JL

Great Book. Perfect Pick for Voice Actor.

Revisado: 07-23-20

Buy this audiobook. Usually I’m grading books in the LGBT YA genre on a curve. They aren’t exactly known for their exceptional storytelling. This is quite the exception. It was clever, hilarious, well-developed, and exceptionally well written. I don’t really laugh out loud at books very often, but I did so at multiple points during this book. And, seriously this voice actor knocked it out of the park. This is one of those rare cases where I feel that voice acting actually added something to a book.

If I had one gripe, it would be that the characters’ motivations can sometimes seem unrealistic, but I never felt that got in the way of the book, and, well it’s a book about superheroes. It’s not exactly intended to be hyper-realistic or believable.

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Interesting Premise, Flawed Execution

Revisado: 07-17-20

I really wanted to like this story. The premise seemed interesting and full of potential. The intro was fairly solid for the genre, and, in the early chapters, the characters are well-crafted, likeable, and even relatable at times.

But the MC takes a bit of a u-turn early on, in terms of his maturity level, and then just becomes discordantly and, at times, frustratingly innocent and naive in a way he wasn’t before, and in a way that is inconsistent with how a character his age would act. The author also seems uncertain of how to leverage his abilities (and the ghost characters it enables) in service of the plot. As other reviewers mention, the boyfriend’s brother set the stage for what could have been an interesting layer of intrigue and mystery that the author quickly dashed. After that, he ends up sort of just being there. It seems he was intended as a plot device to show the MC what his boyfriend is thinking, but since the MC never listens and the two overcome things on their own without him, he ends up being redundant.

There’s also a fair amount of repetition in the writing itself. Every other chapter somebody ruffles the main character’s hair. In nearly every chapter the aunt raises her eyebrows... it felt like this book could use another pass through copy edit.

It would be useful to trim some of the fat from the plot, too. For example, at the end, there’s a bizarre, whirlwind attempt to suddenly develop characters who are mentioned here and there throughout the book (like the MC’s mom), in order to tie up what the author seems to perceive as a lose end. But because it’s practically post-script it comes off as a bit haphazard and trite- everybody finds love and reconciles for unclear motivations and all is well with the world.

Lastly, though it’s a relatively small gripe, let’s just say that it is exceedingly clear that the author didn’t run the more romantic scenes past an actual gay guy.

I don’t mean to say that there’s no draw here- the book is interesting and even clever at moments, but the best I can muster for this one is an average, 3-star rating.

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I wish this book had existed when I was growing up

Revisado: 07-15-20

The intro is a bit rough around the edges, and it can be a tad cheesy at moments, but I think this might be one of my favorite books; not just in the gay YA genre, but in general. I really wish it had existed when I was younger. The story somehow manages to play in a well-tread territory- the jock and the drama kid, the dating dare, etc.- without being predictable. You fall in love with the characters and find yourself rooting for them because they have solid depth. The story is, for lack of a better word, beautiful, but also a good mix of serious and light-hearted so as to be gripping without feeling heavy or depressing. It has some flaws. The non-villain female characters have very similar personalities, but, despite this, are developed, have voice, and logical integration- which isn’t always a thing in gay YA books. It also introduces some unused plot devices that sort of reappear at the end and remind you they existed while having no significant impact on the story... but they also don’t negatively impact the story. Despite all of this, it’s one of the best in the genre and just a great book in general. I expect to see it made into a Netflix show at some point, and I immediately checked for other books by the author when I’d finished this one. Hope he makes some more. ; )

Regarding the audio: I thought the voice actor did a pretty good job capturing the spirit and voice of the protagonist. I sometimes got confused on when the protagonist was speaking versus thinking with how the actor approached it, and there were some overacted emotional passages, but it felt solid overall.

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