A review by tullyndmom
The Ables by Jeremy Scott

2.0

I was really hoping for some good disability representation, but sadly this fell short. It started well with the Braille comics, but quickly went downhill with the segregated special ed class, and bottomed out when the kids combined powers to make the blind kids... not blind. Very clever use of superpowers, but... I thought the premise was that "disabled superheroes are still heroes" not "we can be heroes if the kid in the wheelchair gets rid of our blindness." I'd be more ok with it if there was any time spent on introspection about Philip's feelings about his identity and his blindness, but all we got was a scene where he cries because he sees his family for the first time... and, yes, of course, but... there's no guilt? There's no contrast between the times when Henry is giving him sight and the times when he's blind again? It just feels like at some point the author threw his hands up and said, "Crap! I don't know what it's like to be blind! Now what?!" Not to mention the continuity errors when he should be blind because Henry isn't there but the author describes things as if he's not blind.

And, as others have mentioned, none of the kids are girls, even though there are (apparently) 2 girls in the special ed class (one wasn't even given a name until halfway through the book).

I'd never heard of Jeremy Scott or his YouTube channel, but it's pretty ironic that it looks like his channel pokes fun at plot holes in TV and movies, because this book is full of them... And I don't usually notice that kind of thing...

Spoilers in content warnings:
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Hostage situation, coma, death of a parent