In a nutshell: very well-crafted anthology with lots and lots of amazing, thought-provoking stories, both by established authors (Kelly Link and Seanan McGuire for example) as well as authors who are less well-known. I enjoyed this mix of different voices a whole lot.
*I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in return for a fair review.*
Holy Angst Batman! This sure is an angsty bunch of stories. Super depressing. Anyone who decides to become a hero is stupid (judging by these stories). These are stories of the lives behind the mask. The mask of sup ...more
*Spread this out a bit by reading a story or two/three each day but not feeling good skewed that a bit haha* --- Overall, a well done collection with some stories I think would have been/would be great as full length novels or series :). Loved catching the hints and nods to Sup ...more
Superheroes. Superpowers. I'm a huge fan. Wasn't quite sure how to rate it, but in the end decide to be generous. Not every story in this anthology was a standout, but the quality was notably consistent and some were surprisingly good. Surprisingly, because with exception of 2 or 3 names, most of th ...more
An anthology of short stories that show how depressing it is to be a superhero. This book is full of angst and the dark side of doing good. I have now officially taken Superhero off my bucket list! ...more
I ended up enjoying this anthology way more than I thought I would. I was expecting some standard superhero stuff but what we actually get is some really raw and human stories that can be very emotional. Some of my favorites included:
Fool by Keith Frady – about a villain, Dr. Entropy who finally has ...more
I....don’t have a single bad thing to say about this anthology. Sometimes a piece of gold is hidden in an anthology. Sometimes you just find a collection of stories that won’t fit together no matter how they’re forced. And sometimes you find Behind the Mask.
It might not be as wonderful if you’re not ...more
A strong, varied anthology about superheroes, supervillains, and their regular lives
tl;dr at Overall, as always
The whole point of an anthology is to bring together wildly different styles and ideas, united by a single concept and see if it works. More often than not, it doesn’t. There’s always a var ...more
I would TOTALLY recommend this anthology. While I didn’t love all of the stories (and it is totally normal and fine), they all had their place in here and I feel that the ones I didn’t connect with still have the potential to be someone’s favourite. This will make everyone see super heroes/villains ...more
I wrote mini-reviews for all 20 short stories, so enjoy!
Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo
I love superheroes. I've made that very clear multiple times. So I was very happy when I started reading this story about a team of SUPERHEROINES. Our protagonist, Ms. Liberty, is a cyborg writer whose cr ...more