Superheroes Anonymous (Superheroes Anonymous, 1)

After reading both books I cannot recommend these books. This first one is OK, but it's not complete. Generally it's lighthearted but has lots of unanswered questions. While she doesn't like her roll as "Hostage Girl", she has been playing it so long that she has resigned her fate to it and meekly goes along with whatever someone else is doing.

The second book is a confusing mess as Gail has no information as to what's going on for nearly all of it. Gail is used by everyone in that book and takes it with either good humor or by breaking down and crying. Most of that book will leave you wanting to yell at her to get up and fight. Problem is that any time she does that, she fails miserably. In the entirety of the series she never personally wins against anyone (though people on her side do). When she, at long last, has the perfect opportunity to get back at the person who caused all her problems, she just yells at him and walks away.

There is also so much left unexplained throughout these 2 books that there's clearly going to be a third. I will not be buying that book.

Gail is not a good role model for women. They shouldn't be passive and wait for other other people (usually men) to solve their problems for them.

This is a fun, unique read about a woman dubbed "Hostage Girl" by the media because villains keep kidnapping her to try and get superhero Blaze's attention. Kind of like focusing on Lois Lane instead of Superman. I sort of wish that Gail had been more proactive when it came to protecting herself instead of always waiting for Blaze to rescue her, but I still liked her!

Once her rescuer leaves town, Gail thinks that her life will now get back to normal and starts to relax. Unfortunately, it seems that every villain hasn't gotten the memo and Gail is taken hostage once again, only this time by a mad scientist. Holding her hostage for several weeks, he keeps giving her a mysterious cocktail of drugs, which has an odd effect on her. Then the mad scientist's house is raided and Gail escapes.

Somehow the concoction the mad scientist gave her results in Gail developing superpowers! Very cool! Now Gail not only has to learn the extent of her powers, but also how to control them. Good thing there's a Superhero Lair where she can be taught by the experts!

This part of the story was my favorite, as Gail was starting to come into her own. Learning to fight, exploring her powers, and getting to know some of the other superheroes take up most of her time now. Loved her budding romance!

Unfortunately, Gail is still a little too naive and trusting for someone who has been kidnapped so many times. There was more than one instance where I wanted to reach through the pages and smack her upside the back of her head! Why doesn't she trust her new friends more? Why is she taking so many stupid risks? Why Gail, why?

This was a really fun read for me, until it suddenly ended. I honestly thought that I was missing pages as the ending was so abrupt. It's like one of those old TV shows that suddenly end as the stagecoach is heading straight for the cliff! Wait! I need to know what happens next! Evil, evil cliffhanger!

Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne takes every opportunity to poke fun at the old comic book worlds with superheroes all over the place and the rather poor view on women that was also integral to many of those comics. I had no idea what to expect from Superheroes Anonymous, but I was in the mood for trying something I hadn’t heard anything about and I’m so glad I did! I was at first worried since the main character is called Hostage Girl for how many times she has been kidnapped by super-villains and rescued by superheroes, but this was just the start of the light being shone on how ridiculous many old comic book stories were. Our Hostage Girl is by no means a wilting flower and finds herself in a situation no one expected.
Note: I received an advanced copy of Superheroes Anonymous from the publisher. Some things may have changed in the final version.

Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne
Published by Harper Voyager on Nov. 18th, 2014
Genres: Adult, Sci-fi
Length: 336 pages
How I got my copy: Edelweiss

Everybody in Chicago has a “superhero sighting” story. So when a villain attacks editorial assistant Gail Godwin and she’s rescued by superhero Blaze, it’s a great story, and nothing more. Until it happens again. And again.

Now, the media has dubbed her Hostage Girl, nobody remembers her real name, and people are convinced that Blaze is just Gail’s boyfriend Jeremy in disguise. Gail’s not so sure. All she knows is that when both Jeremy and Blaze leave town in the same week, she’s probably doomed. Who will save her now?

But when the villains miraculously lose interest, Gail is able to return to her life…until she wakes up strapped to a metal table by a mad scientist who hasn’t read the news. Escaping, and now more than human herself, she’s drawn into a secret underground world of superheroes. She’ll have to come to terms with her powers (and weakness) to make it in the new society, and it’s not easy. After all, there’s a new villain on the rise, and she has her sights set on the one and only Hostage Girl.

Strengths:
Superheroes Anonymous takes place in a world were superheroes and supervillains are fairly common. A few decades ago people started getting powers and then starting battling each other with those super powers. Eventually the thrill of the new wore off and now super-powered people are a known part of everyday life. You probably won’t run into them on the street (at least you won’t know you did), but you might spot them from time to time and you’ll definitely follow the superhero gossip sites since they are the new celebrities. It was a lot of fun to read about a world that was pretty similar to the ones from the major comic book worlds, but just this side of ridiculously entertaining.
Gail is a strong and delightfully blunt main character. She is put into ridiculous situations because the super villains have taken a strange interest in her, but she speaks her mind and doesn’t tiptoe around any sense of propriety. She also doesn’t stay Hostage Girl for long and soon enough finds herself with some new strengths to add to her arsenal.
The romance in Superheroes Anonymous is not actually a full-blown plot line and is only hinted at, but it is pretty adorable. I’m so excited to continue wanting to smash Gail’s face into a certain sweet superhero’s as the series continues ;-).
There are so many moments in Superheroes Anonymous where they are clearly poking fun at the tropes of the comic book industry and I just couldn’t help laughing out loud and reading lines to whoever was around me. I was honestly never much a fan of comic books, but satire based on them is quite entertaining!
Superheroes Anonymous is written in a light-hearted and fun style. Gail is working hard throughout much of the book, but the reader has a lot more fun than she does. I was always excited for the next snarky encounter and finding out more about the secret underground superhero world.

Weaknesses:
There is a HUGE cliffhanger at the end of Superheroes Anonymous that just didn’t feel necessary. It isn’t the sort of “omg what is going to happen next????” cliffhanger that also annoys me but for different reasons. No, this cliffhanger is a “omg that is so unfair gah stupid person is stupid!!!!” where I just want to punch someone. I almost don’t want to read the start of the next book because it will annoy me so much! (I get righteously indignant easily >.>.)
Superheroes Anonymous just didn’t give me enough information about what each of the superheroes and villains could do. They all have varying levels of various powers and there didn’t seem to be much of a pattern to them. I must be able to learn everything!
While it was clear that Superheroes Anonymous was meant to be making fun of various annoying tropes, there were times when the satire just wasn’t obvious enough for me and instead the dynamics felt vaguely uncomfortable and sexist. I’m taking everything with the assumption that they weren’t meant that way, but it’s hard when that isn’t clear enough from the writing.

Summary:
Superheroes Anonymous is a great book for those of you who love the idea of superheroes but are uncomfortable with the comic book industries murky history when it comes to the treatment of women. Gail is a heroine you have to root for and I seriously wish I could be friends with her. I’m excited to see where her new powers go in book two and the budding romance should be fun ;-). If you hate cliffhangers though, maybe wait until book two is out and then binge!

This book's fundamental failure is that's all "tell", and no "show." Almost the entirety of the story, barring one set-piece fight near the cliff-hanger conclusion, consists of the protagonist discussing her feelings about recent events with other characters - rather than any significant events actually occurring.

What makes this all the worse is that:
(1) The set-piece fight is the first significant challenge the character faces, and it takes place at the end of the novel, ending in a "to be continued."
(2) The protagonist is extremely passive. She even laments this character trait repeatedly throughout the book. However, since the book just consists of her talking aloud, we don't see the consequences - and since nothing actually happens, she has no opportunity to grow or change.

This book looks like something birthed from a web forum's play-by-post roleplaying game, rather than any actual act of writing. It was deeply disappointing.

This is going to sound weird, but Gail should really talk to Emp from EMPOWERED. They can discuss being Hostage Bait and maybe start a union for folks who get taken hostage frequently. To be fair, once Gail gets powers this is less of an issue...Emp kind of became hostage Bait after getting her powers. I still think they'd have a lot to talk about though.

What happens when a hero decides to switch cities to protect, but forgot to send that memo to one of his villains who's been incarcerated for a few years? Well that hero's favorite hostage gets to gain super powers, lose a mind numbing job and oh yeah - a great beach bod without any of the workout.

Or she dies horribly after being hooked on some super villain drug. It could have gone either way for Gail.

Throughout superhero lore there's almost always that one certain person that the superhero always seems to be saving. The most (in)famous being Lois Lane to Metropolis' Superman. Villains of all sorts gleefully kidnapped her throughout the long history of the comic/tv/movie franchise. Gail is her sister in spirit, having found herself inexplicably targeted by most of (if not all of) Chicago's illegal minded betheren? Is it because everyone assumes her boyfriend is really the city's patron hero Blaze (not the theory she ascribes to)? Does Blaze have some sort romantic interest in her (even though he never says a single word to her during his routine savings)?

Let's just say the reality of the situation fits in with the rest of Gail's really bad luck throughout the novel.

I went into this expecting a fun, humorous romp and that's what I was given, plus so much more. Gail, and the reader, gets to see first hand what happens when you're suddenly given super powers and let me tell you its not as advertised. So don't go chasing radioactive waste or allowing mad scientist's use you as a guinea pig.

Like anything else being a Superhero isn't all its cracked up to be. Saving lives, busting the bad guys, looking cool while doing it...that's all after some intense training, lots of meetings and dealing with some very heavy egos running around. Its really more about managing expectations then anything else. Heroes are expected to have a certain mystique and by golly that's what they're given. So when a villain decides to go to the TRULY dark side and screws with the rulebook...things get ugly.

I liked Gail for the most part. She's down to earth and responds to her ever changing situation remarkably well. Her biggest worry isn't usually whether she'll die or not (by in large her captors tend to have less need for her dead and more need for her alive), but if her company's insurance will continue to cover her. Being kidnapped weekly? Huge insurance liability. Plus she's sarcastic, hardworking and sees the good in people (or situations).

Though I gotta admit her last decision in the end? I wanted to wring her silly super powered neck.

Our cast of characters ranges from only kind of given personality (like Guy's brother) to being murky as dishwater with their motivations (I'm still not convinced Jeremy isn't two shades short of turning dark just to get some damn recognition...or at least control over his life). The archetypes are well know and played off here to various degrees, especially as Gail sees their "real" lives and is surprised by the differences.

What worked less for me was the journalist thread that wove in and around the rest and ultimately informed the ending sequence. It just honestly made so little sense to me that Gail would do that. She knew first hand what could happen (on several personal experience levels) and yet she chose the naive path. With crippling dread I read with only the mildest of hope that it would be okay. Though I did start hurling insults at the people on the last page for being presumptuous and stupid, on behalf of Gail who was shell shocked, so that at least means my emotions were thoroughly invested right?

A comic book aficionado and and fan of the superhero genre can always tell when they are dealing with a kindred spirit. Lexie Dunne is a true believer and does an amazing job of writing a compelling story that deftly weaves the tropes of superhero stories in, while fleshing out a universe just one stop down the line from DC and Marvel's. This book is amazing. If you've never read a comic before you'll love the story, and if you are a huge reader of comics, it will only serve to enrichen the experience for you as your mind draws parallels for whichever characters or situations are encountered in the book. I am so glad there are more in the series. I can only pray that this gets picked up as a Netflix or Hulu show in the next few years.

Super fun, with clever quips on every page, and a plot with enough twists and turns that it kept me guessing right up to the end. Loved it.

I enjoyed this clever take on the superhero mythos. This time, it's from the Lois Lane perspective. Poor Gail Godwin has been kidnapped so many times that she is better known as Hostage Girl.

Hostage Girl is so resilient that I was a little disappointed when one of those extended kidnappings resulted in Gail's acquiring her own super powers. She was awesome enough before.

The biggest issue I have with this book is that it ends on a cliff-hanger. I consider this a cheap trick on the part of authors and really dislike it. Aside from that, I enjoyed the book - but I would never recommend it without first cautioning the other reader about the cliff-hanger.

Authors, you're shooting yourselves in the foot with this kind of behavior. Finish your story.

First, there were none of the usual typos, misspellings, and poor grammar that shows up in this type of book. That being said, this book was really light on plot. Written in the first person, the main character seemed surprisingly vague and uninterested in key information.

When the protagonist in a superhero novel is called "Hostage Girl", you know you're in for a snarky tale. Lexie Dunne does not disappoint. Pulling on the long traditions of comic books, with a humorous twist, she creates her own pantheon of good and evil, plopping our cynical and sarcastic MC right down in the middle of it.

The pace was Blaze-ing fast and the dialogue was right on the nose like a War Hammer. There was a bit too much swooning for my particular tastes, but I really enjoyed the exploration of the 'underground' superhero experience, the just-twisted-enough plot, and the protagonist's journey as she transformed from hostage to heroine.

My only gripe is that the book ended on a cliffhanger. Can't wait for the sequel, Supervillains Anonymous. Based on the title and dangling plot threads, it promises to take the series in an interesting direction.