Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

Not Your Sidekick
by C.B. Lee
Pages: 296
Date: September 8 2016
Publisher: Duet
Series:

Review
Rating: 3
Read: September 8 to 9 2016

I’m pulling the rating down a little, I know, but that’s where I find myself. At a three star level.

There are reasons why I ended up at 3 instead of anything better or worse. First off it is a cute story that is readable and entertaining. Has some issues – like I might even give the book 1 extra star if something gets slipped in to indicate that Jess is actually operating with a lower IQ than other people (because then, hey, she did great) – I say this because: Jess, the main character, had clues constantly being dropped at her feet, the kind that almost glowed in bright neon letters, the kind where it isn’t just the reader having clues that the character lacked, but that everyone involved (reader and character, I mean) saw. And yet Jess seemed almost actively attempting to not see the big massive clues – except for one specific case (It’s bold as anything ever that M and Abby are the same person – which Jess just couldn’t see until finding out through the events of the story – I mean, she knew immediately that the person in the Master Mischief costume was not in fact Master Mischief, so that kind of actually adds to the frustration – that Jess can leap to correct conclusions, but rarely (like here, and like with Bells-Emma mentioned later); it isn’t as ‘bold as anything’, but one stage less than that, that Bells is Chameleon (the first one, M/Abby, could be seen without needing too much observation skills by Jess, second one, Bells/Chameleon, is ‘seen’ because of Jess’s observation skills – she just didn’t put the pieces together); Bells has a thing for Emma – and while Emma didn’t seem to have noticed it, Jess did (this time Jess actually noticed things); Jess kept testing for superpowers but didn’t notice that she was ‘lucky’ in certain situations (I’m being purposefully vague here, and no her ‘superpower’ is not luck) – this one, for reasons, I’ll give a pass to Jess for not noticing. ).

So, I kind of distracted myself there. The book was interesting and readable. There were certain issues I had with it which I briefly listed above, and will again in a moment some more. One sign of ‘I’m not really enjoying this as much as I should’ is completely personal – I had the time, energy, and inclination to read last night – I could have finished. But I just couldn’t get myself to continue. I ‘only’ had 10 or 20% of the book left to read at that point.

There are things I like about the book, enjoyed. Interesting world built here. Interesting to see a child of superheroes, sister of a superhero (sister), and sister to another sibling who is a super genius (brother) but who doesn’t appear to ‘fit in’ as well as she wants – she sees having something ‘extra’/’super’ as the norm, even if it really isn’t in the society. And there was a scene that occurred with Jess – as background: she’s half Chinese/Vietnamese, and while she was born in Nevada, her parents are from China (mother I believe), and Vietnam (father I believe) – that builds to why I mention: there is a really neat touching scene wherein Jess is in a mixed Asian café – people are talking in various Asian languages, ordering, eating, etc. Jess likes the food, the atmosphere, the place. But . . . then she attempts to order and the cashier looks at her funny – she’s not really fully ‘Nevadan’ (I’m not actually sure what I should put there, ‘Confederation’? there’s a confederation of Canada, USA, and Mexico built from the remnants of those three countries), not fully Chinese, or Vietnamese. And while she got sent to weekend ‘Asian’ classes, she obviously isn’t understandable to native speakers of the languages – she’s an outsider in her own culture, and in her parents separate cultures.

As I noted in a status update at the 73% mark – ‘cute story until, you know, Dan Brown’. Up to that point there were some frustrating moments, but more fun ‘cute’ moments. Then the book turned a direction I see too many superhero prose (or young adult speculative fiction books) turn – things are not as they seem and there are conspiracies afoot.

Ah – one last thing to add before I move to a section about ‘similar books’. The ending – it doesn’t make any sense. And I can’t say why. Not sure I should even put in spoilers why I say that. There’s a bunch of action that occurs near the end. Heated. Words exchanged. Words like – ‘you will be villains, fugitives, outlaws now!’ *evil cackle*. Scene ends. Next scene begins. And . . . it’s like was this just some overly elaborate dream or something? We are back in school like nothing happened. The person who said those cackling things is literally Jess’s sister – she knows who Jess is – yet her parents just tell her to go to school because . . . grades are important. While ‘everyone else’ has a slightly better ‘cover’, it isn’t exactly ‘great cover’. Plus – ‘where to find those people we wish to capture? *rubs chin, maybe grab my sister’s friends?*. mmphs.

I’ve read several books like this one here. In terms of superhero prose (as in not comic book/graphic novel), there’s ‘Villainess Love’, the ‘Action Figures’ series, ‘The Black Stiletto: The First Diary – 1958’, ‘Love for the Cold-Blooded, or The Part-Time Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero’, ‘The Next Chronicle’ series, and the ‘Velveteen vs’ series.


Villainess Love has the LGBT, villains aren’t all bad – sometimes heroes cause more damage vibe of ‘Not Your Sidekick’ (NYS), plus one of the women involved is deep into being a geeky/nerdy/techie like one of the women in NYS, though one involves fully grown adults, while the other involves people closer to . . hmms, 17? 18? Something.

The Action Figures has the high school student level heroes and proto-heroes; dynamics of people lusting after others and not getting ‘the right’ reaction; one of the books even includes a lesbian character.

The The Black Stiletto: The First Diary 1958 by one of the James Bond authors doesn’t have much similarity except for the part wherein it includes a ‘not everything is at seems’ vibe.

Love for the Cold-Blooded, or The Part-Time Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero includes the vaguely different vaguely similar world to 'our earth' vibe of ‘NYS’, though NYS takes place on a future earth, and I’m not sure Love for the Cold-Blooded is on earth. It has a bit of the ‘everything is not what it seems’, ‘villains and heroes do not exactly correspond to the titles ‘villain/hero’, there’s a certain amount of ‘play-acting’ in the fights (somewhat – like some of the fights in NYS), involves LGBT people, a character whose sibling is quickly marching toward being a villain, and parents who are villains.

The Next Chronicle series includes the idea of mutants suddenly springing forth, a ‘conspiracy’ back story and government watch-dogs, though isn’t that close to NYS.

The ‘Velveteen vs series’ has that ‘everything isn’t as it seems’, ‘there’s a school for proto-heroes/villains’, ‘government (or in this case corporations) are kind of evil-ish’, and there’s a bit about kids learning and becoming heroes, though that’s in flash backs.

September 9 2016