like a mouse to cheese. It was a case of insta-love with Faith and her adorable, nerdy self. We go from an intense prologue where Faith believes she is being recruited to learn more about her superpowers but in all reality it turns into this scenario where she is stripped of her name and hidden from the rest of the world and is now an experiment! Crazy right? It made me so excited for the rest of the book and excited for what would happen but then it just stopped? The next thing that happens is almost like a genre switch. We get crazy strong superpower beginning then it goes to Faith living her life as a pretty much normal teenager. Which normally yes, cause she doesn't want people to know about her powers. But that element didn't just come across right and the plot fell flat because of it. It just unfortunately felt like two stories meshed together and they ALMOST work but it doesn't quite fit. For the most part the novel is a super cute coming of age story about a bisexual, plus size, nerdy girl in her senior year of high school who meets her celebrity crush and they fall in love. Which is GREAT and super cute but it felt like the superhero element was an afterthought where it was this beautiful coming of age story but then at random points it was like 'Oh and I can fly but I can't tell anyone' and thats it and its not until the last 8 or so chapters that we begin to see a lot of that superhero plot line. We do have some parts throughout filling in gaps about what happened between Chapter 1 and the Prologue but I just wish there was more to it.
So OVERALL. Super cute coming of age story with a plus size, bisexual high school senior who is trying to figure out her life but it just fell flat when it came to the superpowers.
doublen's review
4.0
I found it to kind of be a slow start, but once it picked up it was super good.
klafever's review
5.0
I’ve never read a super hero book before but because I would read literally anything Julie Murphy writes I read and LOVED this!