I picked this book up last year as a possible Christmas present for my cousin’s son. It came up in a book search as one of those, “other customers also bought…” suggestions when I was picking something else for him, and the idea sounded interesting. As I was heading up to visit the family for the weekend, I decided to read it before giving it to him. Good thing i did. While it’s not strictly an adults-only book, it is a love story with enough sex in it to be inappropriate as a gift for a 14-yo boy. That lesson-learned aside, the book was highly enjoyable.
Tom is a non-superhero among his group of friends. He met his best friend, The Amphibian, when he was cleaning a pool, and from there was brought into the superhero world. In this world of 249 superheroes, each one’s “power” is some generally some exaggerated element of their personality, enhanced somehow to become something they can control or use to influence others. Tom is newly married to The Perfectionist, but another superhero intervenes – Hypno make it so that Tom is invisible to The Perfectionist. After 6 months of thinking that Tom has left her, she’s moving on. Meanwhile, Tom is right beside her, trying desperately to break the spell and make himself visible. This is a lovely little fable about the superpower of love.
There is also a theme of self-acceptance, the dangers of comparison and envy. We all have things that we wish we were good or better at. The superheroes in this world get their wish, often with less than desirable consequences. The Face is a brilliant and beautiful portrait artist, painting remarkably lifelike images of others, but her own face is not visible to others so she herself is never really seen. The Clock can show someone their future, but cannot see her own. The Seeker always knows how to get to a destination, even if he’s never been there before, but is never satisfied at the destination, always needing to head somewhere else. There is an element of “be careful what you want” here, and the presentation of it as a superpower with a dark edge is very clever.
The book is well written and the story, with all its flashbacks and characters, is compelling and touching. This 10th anniversary edition included some additional superhero descriptions that were a nice touch. The author has a few other books that I might seek out to see if they are as clever and fun as this one.
Fate: little book library
7 – debut
25 – new author to me
33 – Canadian
rclr 