Monday, January 29, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn





   Heroine Complex is incredibly fun.  I've tried to write this review a couple times now, and I still can't find a sentence that better sums up this book.  It's probably the most consistently fun book I've read that isn't a clear comedy (certainly the most fun non-comedy book I've read since "In Other Lands."  And even that book features some sad moments at times).  While there are moments where our heroines suffer some angst, these moments are short and at no point does the tone really shift away from its light-tone, and as a result it's an incredible joy to read.

  I suppose I should quickly mention what type of book this is before the jump: Heroine Complex features a pair of Asian-American superheroes fighting to protect San Francisco from demon incursions.  In the process it's a story about friendship, family love, bottling up one's emotions, and to a lesser extent, romance.  It may not be a big piece of message fiction (although as you can guess from that last sentence, it certainly has some themes for the reader), but it's a blast throughout, and I suspect I'll be reading the sequel shortly.

  More after the jump:


--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
8 years ago, a portal opened up in San Francisco, and human shaped Demons popped into our world....and immediately died.  But with their deaths, people in San Francisco started to manifest superpowers.  Most of these powers however, turned out to be pretty useless (weak telekinesis, the ability to track cars like a GPS, the ability to mildly control the temperature in a room).  And since that big portal, smaller portals have also popped up at seemingly random times and places, bringing with them smaller demons who take the form of objects nearby and attack innocent humans.  Thankfully, San Francisco has a superheroine named Aveda Jupiter (real name Annie Chang) who fights these minor demons.

Evie Tanaka works as Aveda's manager - managing her appearances, the fallout from the damage caused, and well......Aveda's overbearing popularity-obsessed personality.  Aveda and Evie were best friends growing up, pre-portal, and Evie doesn't mind the job despite how insufferable Aveda can be.  Evie also is trying to raise her 17 year old sister, after their mother died and their father skipped town - a perhaps more difficult feat in itself.

But when Aveda injures herself blowing off some steam on a punching bag, there's no question she's not going to ask another superheroine to take her place while she recovers - that could cause that other hero to usurp her popularity.  No, it'll be up to Evie to impersonate Aveda and take her place.  But Evie has a secret - she too has a superpower, the power to create fire when she seemingly feels strong emotions.  She's responded to those powers by trying to repress her emotions, but when an incident causes her to use the power while impersonating Aveda, she faces no choice but to try and learn to deal with them, without incinerating anyone she cares about.

Which might be hard when dealing with a crazy celebrity-seeking boss/friend, a younger sister who doesn't want to simply be a good student and has ideas on her own, and a mad scientist co-worker that she's suddenly feeling a bit of attraction to......
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First things first, Evie Tanaka, our protagonist and narrator, is fantastic.  The entire book is written from her perspective, and she's a wonderful character as she develops throughout the book.  It would be so easy to write her poorly - to quote Evie herself midway through the book, she's an Emotional "mess" and that's something hard to write without it seeming artificial, but instead it feels totally natural, whether she's trying to suppress her emotions, trying to act despite insecurity, acting upon her lust, etc.  I love Evie so much and can't wait to see her in the sequel (although the sequel features her not as the main character).

The rest of the characters are also excellent.  Other books would essentially make Aveda a side-antagonist, the abusive boss/friend that the protagonist has to learn to leave, but Heroine Complex takes a totally different tact which made me very happy - and made her a far more enjoyable character as a result.  Sister Bea is again a character that in another story could've been incredibly annoying, but instead she develops and grows into a real believable seventeen year old put into a rough situation by her family who wants to grow into something.  Bodyguard Lucy is a very amusing compliment to the team, and Mad Scientist Nate turns into a very enjoyable love interest.

Speaking of Nate as the love interest, I'm not gonna lie, the romance and sex scenes here are very well done.  Not really something I talk about often in my reviews, but it's notable here - this isn't a book that is all about the sex scenes either, but they're well done when they happen.

There's very little about this book that I didn't like - again, every time I thought it was going to use a common trope (like a misunderstanding causing a separation of allies for a while, etc etc), the book doesn't go there, which I appreciated quite a bit.  The antagonists are kind of predictable from fairly early on (although their background maybe not) and are maybe a bit silly in the end, but again, it works really well.

You can tell from the way I struggled to find faults here, but I really enjoyed this book.  It's a totally fun superhero(ine) adventure featuring Asian American women as protagonists with some great characters.  If any of that appeals to you, you should check out Heroine Complex.

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