Tuesday, July 10, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Heroine's Journey (Heroine Complex #3) by Sarah Kuhn




Sarah Kuhn's Heroine Complex series has been one of my favorite new finds of 2018 (A review of Book 1, Heroine Complex, can be found Here and a review of Book 2, Heroine Worship, can be found Here).  The series is an absolute joy - featuring Asian American Heroines with superpowers, trying to fight off both demon attacks on San Francisco as well as their own anxieties/insecurities, along with some really steamy romances in each book.  Kuhn was nominated this year for the Campbell Award for her work on the first two books in the series, and the third book in the series, Heroine's Journey (which just came out on July 3), continues her absolutely winning trend.

Heroine's Journey shifts the focus of the story to our third major character with superpowers, Bea Tanaka, the sister to Book 1's protagonist Evie Tanaka, who has the power to project her emotional state into other people's minds (and possibly more).  Whereas the second book in the series, Heroine Worship, very much followed a very similar (to a predictable decree) formula to the first book, Heroine's Journey follows a much less predictable path.  But it contains the same winning charms as the first two books - a lovable protagonist struggling through her own personal anxieties as she tries to be the best she can be, witty dialogue and funny situations (the porcelain unicorns being fought on the cover?  Yeah that's a real scene), and some solid romance and great sex scenes (best in the series in my opinion).  It's a real winner.

Note: You could very easily start this series with this book and skip the prior two I would think, but this book's beginning absolutely spoils Book 1 (Heroine Complex) and mildly spoils Book 2 (Heroine Worship), so I'd start with those books first to get full enjoyment out of the series.  Note that this is not a trilogy - Kuhn has contracted for at least 3 more books plus a novella, to my great joy.


----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Bea Tanaka wants to be a superheroine.  This isn't as outlandish as it seems - Bea's older sister Evie forms one half of San Francisco's resident superheroine team (along with Evie's best friend Aveda), battling demonic forces that have repeatedly popped up in San Fran for the last decade or so.  And Bea herself has superpowers - she can project her emotional state into other people, and can also project her anger into a concussive scream.  But Evie and Aveda simply refuse to let Bea join them as a true third member of the team.  So Bea is left to stew about their refusal with her two best friends, fellow bookstore employee Leah Kim and her lifetime competition in everything, Sam Fujikawa.

But when weird demon attacks start occurring that don't stem from the usual source in San Francisco, it seems Bea's powers might be needed after all.  But things start to get really strange - as Bea's powers start to become more powerful, allowing her to implant direct thoughts into others' heads, and other individuals seem to start manifesting those very same powers.  On top of that....Bea starts hearing messages seeming to come from her long dead mother, suggesting her mother isn't dead but instead stuck in the Demon Otherworld, and only Bea seems willing to do whatever it takes to save her mother.

Can Bea figure out what is going on and save the day, prove her worth as a superheroine, and not screw up her friendships by trying to have something more than friendship from them?  Well....okay, that last one might be a bit more difficult than it seems...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each of the first two Heroine novels followed a similar formula.  Each Heroine was faced with a situation they never though they'd deal with to start - Evie with being a superheroine and Aveda with planning Evie's Wedding events - have to face immense anxieties (Evie with the worry of her emotion-based power going out of control, Aveda with the fear of being second best) and find romance in the process, before 2/3 of the way through the book the heroine would realize she's a mess and talk it over with her best friend and find a way to go on, leading to the climactic showdown with the mystery big bad.  This formula isn't bad in any way - it leads to two very good books in fact, and  both talking-it-over scenes in the first two books are fantastic (I've reread both more than a few times).  But even though I liked book 2 (Heroine Worship), the repeat of the formula did detract a little bit from what was otherwise a great book by making parts of it feel like a repeat, even if Evie and Aveda were very very different protagonists.

Heroine's Journey averts this completely and never feels derivative in any way as a result (and is also much much less predictable).  Bea is again very different from the prior two protagonists, wanting to be taken seriously in her own right by her sister in her quest to be a superheroine, and very very affected by any doubting - including self-doubting - of her own abilities or motives.  She's another superheroine with insecurities, but her insecurities are different and more unique to her, making her anything but a copy of her sister.  She's fun, competitive, determined, and driven, which makes it so easy to root for her and her twin fears of being relegated to someone's kid sidekick and of being abandoned by anyone she gets close to are not only understandable but often heartbreaking to read about.  And it's very easy to empathize with her need to find out the truth behind what seems to be her mother calling to her from beyond the grave, even if the reader is logically predisposed to distrust the source of those messages.

Bea is not the only of course great character in this book. The main cast from the first two books remain likable and fun (Evie's husband Nate, who seemingly disappeared from Book 2, has a few very nice moments in this one) and have clearly grown over the few years between the last book and this one - while still remaining recognizable to who they were in the first two books where the reader came to love them.  And the two major new characters are great too: Bea's two friends Leah and Sam are excellent additions (as long as cover-stealing puppy "Pancake") for the most part.  The turns their interactions take again often surprise but never seem out of place and I loved their addition to the cast quite a bit, with Leah serving as the co-conspirator and best friend with Bea (but even more than that) and Sam serving as the love interest.

Speaking of Sam as a love interest, if there's one minor flaw with this book, it's that unlike prior series love interests Scott or Nate, his character seemed rather underdeveloped outside of his relationship with Bea (to be fair, we got to know Scott for a whole book before he became a love interest, whereas Sam only cameos in the prior book).  But oh my freaking god, the main sex scene in this book is clearly the best in the entire series, and those were always fun highlights already in the prior books.  I cannot emphasize this enough, it is incredible and spectacular - to quote the main character during that scene: "Holy Shit". 

And again, the actual superheroining in this book is utterly and completely fun, if you couldn't tell from the cover which depicts an actual scene from this book - the gang having to deal with demon-animated porcelain unicorns attacking a location.  The dialogue is fresh and witty and very frequently self-aware, the result of which is to make this book so so so damn quotable for out of context.  The return of a gimmick from Book 2 (not spoiling) near the end made me crack up laughing and it was not the only moment like that. 

In short, I loved Heroine's Journey and am so damn glad to see this series continuing.  I really can't recommend it enough and It will definitely be on my Best Series Hugo Nominations for next year.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)