Heroine Complex (Heroine Complex, #1)

by Sarah Kuhn

Asian American superheroines Evie Tanaka and Aveda Jupiter protect San Francisco from perilous threats in the first book in this snarky and smart urban fantasy series

Being a superheroine is hard. Working for one is even harder.

Evie Tanaka is the put-upon personal assistant to Aveda Jupiter, her childhood best friend and San Francisco’s most beloved superheroine. She’s great at her job—blending into the background, handling her boss’s epic diva tantrums, and getting demon blood out of leather pants.

Unfortunately, she’s not nearly as together when it comes to running her own life, standing up for herself, or raising her tempestuous teenage sister, Bea.

But everything changes when Evie’s forced to pose as her glamorous boss for one night, and her darkest secret comes out: she has powers, too. Now it’s up to her to contend with murderous cupcakes, nosy gossip bloggers, and supernatural karaoke battles—all while juggling unexpected romance and Aveda’s increasingly outrageous demands. And when a larger threat emerges, Evie must finally take charge and become a superheroine in her own right...or see her city fall to a full-on demonic invasion.

• ISBN10: 0756410843
• ISBN13: 9780756410841
• Publish Date: 5 July 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: DAW Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780756410841

Reviews

[nannah]

Oh, boy. I loved and hated so much about this that I'm not sure where to begin or even what to think about this book. For example, I love that it's an #OwnVoices book starring two Asian American heroines, but then I turn a page and wow the amount of ableism made me want to cry. This kind of whiplash was pretty consistent throughout my entire reading experience.

Book content warnings:
rape & sexual assault/manipulation mention

Evie Tanaka is superhero Aveda Jupiter's personal assistant, best friend, and (pretty much) babysitter. As she says, she has the world's worst job, but she's also the best at it. Aveda Jupiter is San Francisco's most beloved superhero, but also a real diva, and if Evie had to choose between the city's demon attackers and Aveda's tantrums, she'd choose the demons every time. But when Aveda sprains her ankle and Evie is forced to pose as her boss, her own secret comes out: she has superpowers too. Now she finds herself in the middle of the demon takeover and facing the media she'd always wanted to avoid--and even a romance she almost thought herself incapable of.

This is possibly the most drama-filled book I've ever read. I even had to lay the book aside sometimes just because there was ... so much. Sure, Aveda Jupiter is a diva and extra as hell, but simple conversations could have simplified so many side plots or gotten rid of half the drama here. I don't actually watch many Freeform originals, but going by the commercials it seems like this book would fit with the level of drama those shows dish out.

Along the same line, what I loved about this book, I really, really loved. And what I didn't like about this book, I just really hated.

The character development of both Evie and Aveda were really great. Predictable, but really great nonetheless! The side characters didn't get any development themselves, except for Bea (Evie's sister) and maaaaybe Nate (the Love Interest) if you squint, but the real stars of the book were Evie and Aveda anyway.

But I'm getting really sick of "the gay friend" trope. Especially "the gay friend who's obsessed with sex" trope. Gay people being comfortable with who they are enough to talk about their sex lives is one thing (and this is a whole other essay tbh), but straight people making a trope out of it because "oh my god gay people are everywhere now and all they talk/think about is sex" is another. I'm not saying this is what Sarah Kuhn thinks!! But there's an action-->reaction going on, the trope formed out of it, and a lot of straight people go a long with it, some not knowing its harm (or how goddamn annoying it is). I mean, this friend was so obsessed with sex she stuffed Evie's dresser drawers full of condoms, and probably 8/10 of their conversations were about sex/hooking up.

Plotwise, the book was really lukewarm. Supposedly it was about some demon invasion, but I couldn't really take it seriously. Sometimes the main characters couldn't either, or even the villain's minions. So how was I to? Instead, everything seemed pretty character/drama-driven, including the actual climax. If that's what the book was about (the logline/back of the book/etc.), it would make a lot more sense, but I felt like somewhere along the way things got confusing whether the plot or the characters were really driving things along.

But when the climax actually did happen, and the characters all came together, it was really satisfying! So again, I'm really just conflicted about how I feel. Maybe the book just needed another round of editing--or maybe I'm just not the right reader, haha.

[Heather]

Annie and Evie have been friends since Annie first stood up for Evie against some bullies in elementary school.  Now as adults, Evie is Annie's personal assistant.  Annie is San Francisco's only superhero Aveda Jupiter.  She's all about the glory.  She dumps everything else on Evie who takes it because she feels like she owes Annie.

Annie/Aveda is truly abusive to Evie.  Everyone sees it but her.  When Evie is forced out of the shadows so needs to rely on her own powers to save the city and find a life for herself outside of Aveda Jupiter's orbit.

Good things about this book:

• Asian female superheroes - Annie is Chinese and Evie is half-Japanese


• The menace is fairly lighthearted and fun.  It starts with demons taking the form of cupcakes that bite and ends with demonic minions who complain about everything the boss demon does.  I could imagine this whole book as a technicolor comic strip.


• Evie learning to stand up for herself is wonderful.

Annoying things:

• Evie has been suppressing her emotions in order to keep her powers under control.  When she starts to get in touch with her feelings, the first one that she notices is lust.  She refers to her lack of lustful feelings as the Dead Inside-o-meter.  The idea that she hasn't had sex in three years is considered proof of emotional problems.  I'm not a fan of stories that consider either asexuality or celibacy as the weirdest thing that ever happened.


• Evie's teenage sister is the worst person ever.  Well, maybe second worse next to Aveda.  It is hard to tell but then they start hanging out together and amplify each other's behavior and it is everything horrible.  They are selfish and childish but Evie is supposed to be seen as no fun for objecting to it all.


• I didn't like the romances in this book.  They just seemed added because you have to have a sexual partner (see complaint 1).  Suddenly, she has feelings for a person who annoys her all the time?  The fact that someone annoys you is actually stated as proof that you probably deep down want to sleep with them.  No, maybe they are just annoying and you have the good sense to stay away from them.

 This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[Berls]

When a book has been sitting on my currently reading this long and I've forgotten it and feel no need to pick it up and see what happens.... I guess that means it's time to DNF. I'm giving it 2 stars despite my DNF however - because when I was reading it I didn't hate it. I just don't care what happened.

[ayla_abbott]

I'm genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed that. It had all the things that normally make me eye roll-- bratty teenage sister, jealous best friend, mean girls-- but then they all acted like adults. Had moments of growth and talked their crap out. It felt like reading a good super hero story that actually speaks to real life like a lot of modern superheros try to, but never actually manage to.

Not just good at kicking ass... also great at interventions.

[empressbrooke]

I found this one when io9 raved about it, but at 30% through I was not sharing their love for it. The writing style is annoyingly perky, and the characters have ridiculous isn't-that-so-cute quirks (the main character apparently eats only Lucky Charms for every meal). The infodumpy conversations are unnatural (imagine turning to your coworker and loudly saying, "So, fellow co-worker who I have worked alongside for the last 5 years, can you please remind me how we do this task that we do regularly?"). There's a scene where the main character is eavesdropping on villain-y types monologuing about their motivations and evil plans, and it was so stilted and awkward.

At the 60% mark I found myself not believing in Aveda and Evie's supposed friendship, at ALL. There are lots of anecdotes that Evie shares about how Aveda was a great friend in the past, but all of their interactions in the present time make Aveda seem like such an unpleasant, selfish asshole. Their friends stage an intervention to discuss the destructive nature of Aveda and Evie's bickering, and only Evie apologizes, while Aveda stands by silently, and no one seemed to think this was bitchy.

The plot had a number of points that didn't make sense. For example, they fight demons for a living, but for some reason when Evie sees a demon when she's by herself, everyone chalks it up to a hallucination without any good reason given for this assumption.

The characters are either bland or sloppy - Lucy doesn't seem to have a personality except for calling everyone "Love" or "Darling" every other sentence, and Evie's little sister goes through about three different personalities as the plot requires it.

Urban fantasy can be done very well (ie - [a:Kelley Armstrong|7581|Kelley Armstrong|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1199068298p2/7581.jpg]'s [b:Bitten|7492609|Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, #1)|Kelley Armstrong|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349858727s/7492609.jpg|2606334] and [b:Stolen|11922|Stolen (Women of the Otherworld, #2)|Kelley Armstrong|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1300923278s/11922.jpg|14289], [a:Richelle Mead|137902|Richelle Mead|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1270374609p2/137902.jpg]'s Vampire Academy series), or it can be pretty painful (the rest of Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, Mead's Bloodlines series). Heroine Complex unfortunately falls into the latter category. I had really expected to enjoy it, but ultimately found the writing entirely unconvincing.

[ellieroth]

Un libro para niños?
No.
Entonces Young Adult?
No
Pero la portada...
LO SÉ.

Original de: El Blog del Gato - El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Heroine Complex me encantó porque hay una gran amistad en el libro que, a pesar de tener un montón de problemas, tratan de resolverlo de manera adulta… claro, luego de mucho berrinche de Aveda en algún momento Lee este libro por el simple placer de leer un buen libro, es rapidísimo de leer.

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[Eve1972]

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

WOW, so this book was a really awesome surprise..



Aveda Jupiter is San Francisco's most loved super heroine. Swooping in to vanquish all sorts of demonic baddies. Alas, she doesn't prove indestructible and ends up being hurt and needing to take some time off. In steps her much put-upon PA and best friend Evie (awesome name choice)

What ensues is a fast-paced, humorous and absoluting entertaining ride. Demon cupcakes with fangs, animated statues, THING like hands that attack, and karaoke offs, are just a few of the things Aveda, Evie and a plethora of amazingly written side characters have to face off against. It even had a nice little dose of sex and romance.

I LOVED this one. It was just plain FUN

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This sounded like it was going to be a really funny and cute read! Unfortunately the characters were a little too juvenile for me. Evie kept making it a point to mention that she had learned such-and-such when writing a paper in college. Only, she and Aveda acted like angsty teens for most of the book. So I really couldn't see her as the intended age.

Evie spends the first half of the book allowing Aveda to bully her into doing things she doesn't want to do. She also has bottled her emotions up so tight, that it appears she has no feelings. And she absolutely cannot spend any time at all in the same room with Nate without getting into some kind of argument.

The second half of the book is pretty much a complete 180. Suddenly Evie has All The Feelings Of Ever. And Nate? Insta-lust! Which later turns into insta-love. (There are also a few sex scenes in the book, so don't be surprised.) She does grow a backbone, which I highly approved of. And stops letting Aveda bully her. But it was still filled with a number of cringe-worthy moments.

I did like the second half of the book better than the first half, but since I almost DNF'd the book based on the first half, that isn't saying a lot. The ending with the bad guy was a little cliche, and so was the reveal about Nate. But overall, the second half was still a lot better than the first half of the book.

I did like a few things about the book! I really liked the superhero social media touch. Having a twitter account, following blogs and YouTube comments, making sure Aveda's image was the best it could be. I also loved the fact that Aveda and Evie's favorite movie is an ACTUAL movie and not something made up for the book. It made me super curious about the movie, and I'm going to have to see if I can find a copy to watch.

I also liked how snarky Evie was, once she started feeling things. There were a few funny moments, like when she accidentally melts a sink in a bathroom, and when she goes off on Maisey for touching Nate in the mall.

So if you don't mind characters who act way younger than their actual age, insta-love, and a bunch of angst, you may like this book better than I did.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon