Name: Hero
ISBN: 9780552555869

Perry Moore

Even though Thom Creed's a basketball star, his high school classmates keep their distance. They've picked up on something different about Thom. Plus, his father, Hal Creed, was one of the greatest and most beloved superheroes of his time until a catastrophic event left him disfigured and an outcast. The last thing in the world Thom wants is to add to his father's pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And he's been asked to join the League -- the very organization of superheroes that disowned Hal. But joining the League opens up a new world to Thom. There, he connects with a misfit group of aspiring heroes: * Scarlett, who can control fire but not her anger * Typhoid Larry, who can make anyone sick with his touch * Ruth, a wise old woman who can see the future Together these unlikely heroes become friends and begin to uncover a plot to kill the superheroes. This groundbreaking and widely acclaimed novel tells an unforgettable story about love, loss, and redemption.

Hero

Thom Creed, the gay son of a disowned superhero, finds that he, too, has special powers and is asked to join the very League that rejected his father, and it is there that Thom finds other misfits whom he can finally trust.

Nick Schmoyer

Loved this book! Read it probably early high school years. Will never re read because the author has died, so the series will never continue :(

Sophie Shrimpton

I love queer media. This was terrible. Not only was it homophobic, but it was shockingly sexist, racist and classist. It was terrible writing, full of cliches. I couldn't put my finger on a single original theme or idea. It didn't even bother to properly interrogate the black and white morality found in your average superhero books - if you were going to twist the traditional narrative, surely that would be the first place to start? Not to mention there were spelling mistakes littered throughout, and the timing jumped around so you had no idea when anything was happening. 

The only sentence that made me pause for thought was this one: "Years ago, when I'd first figured out I was a sucker for a nice hairy chest, I thought for sure I'd have to kill myself before I was eighteen." This was the type of thinking I also had when I was younger and worked out I was queer. My life was about building up the courage to kill myself - there was no other alternative. 

Ultimately I battled through this book for three reasons. My mother recommended it to me, I think to try and show that she was engaging in queer media, and so that she could reprimand the "old-fashioned thinking". Secondly, I'm sick and I needed something shit that my frazzled brain could digest. Thirdly, the day before I launched in there was a terrorist attack in my country, and the constant terrifying media updates were best countered with mindless nothingness that represented a happy ending and no gray zone of morality.