Hero is a book about a boy with superpowers. A fact about me: I hate books about superheroes. They've always bored me. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, they've always bored me. Besides the obvious sexism, the plot is always very predictable. Villain has an evil plot to take over the world, they capture a beautiful woman for no particular reason, and the super-person swoops in and saves the woman, deactivates the bomb, and saves the world, all while keeping their true identity a secret. Why then, you are probably asking yourself, did she choose this book? Well that is an interesting question.
You see, besides being about superheroes, it's also a love story. The boy that the main character has a crush on is described almost like Bella described Edward in Twilight, which would have annoyed me if – get this – the main character hadn't been a guy. That's right, the book was about a superhero kid who had to hide the fact that he was gay from the rest of the world, or risk being disowned by his dad. I love it how, when the world does find out that he's gay, they hate him for it, the league of superheroes kicks him out of their group, and it's because of their prejudice against him that he is able to save the day at the end.
I love the lessons that this book teaches. It teaches that sometimes, those who appear to be the most powerful are the ones who are the weakest. It teaches people that if you look at someone and just see a gay guy, or a disabled girl, or an old woman, you'll never truly see anyone, and that sometimes it's the outcasts that will rule the world.
However, although I liked it, I had a few complaints as well. The first one is that I know gay people, and they do not get crushes on every freaking guy that talks to them. That got kind of annoying after a while because it gives the wrong impression. The second thing is, though the book has a good plot, it's kind of sloppy. The book would be a heck of a lot better if the author would explain things a little bit better. You spend the whole book thinking, “Okay, who is this person, and why should I care about them?” Adding just fifty pages to the book would have made it excellent, but you end up having no idea what the characters intentions are.
My rating? Three stars.