Tween Tuesday: Archvillian by Barry Lyga

3 yummy snickerdoodles.

Cover Love: It's fine, appealing to it's target audience. It does give it that cartoonish feeling that fits the tone of the book.

Why I Wanted to Read This Book: I am always on the lookout for books that will appeal to boys, especially my own. The look and description of this one seemed to fit that bill! Here's the summary from Good Reads:
Kyle Camden knows exactly where he was the night Mighty Mike arrived: Sneaking around the fallow field behind Bouring Middle School (motto: "The U Makes It Exciting!"), running the electrical cabling that would allow him to dump the contents of the old water tower on the visiting football team during the next day's game.

Which is why he couldn't tell anyone where he was.

Or what he saw.

Those lights everyone saw in the sky weren't tiny meteors burning up in the atmosphere. They were some kind of strange, supercooled plasma that bathed the entire field - including Kyle - in alien energies, energies that boosted Kyle's intellect and gave him superpowers.

Unfortunately, the energies also brought Mighty Mike to earth.

Kyle is the only one who knows that Mighty Mike is an alien. Everyone else thinks that Mike is just some kid who stumbled into the field, got beefed up on meteor juice, lost his memory, and decided to start rescuing kittens from trees. But Kyle knows the truth. And he'll do anything in his power to stop Mighty Mike, even if it means being an Archvillain!

I Kept Reading Because: It was a fun story. I didn't love the character of Kyle so I kept reading to see if he would be redeemed at all.

Romance?: No, but hinting at feelings growing between Kyle and his best (only) friend Mairi.

What I Liked: It's hard to make a genius/arrogant type character like Kyle likeable. And he was not overly likeable--but the more he became obsessed with bringing down Mighty Mike, thus causing his own status to fall, I did feel sorry for him. Especially during the times when what Kyle was doing was misunderstood and he became "the bad guy" (or the archvillian).

I did like how Kyle kept trying to better his parents, those parts made me laugh.

I liked the tone of the book very well, it was enjoyable to read and easy to follow.

What I Would Like to See: I want to find out why Mighty Mike is there, and if Kyle's suspicions about him are correct. And I want to see Kyle be redeemed a little bit.

To Sum Up: A funny, quick read that is sure to attract middle grade boys. Good start to a probable series.