Guest Blogger: "Hero" by Perry Moore

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I have my first guest blogger! Not that I was actually looking for one yet, but she offered and of course I said yes!

Why?
  1. She is a very good friend.
  2. She's an amazing literature teacher and a talented poet.
  3. She's already a published poet. Three of her poems have been included in Crowns and Oranges: Works by Young Filipino Poets, published by Anvil and just released a few weeks ago.
So, ANINA ABOLA, my friend and one of the up and coming Filipino poets of our generation, has written this review and has asked me if I could post it on my blog, considering that my blog is predominantly a book blog. Haven't read this one, but based on her review, I'd love to:



Review by: Anina Abola

Perry Moore's HERO is a coming-of-age story of Thom, a high school basketball star. Sounds pretty vanilla.

Until you factor in:

  1. A father who used to be a superhero (but now disgraced because of a catastrophic rescue attempt) and a mother who mysteriously disappeared.
  2. His being beseiged by seizures

And oh yes, his being in love with the blond awesomeness that is Uberman.

If you're into the whole supe scene, you can easily tell that the seizures mean something better for Thom, and that as father issues go, this guy's got plenty. (Though the father issues might be more a device of the whole growing-up genre.)

The YA novel takes you through his first brush with danger and ultimately to solving the mystery of his mother's disappearance [and more of course!]. But as good superhero novels go, it's a thoughtful reflection on the universe of binaries (good vs. evil, strength vs. weakness, etc) thrown more out of sync when you try to tackle the infinite fluidity that is gender.

It's easy to label this as gay fiction, but I honestly feel that that it is too limiting—and not necessarily this book alone. If you really needed a label, perhaps otherness fiction. Except it seems so much of good, fantastic literature is about difference? Because really, don't we love stories about those whom society has chosen to be unworthy?

The minor characters are interesting voices to set off Thom's uncertain and shaky one, and I like how the superpowers presented are not the usual and seem more borne out of a world that has played too much with fire, nuclear power and biology than alien invasions. I must admit the fight scenes were a little chaotic—something about being used to seeing them more in movies, tv shows and comic books made me lose my way. But the conversations seem real as I fell headlong into this book and didn't really come up for air till it was done.

4/5 stars!

Here's the wikipedia entry

For other fabulous superhero themed novels, try:

Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible

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