Heroine Complex (Heroine Complex, #1)

by Sarah Kuhn

[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.