Rinn's Review of Powers

by Brian Michael Bendis and Neil Kleid

Ever since she could walk, Homicide Detective Deena Pilgrim followed in her father's footsteps. A man with a badge, Waldo Pilgrim surrounded himself with what Deena believed to be the cream of the crop when it came to serving and protecting. These days, Deena won't discuss her father or the life she left behind in Atlanta years ago, a life before she partnered with Christian Walker to investigate homicide cases in a city where perps and victims boast incredible, dangerous powers. Now, nearly a decade of bringing Powers to justice has broken down Deena's resolve, along with the walls she erected long ago to protect herself from prying eyes. Walls that kept her from a past best left alone, and from those determined to get close and bring horrible, heartbreaking memories to the surface once more.

But when a cold case reopens a series of unsolved murders that point back to Deena's family tree, she is unavoidably reacquainted with a former boyfriend with ties to both sets of killings, along with her sordid past. Forced to question the choices, decisions, and steps she's taken in life, love, and career---including her long-standing partnership with Walker, a former Power whose secret history intersects with Deena's own---Detective Deena Pilgrim must bring a killer to justice and, in doing so, hopefully come to terms with the kind of cop she wants to be . . . assuming that she wants to continue being a cop at all.

Written by Powers cocreator Brian Michael Bendis and novelist Neil Kleid, The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim is the first-ever prose story set in the world of the award-winning, critically acclaimed comic book series by Bendis and artist Michael Avon Oeming. Powers tells the stories of human police officers attempting to solve crimes in a world inhabited by superheroes and supervillains. In January 2015, the Playstation Network debuted it as its first-ever hour-long scripted programming, featuring characters and plots from the comic book series.

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

I love superhero stories. All the classic comics, plus more recent novels. So when I was offered this for review, I leapt at the chance. It takes a classic detective story and adds superhero elements, based on the comic book series of the same name by Brian Michael Bendis, and an hour long show on the Playstation Network. However, whilst it seemed that I would not be at a disadvantage being unfamiliar with the Deena Pilgrim universe, I definitely felt I would have enjoyed the book a lot more were I more familiar with it.

Also, I feel like this book may have suffered slightly from bad timing. I began reading it at the same time as I was reading Calamity, the third book in the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson. Reading two books about superheroes at the same time – especially when one of them is from a series you really love – you’re sure to compare the two, and unfortunately The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim didn’t quite live up to it.

Overall, I didn’t particularly enjoy this one – the detective element or the superhero element. There wasn’t much involvement of superheroes, apart from a link with the murders that Deena investigates. The whole mystery felt a bit of a mess, and rather than drawing me in and encouraging me to work things out for myself, it just really confused me. There was an entire chapter where one character was referred to by three different names, constantly alternating – which had me convinced for a while that there were in fact two characters present, instead of one. I found myself reading this book only at lunchtime at work, mostly just because it was smaller and easier to fit in my bag than the other book I was reading…

It’s a shame that this one didn’t work out for me. If I’d previously read the comic and understood more of the back story then perhaps I would have enjoyed it a lot more – so I’d love to hear if anyone has read both, and enjoyed them!

Powers

by Brian Michael Bendis and Neil Kleid

Reviewed by Rinn on Apr 8, 2016

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