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A review by princesspaige
Collateral Damage by Taylor Simonds
5.0
Thank you to Taylor and Parliament House for providing me with an e-ARC!
It’s not every day that someone I know personally publishes a book. I’m beyond honored to get to read Collateral Damage in advance of its publish date (6/25/19!), and I loved every minute, page, character...everything.
Meg Sawyer is the exact opposite of me in that absolutely tired of superheroes and would probably roll her eyes at my adoration of Marvel’s version of Thor without thinking twice. It’s cool - she has a good reason to not want to be dealing with the destruction the SuperVariants leave in their wake. Meg’s a normal human just trying to live her life, but finds even that simple task infuriatingly difficult when buildings are constantly falling around her (literally).
And I love her dearly. Meg has all the makings of a typical cynical teenager, AND she’s funny and compassionate - even towards people she inherently detests right off the bat. She sees the humanity in everyone that still has a shred of it in them, and she is the heart and soul of this book, this world (maybe not literally but that doesn’t change what I said!), and the tears I shed at 5am when I was reading instead of sleeping.
The thing about Taylor’s characters in general - from the charming, pure, wonderfully optimistic Oliver Lee to the snappy, intelligent, takes-no-shit Juniper Jensen - are so real, round, and relatable that I’m gonna be carrying them all with me for a good, long while. Almost everyone in this book deserves a hug (should they want one), a mug of their favorite warmed beverage, and a damn BREAK.
But like all good hero stories, it’s never that easy for the characters we love the most. For someone who never wants to be involved in SuperVariant business, Meg is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which, of course, leads to many a hilarious (for readers, not Meg) and (more often than not) life-threatening situation, despite the fact that all Meg wants is to find a safe place so she can breathe for once! The more complicated things get around her, the more Meg knows she can’t run from her problems - even and especially when things get Super personal in a way she’d never before imagined they could.
Every twist and turn is fresh, despite how overrun we are with superhero stories these days. Not a single one of those stories that I’ve seen outside of Collateral Damage (so far) does the work to analyze the sensationalization of the very genre it takes influence from. This book is one of a kind, especially because it’s not afraid to have complex feelings about criminal justice in a sci-fi/superhero setting. It’s not afraid to tell you, “Hey, maybe violence really isn’t the answer because violence only ends in destruction. Every time. That real humans have to clean up and live with.”
In essence, Collateral Damage is what Captain America: Civil War should have been.
I’m so excited for June 25th! Doesn’t matter that I’ve already read the book - I can’t wait to have a physical copy in my hands as proof of how GOOD - genuinely great - this book is!
It’s not every day that someone I know personally publishes a book. I’m beyond honored to get to read Collateral Damage in advance of its publish date (6/25/19!), and I loved every minute, page, character...everything.
Meg Sawyer is the exact opposite of me in that absolutely tired of superheroes and would probably roll her eyes at my adoration of Marvel’s version of Thor without thinking twice. It’s cool - she has a good reason to not want to be dealing with the destruction the SuperVariants leave in their wake. Meg’s a normal human just trying to live her life, but finds even that simple task infuriatingly difficult when buildings are constantly falling around her (literally).
And I love her dearly. Meg has all the makings of a typical cynical teenager, AND she’s funny and compassionate - even towards people she inherently detests right off the bat. She sees the humanity in everyone that still has a shred of it in them, and she is the heart and soul of this book, this world (maybe not literally but that doesn’t change what I said!), and the tears I shed at 5am when I was reading instead of sleeping.
The thing about Taylor’s characters in general - from the charming, pure, wonderfully optimistic Oliver Lee to the snappy, intelligent, takes-no-shit Juniper Jensen - are so real, round, and relatable that I’m gonna be carrying them all with me for a good, long while. Almost everyone in this book deserves a hug (should they want one), a mug of their favorite warmed beverage, and a damn BREAK.
But like all good hero stories, it’s never that easy for the characters we love the most. For someone who never wants to be involved in SuperVariant business, Meg is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which, of course, leads to many a hilarious (for readers, not Meg) and (more often than not) life-threatening situation, despite the fact that all Meg wants is to find a safe place so she can breathe for once! The more complicated things get around her, the more Meg knows she can’t run from her problems - even and especially when things get Super personal in a way she’d never before imagined they could.
Every twist and turn is fresh, despite how overrun we are with superhero stories these days. Not a single one of those stories that I’ve seen outside of Collateral Damage (so far) does the work to analyze the sensationalization of the very genre it takes influence from. This book is one of a kind, especially because it’s not afraid to have complex feelings about criminal justice in a sci-fi/superhero setting. It’s not afraid to tell you, “Hey, maybe violence really isn’t the answer because violence only ends in destruction. Every time. That real humans have to clean up and live with.”
In essence, Collateral Damage is what Captain America: Civil War should have been.
I’m so excited for June 25th! Doesn’t matter that I’ve already read the book - I can’t wait to have a physical copy in my hands as proof of how GOOD - genuinely great - this book is!