The Skinny
(aka Back of the Book Summary in a Sentence)
Boy meets girl, but the boy, Adrian, is a superhero and the girl, Nova, is a supervillain who kills superheroes.
Nutritional Value
(aka What’s Good)
The prologue sets up Nova’s backstory nicely and provides the reason why in the first chapter she wants to kill superheroes. Also, geez is that prologue dark. Like, cold blooded murder and baby killer dark.
Even though I’m pretty sure the story is going to inevitably have a heavy romantic element with Nova having to choose between her principals and team or the boy she’s inconveniently fallen in love with, it’s an exciting book so far. The real winners though are the creative superpowers and superhero names. These characters could definitely join the X-Men.
Freezer Burn
(aka What’s Bad)
The love interest was already introduced in the first chapter. If the book couldn’t even make it a single chapter without a meet-cute, then it sure doesn’t bode well for the rest of the story.
Lingering Aftertaste
(aka My Prediction)
Nova is currently a supervillain, while her obligatory love interest is a superhero. I’m predicting that because of him, she changes into a superhero too. And yes, I called it an obligatory love interest. For some reason, it’s like every single YA novel feels they need a ship. Sigh…
Taste Test Verdict
(aka Would I Read More?)
The first chapter ends with Nova getting ready to start her mission of killing a superhero during a superhero parade. I want to know if she’s able to pull a Tom Cruise on her own super-powered Mission: Impossible. I also want to know why she would choose a superhero parade to do this. I’m not an expert hitman or anything, but shouldn’t assassinations be more…low-key?
Memorable Morsel
(aka Quotable Quote)
If this isn’t a cliffhanger, then cliffs aren’t real.
“Just grabbing my things,” she said, snatching up the bag. She dropped back to the ground. The dumpster lid crashed shut. “I’ll be on the roof in two minutes.”
“Make it one,” said Phobia. “You have a superhero to kill.”
If you had powers, would you be a superhero or supervillain? Sound off in the comments below!
Get Renegades
Gwen thinks that it’s as close to magic as humans can get when a blank Word document is filled with groups of letters, and those groups of letters turn into lines, and those lines turn into a whole new world.
When Gwen isn’t reading or writing, she’s drinking boba milk tea and singing along to Steven Universe. You should sing along with her.