Mary's Review: Hero by Perry Moore

The thing about YA is that it all starts to blend together after a while. Once the book is over, the individual details start blurring together. In Hero, you start with one or two genre cliches; the kid with super powers trying to lead dual lives, the gay kid agonizing over the reaction of his parents. And, inevitably, there's a twist that you will see coming from a distance of 50 yards. Here is where most novels settle, content in their place of ho-hum mediocrity. But not Hero. It goes from hum, to engrossing, to something that even the incredibly cheap (moi) would shell out $25 to put on their bookshelves. The characters are three dimensional human beings; Thom is more than his sexuality, his mother more than the victimized, disappeared wife. And, because art imitates life, the ending is not strictly a happy affair. Sacrifices are made, and even with super powers there are no easy fixes. Moore also left some of his threads deliberately loose, hinting in interviews at the possibility of other books. If this is only the man's first novel, you can guarantee I'll be there to see him improve.
Final Verdict: 5Q, 4P