Book Review: Freshman Sidekick (High School Sidekick - Book 1)
Freshman Sidekick (High School Sidekick - Book 1) by Ron Tucker
4 stars
Category: YA/Teen
Note: Free on Amazon!
Summary: In a world where people sometimes develop superpowers in their teenage years, Robbie has come into his powers over his summer break. He discovered he had the power of teleportation and immediately applied to join the local superhero group. He now has to split his time between high school and his new job as a superhero sidekick named Worm. He has to balance his friendship with his best friend Pete which has suffered lately because of being constantly on-call for missions and his new girlfriend and classes and his home life, and getting to know the other sidekicks, and learn on the job as he's sent into death defying missions while still trying to fine tune his power.
Comments: This story has it all! Heroics, first love, coming-of-age, action, and plenty of costumed superheroes. I loved that Worm had a superpower that isn’t usually focused on making it wonderfully different from all of the standard Superman/Batman/Green Arrow types that seem to star in most of the indie superhero books these days (with Doctor Strange/Scarlet Witch/Black Widow types starring in most of the superpowered paranormal indie books). Though all of the superheroes around Worm felt like clones of the DC heroes (Majestic = Wonder Woman, Supron = Superman, The Shadow = Batman, Mighty Miss = Wonder Girl). The story, while action-filled, felt like it meandered and didn’t really have a focus as it just followed Robbie day to day as he tried to balance his personal life with his hero life over the school year. His personal life felt superficial and not really developed with most of the characters being a bit cardboard cliched, like the girlfriend and the girlfriend’s best friend, and the bully/foe was really one-note, and his parents were barely more than just mentioned. Pete at least felt a bit rounded out as a character. My largest complaint was that in the last couple of chapters Robbie started making dumb decision after dumb decision, refusing to take backup with him, ignoring rules, not telling people in charge, determined that he knew better than anyone else. It really annoyed me that he nearly kills another character, and no one mentioned it (aside from Miss) or punished him for it. He didn’t learn that he shouldn’t do that, which really didn’t sell me on continuing with this series (though I already have the second book since I picked it up on sale a while back). I do love the idea of a teenage superhero and all the problems it entails and having to sneak out of classes to do heroics. It’s just a lot of his story was stereotypical and out of all of the people in his school he only interacted with his friend Pete, and the girl Jasmin, and the bully Craig.
4 stars
Category: YA/Teen
Note: Free on Amazon!
Summary: In a world where people sometimes develop superpowers in their teenage years, Robbie has come into his powers over his summer break. He discovered he had the power of teleportation and immediately applied to join the local superhero group. He now has to split his time between high school and his new job as a superhero sidekick named Worm. He has to balance his friendship with his best friend Pete which has suffered lately because of being constantly on-call for missions and his new girlfriend and classes and his home life, and getting to know the other sidekicks, and learn on the job as he's sent into death defying missions while still trying to fine tune his power.
Comments: This story has it all! Heroics, first love, coming-of-age, action, and plenty of costumed superheroes. I loved that Worm had a superpower that isn’t usually focused on making it wonderfully different from all of the standard Superman/Batman/Green Arrow types that seem to star in most of the indie superhero books these days (with Doctor Strange/Scarlet Witch/Black Widow types starring in most of the superpowered paranormal indie books). Though all of the superheroes around Worm felt like clones of the DC heroes (Majestic = Wonder Woman, Supron = Superman, The Shadow = Batman, Mighty Miss = Wonder Girl). The story, while action-filled, felt like it meandered and didn’t really have a focus as it just followed Robbie day to day as he tried to balance his personal life with his hero life over the school year. His personal life felt superficial and not really developed with most of the characters being a bit cardboard cliched, like the girlfriend and the girlfriend’s best friend, and the bully/foe was really one-note, and his parents were barely more than just mentioned. Pete at least felt a bit rounded out as a character. My largest complaint was that in the last couple of chapters Robbie started making dumb decision after dumb decision, refusing to take backup with him, ignoring rules, not telling people in charge, determined that he knew better than anyone else. It really annoyed me that he nearly kills another character, and no one mentioned it (aside from Miss) or punished him for it. He didn’t learn that he shouldn’t do that, which really didn’t sell me on continuing with this series (though I already have the second book since I picked it up on sale a while back). I do love the idea of a teenage superhero and all the problems it entails and having to sneak out of classes to do heroics. It’s just a lot of his story was stereotypical and out of all of the people in his school he only interacted with his friend Pete, and the girl Jasmin, and the bully Craig.