Book Review: Even Heroes (by G. A. Bassier)

 

Just to start off with a point of clarification: this book was advertised to me as Upper Middle Grade. It is definitely not Upper Middle Grade. The first clue is the length (around 93k), but it also contains drug taking, domestic violence and school shootings, as well as including curse words. Reading it, I stubbornly continued to see Vincent as being 15, rather than 13. The review which follows – and the stars awarded – views it as a Young Adult book.

I have so much I want to say about Even Heroes. The first thing is that I was desperate to know how it ended, which is a sure sign of a good book. I was invested in the characters from early on, but I really did not like Vincent. He’s exceptionally judgmental about everyone around him and, because it’s all from his point of view, you get every sniping thought which goes through his head. But that’s not a bad thing at all – for a protagonist who fancies himself a superhero, the antihero vibe works very well.

I felt particularly sorry for his mum. Vincent’s dad has been out of the picture since he was a little boy, and she’s understandably very protective of him, especially given the fact he has serious asthma. He is just mean about her all the time and, in fact, comes across as very cold towards her at times. I think the fact she perseveres with him probably means she’s a serious contender for Mother of the Year. There’s one particular bit where she dares to give him tofu and he’s really rude about it. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand tofu, but the poor woman is doing her best!

Once you get into the swing of it, you can easily get swept along with the adventure which Vincent embarks on. Once or twice, it’s a bit too much. I could have done without the inference that Vincent manages to cure his asthma with sheer determination. And, as a teacher, I struggle to believe that all but one of the teachers at Vincent’s school believe that he’s this trouble-causing little pain in the backside, rather than noticing that two of his peers are physically and mentally torturing him. Even when I was being bullied at secondary school, teachers were reasonably good at noticing physical things, even if the sneakier nastiness stayed under the radar.

Even for a YA novel, Even Heroes is on the long side but there is never a moment where you feel like the action has stalled. I don’t think it needs as many chapters as it has (I would have combined a few of them) but the author works the cliff-hangers very well, so the end of a chapter is rarely a point when you want to stop reading! You hear every thought in Vincent’s head, which helps to build tension at some of the crucial points, and the action is very visual, almost like you’re seeing it in a graphic novel.

In summary, an action-packed novel which will take you through some of the darkest aspects of adolescence in America.

Blurb (from Goodreads)
A regular kid. An impossible dream.
Thirteen-year-old Vincent’s fantasy of being a superhero can never come true for two reasons. One: he’s an asthmatic weakling whose mom won’t even let him walk up a flight of stairs (something the school bullies happily remind him of each time they stick his head in the toilet). And two: this is the real world, where superheroes don’t actually exist.
Neither of these reasons can stop Vincent from donning a mask, cape, and homemade bulletproof shield, or from spending hours training to fight imaginary bad guys. Then one night, he captures an actual bad guy—and becomes an honest-to-goodness hero in the process. Soon, Vincent is living his dream life: corralling criminals by night, navigating new friendships by day, and keeping the mother of all secrets from the world’s most overprotective mom.
There’s only one flaw in Vincent’s fantastic new existence: he’s still just a regular kid. And he’s about to face his deadliest foe yet—a merciless killer who doesn’t care how old (or young) his victims are. To survive, Vincent must rely on his new friends, unite with old enemies, and accept a painful truth rarely found in his beloved comic books:
That sometimes, even heroes can’t save the day.