We Can Save Us All (review)

We Can Save Us All by Adam Nemett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It is a few years in the future, and the world is a chaotic mess, beset by war, natural calamities and the scientific reality of time collapsing in on itself. Many truly believe that the end is near.

(Hello, We Can Save us All. I think we’re gonna be friends.)

Charismatic Princeton dropout Mathias Blue sets up a “Hall of Justice” like facility off campus called “The Egg” and at The Egg he assembles a group of other likeminded and alienated dropouts. Together, they form the Unnamed Supersquadron of Vigilantes, with the self-imposed task of saving the world, such as it is.

His right hand man, David Fuffman, aka “Business Man” is along for the ride. He has always been hampered by his awkwardness and lack of strength. He is hopelessly in love with Haley Roth, a former high school drug dealer who finds her way back into his life at the Egg. He is a self-proclaimed super hero in his mind but in reality he is still that weak person he was before. This comes into play early when he finds that in spite of his new position as the member of a legion of superheroes, he is incapable of actually saving anyone when it matters.

But the group does a lot of drugs and have demonstrations and help out people where they can. And it all rolls along just fine until it takes a turn and this little cult begins to look like what it really is…
This book draws heavily from the world of comic books and taps into the zeitgeist of this time that we live in, where optimism still pokes its head through sometimes, in spite of the direction that our world appears to be headed.

I loved this book. Even as I often have little hope for the world that we live in, I sometimes still believe (like the Unnamed Supersquadron of Vigilantes) that we can save us all.




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