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A review by birdkeeperklink
The Ables by Jeremy Scott
3.0
This book was pretty good. I don't regret reading it, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will enjoy it more than me, though -- I'm not sure if it's a 'guy thing,' or a 'kid thing,' since superheroes are loved by people of all ages and genders, but I suspect it just isn't my cup of tea. I shouldn't be surprised, as I have never understood/joined the superhero/comic book bandwagon. The only superhero movies I've seen are the Christopher Reeve Superman movies (and I only liked the first one), Fantastic 4 (which wasn't good, but Chris Evans was fun, a preview of things to come), Hulk (the not-Edward Norton one, which is enough to put anyone off of superhero movies), and the Tobey Maguire Spider-man (...ugh). I never got into the whole 'Marvel universe' or anything like that.
That said, I do enjoy books and movies that try to take well-established, tired tropes and turn them on their heads, and what could accomplish that better than a book about disabled superheroes? There were parts that I really, really enjoyed, particularly early on in the book, when it was mostly about exploring this universe we'd just been plopped into. That was fun.
The things I didn't like about the book I think might be mostly unique to me. I felt the reading level skewed a little young/easy for me, as the writing was sometimes bland, which could get boring. I totally called it about five pages after meeting him that Finch was, so it does have some predictability to it. The climax felt like a bit of a cop-out, but I'm not sure what I was expecting. I'm tired of prophecies right now, so that's just a 'me' thing, and not even all the time, I just feel like I've run into a lot of stories with prophecies lately. I disliked the main character some of the time. About half the time, I would say, which made it difficult to empathize with him and stay invested. Some minor things were brought up and then never resolved/touched on again, which happens sometimes (you can't cover everything, after all), but it still annoyed me a bit.
I was surprised by, so it wasn't completely predictable or anything, there are a few surprises tossed in there. I liked a lot of the characters most of the time. Like I said, I'm not sorry I read it, as it was a nice little story.
So do I recommend it? That depends. Are you really into superheroes? Are you a twelve-year-old kid? If you answered 'yes' to either of those questions, then I would recommend it to you -- the superhero part because 'duh,' and the twelve-year-old kid part because it's a lot like the Harry Potter series in that respect. What kid wouldn't love to have their parent sit them down and tell them, 'Son/Daughter, you're a superhero'? It'd be almost as cool as getting your Hogwarts letter.
That said, I do enjoy books and movies that try to take well-established, tired tropes and turn them on their heads, and what could accomplish that better than a book about disabled superheroes? There were parts that I really, really enjoyed, particularly early on in the book, when it was mostly about exploring this universe we'd just been plopped into. That was fun.
The things I didn't like about the book I think might be mostly unique to me. I felt the reading level skewed a little young/easy for me, as the writing was sometimes bland, which could get boring. I totally called it about five pages after meeting him that Finch was
Spoiler
Phillip's 'dead' grandfather, Thomas SallingerI was surprised by
Spoiler
Mr Charles's identitySo do I recommend it? That depends. Are you really into superheroes? Are you a twelve-year-old kid? If you answered 'yes' to either of those questions, then I would recommend it to you -- the superhero part because 'duh,' and the twelve-year-old kid part because it's a lot like the Harry Potter series in that respect. What kid wouldn't love to have their parent sit them down and tell them, 'Son/Daughter, you're a superhero'? It'd be almost as cool as getting your Hogwarts letter.