Claire has always wanted to work with superheroes, from collecting
Warrior Nation cards as a kid to drafting "What to Say to a Hero"
speeches in her diary. Now that she's landed a coveted internship with
the Chicago branch of Warrior Nation, Claire is ready to prove she
belongs, super or not. But complicating plans is the newest WarNat hero,
Girl Power (aka Joy), who happens to be egotistical and self-important... and pretty adorable.
Bridgette, meanwhile, wants out of
WarNat. After years of dating the famous Vaporizer (aka Matt), she's
sick of playing second, or third, or five-hundredth fiddle to all the
people-in-peril in the city of Chicago. Of course, once Bridgette meets
Claire—who's clearly in need of a mentor and wingman—giving up WarNat
becomes slightly more complicated. It becomes a lot more complicated when Joy, Matt, and the rest of the heroes go missing, leaving only Claire and Bridgette to save the day.
The setting is an alternate universe Chicago where superheroes are real and are a cross between celebrities, public figures, and law enforcement. It's similar to Marvel/DC, except the celebrity angle is really pitched up (disclosure: I've only read a few comics). Each big city region gets four superheroes to protect it, and Warrior Nation is a national corporation/publicity machine/etc. The Chicago WarNat headquarters were really cool to read about; they were kind of like a cross between what I imagine the Avengers tower, CIA headquarters, and Google headquarters to be like. The worldbuilding was fleshed out, and the author's love for Chicago shows.
Claire is obsessed with the superheroes and with Warrior Nation. Her diary mentioned in the book summary is actually a bulging super-scrapbook filled with files and information on all the superheroes and every aspect of WarNat. She's geeky and a little much with her superhero worship. While she initially thinks Joy is full of herself and used to getting her way due to her pretty girl privilege, it's a very short hate to love thing that quickly becomes them making out in WarNat headquarters broom closets. Their relationship is cute, if a bit first-love-cloying. I liked that the WarNat top brass made Claire the Girl Power advisor because she's young; there's a cool scene where she talks them out of making Girl Power wear a revealing sexy costume.
Bridgette's an old hand in WarNat, having dated Matt/Vaporizer for four years. Her part of the story shows the dark underside of superherodom and celebrity. Vaporizer's fangirls bash her online and, when they come across her in real life, scream into her face that her boyfriend can do better than her. She's called all sorts of horrible names, both online and in person. Also, she's in constant danger since Matt has no secret identity and everyone knows they're dating, so she's been kidnapped countless times, attacked in the street, had important public events ruined by mobbing fans and her boyfriend flying though glass windows. Matt often stands her up, and while it sometimes is to rescue a kidnapped girl, it's just as often to film a commercial for something. It was really sad to read about everything she went through, and I'm pretty sure she was only 18 or so. Bridgette deserved better. I liked that she was friends with the other superheroes' significant others, and they made a little "super-adjacent" club.
The summary makes it sound like Bridgette takes Claire under her wing, but in the story, Bridgette and Claire are thrown together because they're kidnapped by superpowered bad guys. Those baddies are the reason why the superheroes disappear, and WarNat is being all tight-lipped about it. With the help of smarmy assistant Teddy, Claire and Bridgette must find out the truth and save the superheroes.
This book was a fun read in the beginning and suspenseful in the middle and end. It really took a hard look at how difficult it must be to be the significant other or parent of a superhero. Much like professional athletes, the supers join Warrior Nation in part because of the huge paychecks, but their loved ones are constantly afraid they will be hurt or killed. The part where the superheroes go missing is harrowing to read about because of their families' and partners' grief and worry. This book isn't afraid to go dark, despite the cover and premise, and for that I respect it. In terms of the queer representation, there is no homophobia in the book. Claire is out, and while no mention is made of whether Joy is out, she does take her on dates in public and stuff, even after she's famous.
Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: June 20-21
From: Book Outlet
Status: give away eventually
Cover notes:
I like the hardcover (which I have) book's purple cover better than the paperback's blue cover. The font is fantastic; lightning bolts and hearts are the letter's holes and sometimes legs, which is perfect for the subject matter. The superheroes are on top of the word "Super", while the girls gaze up at their paramours: Claire lovingly and Bridget exasperatedly. I like that Claire is holding her notebook, but the paintbrushes Bridgette is holding aren't her medium (I don't like the splashes of paint on her jumper; if she did paint she would totally cover her regular cute clothes). Bridgette makes intricate paper sculptures; she doesn't paint. It's an important plot point in the book! They gave Claire red hair when it's said to be purple (with an undercut) in the book. This book cover is fairly neutral, if you're worried about being seen reading a gay book; it will appear to the casual cishet observer that Claire is gazing up at Girl Power in a hero worship way, not a gay way.
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