Novella Review: Super Chick

So there I am, rocking a baby who seems to now be old enough to watch Netflix on the Kindle fire rather than focus on her bottle like she's supposed to. So much for back episodes of XMen Evolution. Instead I flip up to the book shelf and see what my wife's downloaded that looks interesting. "Heh," I think to myself, "Super Chick? What the heck why not another super hero novel?"


Why do I share this with you dear readers? To put a few things in context. First, I'm not the target audience, probably. Second, to establish that I read the novella in about 4 feedings. That was with having to hold a baby on my arm, a bottle in a hand and bend to flick the screen with a spare finger. Also, I thought I was getting a novel. This is very much a novella.

That said, it read easily with that kind of "aw, what the heck let's read another chapter" kind reading that carried me through Boys that Bite and Undead and Unwed, neither of which were targeted to me either. A fun quirk is that Brookes' leads off each chapter with her heroine daydreaming. It's a bit of a twist on giving us the main character's internal dialogue without working too hard at it.

However, I do wish she had worked at the supporting cast a touch more. Our heroine has more or less stock friends around her. There's the fellow outcast, the hyper-understanding and very liberal father, and the Gay Best Friend. I think for something this short that there was a lot of room to strech these characters in their own way and make them a little more real.

The plot's simple enough with a few twists that kept me reading. No spoilers but it did seem to end quickly. I actually shook the Kindle when I got the end because I thought it just wasn't reading my finger swipe.

Honestly it's more of a 3 than a 4, but I also feel that being as I'm not part of the target audience and the shortness of it was a small disappointment that if I'm going to round I really should round up.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with a soft spot for teen drama, light romance, and an hour or two to kill on the beach between sunscreen coats. It's summer. Lay out, grease up, and enjoy some brain candy.