Hero

Hero

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87  ·  rating details  ·  6,678 ratings  ·  819 reviews
The last thing in the world Thom Creed wants is to add to his dad, Hal's, pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And that he's been asked to join the League--the very organization of superheroes that spurned his father. The most painful secret of all is one Thom can barely face himself: he's gay.

But becoming a member of the League opens up a new world...more
Paperback, 428 pages
Published May 5th 2009 by Disney-Hyperion (first published September 1st 2007)

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Punk
Young Adult. A gay teenager with superpowers and his disgraced hero-dad live together in the suburbs. They have their differences, but when Thom gets tapped to try out for the League (of superheroes) those differences threaten to tear them apart. Hee, sorry. It really is that dramatic.

This book takes on a lot. It's got a solid story with a good array of characters. Kind of like a mix of The Incredibles and Sky High. A lot of the superheroes were just familiar DC characters with slightly differe...more
Brooke
Almost every review I've read for this book applauds the subject matter (a gay teen superhero) but laments the sloppy writing. I'm going to add my voice to this choir.

The writing reminded me of problems I've had with some other YA novels. Everything is just a little too melodramatic, a little too overwritten, and a little too loud. The pacing is inconsistent; months will go by without much mention and yet events will be mentioned as if they just happened yesterday. There are countless contradic...more
Nikki
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
laaaaames
There is little this book brings to the superhero genre in terms of newness or innovation. Luckily, the book also brings us Thom Creed, the protagonist whose voice won me over immediately. The plot veers maybe a little too much and the book feels, in general, shoved with too many peripheral characters, but even when Thom's being too self-centered and introspective and woe-is-me I'm on his side, and his faults have to do with his age, maturity level, and the enormous strain on his life due to his...more
Trin
Yawn. Punk sums up a lot of the problems I had with this book in her review—the cartoonishly ridiculous level of homophobia, the utter failure to take advantage of the preexisting (and really cool) connection between being queer and being a superhero—but I would also like to add this complaint: it’s boring. The melodrama level is high, but as for actual drama…on the edge of my seat I was not. A lot of the “twists” are incredibly predictable, and frankly, I just never believed in this society, th...more
Sarri
Tässäpä erikoinen nuortenkirja. Kirjan päähenkilö Thom on salaa supersankari. Thomin isä ei voi sietää supersankareita, joten Thomin täytyy pitää asia salassa.

Maailmassa on supersankareita, jotka pitävät superroistot kurissa. Supersankareilla on supervoimia, joita voikin olla kaikenlaisia. Thom esimerkiksi pystyy parantamaan ihmisiä. Thom saa kutsun osallistua supersankarikarsintoihin, joihin hän sitten meneekin isältään salassa. Thom pitää muitakin salaisuuksia isältään, kuten sen, että hän ei...more
Kate
Jan 08, 2008 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: comic freaks, confused teenagers, anyone who played x-men as a little kid
a gay teenage superhero trying to come to terms with his sexuality, super powers, and troubles with his parents (or lack thereof)...i loved this book. the only reason i didn't give it five stars is because i felt in a couple of areas it was a little too wordy, but other than that, it was fantastic. i'm jealous.
Lisa
Sep 09, 2010 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Lisa by: http://michelenjeff-reviews.blogspot.com/
3.5/5 stars

Thom Creed is just an average teenager; he excels at basketball, he has a difficult relationship with his father, he believes that “There’s someone out there who will one day find me and fall in love with me and prove that all this waiting actually meant something…” Oh, and he also just happens to have the power to heal. Maybe he’s not so average after all.

Thom is the son of two superheroes; his mother has the power of invisibility and disappeared when he was just a young boy. His dad...more
Dan
In Hero, author Perry Moore demonstrates a superpower of his own: he can turn prose into lead.

Since Moore's intentions are admirable, it's tempting to gloss over the book's poor execution by praising it using plenty of qualifiers. ("Hero is the best YA novel featuring a gay teen superhero I've read all month!") Unfortunately, I just can't bring myself to use the words "Hero" and "best" in the same sentence. Well, in a pinch I could probably force myself to say, "I read Hero while staying at a Be...more
Matthew
A very good novel, though perhaps one that tries to do too much in too little a space. The romance within the novel is given too little focus, and so it feels empty and unfulfilled; this is depressing, as the brief glimpses we get of the love interest are incredibly enticing and the romance itself has so much potential.

Read this book for the characters. Yes, many of the superheroes are carbon copies of famous ones you may know -- Batman and Superman make an appearance, for instance, under aliase...more
Abby Johnson
In a world where superheroes are real, Thom dreams about joining The League, a band of A-list good guys who protect the citizens of their fair city. He also dreams about one of the most famous (and dreamiest) superheroes, Uberman. Thom's keeping a lot of secrets, not the least of which is that he's got superpowers and has been invited to try out for The League. He knows his dad would flip if he found out. His dad used to be a hero, one of the greats. But then he was maimed in a catastrophic acci...more
Edward
Sep 20, 2007 Edward rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Gay Teens and thier friends, people who love spoofing the Superhero Genre
Shelves: teen-town
This is one of the best Gay Teen/Coming of Age books I have read since Boy Meets Boy (I have to review that as well). This story is set in the alternate world where Superheroes are a part of every day life, but puts a more humorous twist to it than many graphic novels. For avid readers of the Gay/YA fiction genre I would say that this book is a blend of Year of Ice, The Tick and the X-Men comic series. Thom Creed is a boy coming to terms with both his sexuality and burgeoning super powers – he c...more
Dracolibris
This is the kind of book that makes me want to stay home from work and spend the day turning pages. But go to work I did on Friday, and I had to wait until Saturday to finish the story of Thom Creed, a teenager who has more than his share of problems. His father was a highly respected super hero back in the day, but "somehow" became disgraced and now struggles to make ends meet for him and his son, who have been alone since mom disappeared. Thom feels that he not only has to hide his true sexual...more
Miss Kitty
Jul 10, 2007 Miss Kitty rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of superheros and gay men
Shelves: glbt
Thom's dad, Hal, used to be one of the most famous and revered superheroes in the League. But then Hal messed up some rescue mission and a bunch of people got killed and his hand got all mashed and deformed. After the mashy hand incident, Thom's mother left the family and its been Thom and his dad ever since. Thom and his dad aren't exactly close and its a good thing too because Thom doesn't want his dad to know that he's been asked to join the League. Thom also doesn't want to tell his dad that...more
Patrick
Started out very promising, setting up a great opportunity for a tale of coming out and self-discovery set against the fantastical and highly visual world of super-heroes. Many gay kids grow up with a love of super hero stories because they can relate to the idea of being "different" and often misunderstood, so the idea of an actual gay hero, not an implied one, is extremely exciting to us who got blissfully lost in that world as a child.

But while character development at the top of the book was...more
George
Ok, here's why this book is good: There's some good layering going on here. The foundation is this high school kid, Thom, coming to terms with his sexuality. So that's interesting on it's own, but then Moore adds a world of superheroes. Superheroes in this world don't always have special powers and being a superhero is a career(complete with a salary). Then there's Thom's home life with his single dad. Thom's parents are former superheros and his mom abandoned them a few years back. I really li...more
Meghan
Could have done without (a) all those loathsome one-scene peripheral characters being fatties (b) all those plot twists that we guessed eight miles off (c) the paragraphs that would begin with thinking and end with passive-voice action (d) the tediously long final battle (e) the fact that Hal is constantly portrayed as someone to fear but is written so carefully as to make him never ever scary, just kind of misunderstood. Plus a colostomy bag has never been more boring or made less sense.

Probab...more
Alex
Hero is about Thom Creed, a gay teen training to be a superhero. His past comes back to haunt him, and he quickly goes from having a totally embarrassing try outs to having to choose between something that means the most to him, and saving the world.

I highly recommend this book, as it is a real eye opener to how gay teens are treated today, and it also brings you along one teenagers path to becoming a true hero. However, Thom's childish tendencies and the unrealisitic plot knocked a star off my...more
Jennifer
Dec 23, 2007 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who has felt like a freak
Shelves: read-young-adult
This is a gay teen superhero's coming of age story. Do I really need to say more? In a slightly alternative world where superheroes exist (a la The Incredibles), Thom Creed, is the son of a disgraced superhero, Major Might, who was tossed out of the "League" for failing to prevent a tragedy that cost thousands of people their lives. Harold Creed is now a single dad raising his son on his own, working a factory job, pining for his wife, and still being ostracized and reviled by most of the genera...more
Serena Yates
This is a great YA book with a gay hero. In more than one sense of the word, the main character, Thom, has to grow up in this story.

There are secrets that need solving on a personal level (his powers and how to deal with his sexual orientation), with his family (both his mother and his father have something to hide, it seems), and society at large (what exactly DID happen at the Wilson Towers all those years ago?). I liked the pacing and the tone of voice, which were both appropriate to how a te...more
Scarlett
Sep 02, 2007 Scarlett rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone
This is an excellent book. It is not only for gay teens or fans of comics. It appeals to everyone who has ever felt rejected, outcast, or uncertain whether their friends would like them if they knew what was going on under the surface... and who cant relate to that?

The characters are appealing and real, even though they have superpowers. The writing is easy to read and is like hanging out with someone you really like. The author has made what would otherwise seem like a book with a very small au...more
Nic Hunter
So, someone said this book was cute. And I thought, "I can do cute." They said that it was gay superheros. I though, "I could do gay superheros."

The book itself is quite nice actually. While some of the storyline is fumbled, and a few of the characters aren't all there, it's nice.

The main character is dealing with many problems, but the two biggest is being gay and finding that he has super powers. "And those are problems why?" you might ask? Well, things are a bit different where he lives.

I don...more
Jenny
September 29 is the first day of "Banned Books Week" and it was apropos to read this book. I'm SURE this book will be challenged by some parent or school system out there because the main character is gay, there are some sexual situations and as much swearing as you could imagine from a teenager. The overall themes are simple and you've all heard it before--Be true to yourself, discover your true identity and be proud of it, and good prevails over evil. I'm not much for fantasy or superheroes bu...more
Elizabeth
While I don't have much in particular bad to say about this book, it didn't do a whole lot for me. I liked the matter-of-fact treatment of there being superheroes in this world, but because it was so matter-of-fact, the superhero aspect didn't particularly engage me. The persecution due to gayness felt foreign to my personal experience and (possibly because of that) felt almost incidental to the plot. While I wasn't engaged by a lot of the plot threads, I did care about a lot of the characters a...more
Dominic
Aug 20, 2008 Dominic rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Comic Book Fans
First of all, I know this is teenlit. Secondly, I know the main character is gay.
But more importantly, it's about SUPERHEROES. And it's adequtely written, with a fun, episodic style that is true to the ultimately visual genre from which it springs. And the sexuality of the protagonist is simply one facet of Thom's very well-rounded personality.
It's not a gay superhero story. It's a story about a young man who feels out of place and needs to learn who he is and where he fits into the world. Who...more
Larry Hoffer
Loved. This. Book.



Growing up isn't easy for Thom Creed, and it's not just your typical teenage angst. His mother disappeared one day and his father, once a revered superhero named Major Might, was disgraced after a rescue attempt went awry, so he now hates all heroes. Problem is, Thom has just been invited to join The League, the organization of superheroes that rejected his father. And to top it off, Thom is just coming to terms with the fact that he's gay, which makes two major things he can't...more
Andreea
Mar 29, 2009 Andreea rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone
Shelves: reviewed, 10th-grade
Hero is a book with an original spin to cliched superhero books. And it's the original spin that makes it a really good read. The protagonist, Thom, is a boy with problems: his father is a crippled and disgraced superhero, his mother is invisible and missing, he seems to be able to heal people with a touch, and coming out isn't exactly easy either. When he finally tries to take control of his life, it ends is disaster. Helped along the way by a sickly little kid whose powers make other people si...more
Djrmel
I was hoping for something beyond a "coming of age" plot from this winner of the 2008 LAMBDA Fiction for Young Adults, and I wasn't too disappointed. Thom, the main character, has more pressing matters than coming to terms with being gay - he's got super powers, and although that's not all that unusual in the world Moore has created, it's not all that easy, either. Super powers don't make the other people any smarter or less judgmental or less likely to have problems of their own, as Thom learns...more
Steven
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
danny nicely-behaved
Something really annoys me about this book.

I liked it, and I hated it. The beginning is quite promising, managing to deal with a world that is populated by superheroes in a way that keeps it firmly grounded in reality. It's quite good. Then, however, it all drowns in a world of clichés and two-dimensional characters. Thom is the most believable character, but superpowers appear to come with the secondary effect of draining any interesting aspects of one's character. All the superheroes are ludic...more
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The Backlot Gay B...: Hero by Perry Moore 2 11 Apr 29, 2013 12:07pm  
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Perry Moore was a best-selling author, film producer, screenwriter, and director, best known as the executive producer of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Moore grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia and attended Norfolk Academy. He majored in English at the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar.

A longtime fan of children’s literature and comic books, M...more
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“I filled my head with thoughts of the future, of infinite possibly. There's someone out there who will one day find me and fall in love with me and prove that all this waiting actually meant something....” 31 people liked it
“I caught myself thinking about falling in love with someone who I hoped was out there right now thinking about the possibility of me, but I quickly banished the notion. It was that kind of thinking that landed me in this situation to begin with. Hope can ruin you.” 10 people liked it
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