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Review of Sky Girl
Sky Girl and the Superheroic Legacy by Joe Sergi
ISBN:1451530137; EAN-13: 9781451530131; LCCN: 2010903747
Available in Ebook (Kindle) & Print Form
Review by Nick Davis
nickd@paperdragonink.com
Here is a short synopsis from the Author himself.
This is the story of DeDe Christopher, an ordinary teenager with an
extraordinary destiny. She is an average high school sophomore with dreams of
winning the National Gymnastic Tournament and dating the school quarterback. But
her world changes when DeDe begins to develop fantastic abilities that are
strangely similar to those of a fictional comic book superhero named SkyBoy.
With the help of her best friend, Jason, a self-proclaimed comic geek, DeDe
begins a quest to discover her true destiny as she confronts the all-too-real
enemies and allies of SkyBoy. She must deal with capes, apes, and aliens to find
a way to live up to a legacy that no one can remember and become Sky Girl.
That about covers the story, no real surprises in this fun little read. I would
say the audience for this little novel is Young Adult and it tries a little too
hard to be quirky. Which it doesn't need to for the story to work. The comic
relief characters feel a little forced and appear on every side of this story.
The relationship between DeDe and Jason (the comic book Geek and my favorite) is
a little unrealistic in today's High School reality. But you can forgive that as
Jason comes across a little lovesick, and is largely ignored or acts like DeDe's
floor mat. And this is a problem, because Jason is perhaps the character that
goes under the greatest transformation and becomes DeDe's voice of reason,
confident, McGuffin and its really him that saves the day.
Our redheaded protagonist DeDe is a little shallow, for a girl that gets some
pretty awesome powers she takes it all in her stride and doesn't seem to break a
sweat at all. In fact she is very Juno about it all, annoyingly so. You could
argue that her hinted upon lineage has something to do with her to calm
demeanor, but I was looking forward to at least a mini-freakout and total denial
from her. Especially when things get a little too out of the ordinary. We do get
a hint of selfish side that I hoped would be explored a little more before she
goes all greater good.
Every character in the book behaves like an archetype comic book character and
the story suffers for it. If this was a comic book it would really be a very
enjoyable yarn with some fun visuals – especially the Tiger Lady. It is a story
trapped by the limitations of the written word, and needs to leap out at you in
full technicolor.
The other niggling factor are the four endings, the story simply does not need
four endings, with each one literally fading to black in your minds eye. Hey I
get the author is opening up some plot points, but there are already plenty
scattered around all over the book.
The first ending is what I call the movie ending and works well, making you want
to read more. The second ending is completely classic comic book feet in clay
and goes into more detail than it needed about the next villain to appear in
this series. The third ending is what I call the comic book ending and I can
imagine the double page splash as I read it, and it made this comic book geek
grin. The fourth ending was the weakest and should of been the prologue for the
next story.
To sum up, the story would of worked much better as a graphic novel as all
superhero stories doo, but makes a great Young Adult read or pleasant afternoons
distraction.
3 Thumbs up out of 5
To learn more about Skygirl's rip roaring adventures and the author Joe Sergi go
here http://www.skygirlnovel.com/
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