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A review by siria
We Could Be Heroes by Philip Ellis
2.75
I really enjoyed Philip Ellis' debut romance novel, Love and Other Scams, so We Could Be Heroes was a bit of a let-down. The premise is great: we've got Patrick Lake, the handsome, blond, all-American, and publicly hetero star of a superhero franchise (I was mentally picturing Chris Evans throughout), filming in England where he meets Will, a budding local drag queen. Feelings ensue. It's basically Notting Hill, but gay.
It's a shame that the execution wasn't up to the premise. It all felt very half-baked. For every cute moment, there was an emotional throughline that got dropped or didn't quite make sense; for every lovely, celebratory moment of queer joy, there were queer characters who as-you-know-Bob'ed one another about homophobia and transphobia with dialogue that sounded like a regurgitated introductory Tumblr post. And there were some basic things about the plot that didn't stand up to scrutiny. It's a romance novel, I get that it doesn't have to be a masterpiece of intricate plotting, but even as someone who knows a limited amount about the TV/film industry, what we got about that felt off. And as someone who knows a bit more about the rare books industry,the entirety of the Omega Issue plotline made no sense. If it was ever even rumoured to exist, then there should also have been rumours in the industry/fandom about a couple who were involved in the early days of the Kismet series and then got blacklisted. If absolutely no one knew about them to the extent everyone genuinely thought the comics were solely created by that bigot publisher, then there should have been no rumours about this lost issue. If the heir of the issue was locatable by one person without a huge degree of difficulty, and if Patrick—not framed as a mega fan with obscure nerd knowledge—knew about the Omega Issue, then the rabid fanbase that's supposedly been in existence for this comic for decades could and should have been looking for it for ages and ferreted it out long ago. I just couldn't handwave it. The subplot could/should have been cut without affecting anything about the plot or thematic resonance of the book as a whole.
I'm going to hope this was a sophomore slump and that Ellis gets a more conscientious editor in the future.
It's a shame that the execution wasn't up to the premise. It all felt very half-baked. For every cute moment, there was an emotional throughline that got dropped or didn't quite make sense; for every lovely, celebratory moment of queer joy, there were queer characters who as-you-know-Bob'ed one another about homophobia and transphobia with dialogue that sounded like a regurgitated introductory Tumblr post. And there were some basic things about the plot that didn't stand up to scrutiny. It's a romance novel, I get that it doesn't have to be a masterpiece of intricate plotting, but even as someone who knows a limited amount about the TV/film industry, what we got about that felt off. And as someone who knows a bit more about the rare books industry,
I'm going to hope this was a sophomore slump and that Ellis gets a more conscientious editor in the future.