Review: Hero by Mike Lupica

3.5 yummy chocolate chip cookies.

Cover Love: Yes! It looks like we are soaring over the NY skyline. I dig it.

Why I Wanted To Read This: I love the a good teen superhero story! Here's the synopsis from Good Reads:
Fourteen-year-old Billy Harriman can feel the changes. The sharpening of his senses. The incredible strength. The speed, as though he can text message himself across miles. The confidence and the strange need to patrol Central Park at night. His dad had been a hero, a savior to America and a confidante of the president. Then he died, and the changes began in Billy. What Billy never knew was that his father was no ordinary man-he was a superhero, battling the world's evil. This is a battle that has been waged for generations and that knows no boundaries. And now it's Billy's turn to take on the fight. It's Billy's turn to become a hero.

I Kept Reading Because: I got caught up in Billy's story.

Romance?: Not really, but a good friendship with a girl (sidekick?).

What I Liked (& Didn't):
I felt the reveal was a little slow. As a reader I didn't know any more than Billy did (except a little more about what happened to his father). And in fact I feel I don't know anything more than Billy by then end! I wish I did.

I felt like this was a good setup to a series. We are introduced to a lot of potential good guys and bad guys. But, I didn't feel like there was a very big climax to this story. However, I will happily go onto the next book if this is a series.

I liked that the main character was a boy. Billy seems like a really typical young teen, with not a lot of confidence. I like that although he enjoys his new powers, they don't give him a huge bump in confidence. If anything they make him more confused, which I think is probably pretty accurate for a change like this.

This was not a slow read, but I felt the story moved along a little slowly. It didn't make me not want to read it though, but for the pacing, I didn't feel very rewarded at the end by learning anything special about Billy.

What I Would Like To See: I want more information about what all Billy can do with his powers! I also want more information on who the Bads are and what their agenda actually is.

To Sum Up: I will follow Billy into his next book. This was a good setup to what I am sure will be a great series. I will be buying this for my library also because superhero books are pretty popular with my students!

Book received from Philomel (ARC). Thanks Allison!