lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
lightreads ([personal profile] lightreads) wrote2017-09-16 09:33 pm

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn

Heroine Complex

3/5. A cute entry in the flourishing subgenre of reimagined superhero stories, this one featuring the lady sidekick to San Francisco’s lady superhero who is her boss and her childhood best friend, and there are demon cupcakes and bloggers and Asian-American cultural issues and karaoke and lesbians and a lot of fashion.

By “cute” up there I met aggressively cute. Take no prisoners cute. So cute it verges on over-engineered.

This is good if you like this sort of thing, but want more women in your superheroes. I like that sort of thing . . . ish, but wasn’t wholly taken in by this. It has that sprint pacing of a story that is prose but really a comic at heart, and like a lot of comics it has that . . . this is going to offend people, but here goes. It has that comics sort of character work where everyone’s feelings go to 11 at all times over all things and everyone is fundamentally irrational. I find that exhausting, and not particularly interesting, so.
readerjane: Book Cat (Default)

[personal profile] readerjane 2017-09-17 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you for articulating that.

I enjoy stories about superheroes... when they're people. People with, like, a full dynamic range.
thawrecka: (Kate Kane)

[personal profile] thawrecka 2017-09-17 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
I'm about a chapter and a half into it and already finding it aggressively cute and a little exhausting, so I'm not at all surprised to find the whole book remains so.