Wednesday 24 March 2021

Queeroes by Steven Bereznai


What happens when a closeted jock, a scrawny, out and proud nerd, and a pair of bratty cheerleaders develop superpowers in a small-town high school? Can they stop a pair of super-powered classmates hellbent on reshaping the student body in a darker image? Or will teen angst, jealousy, and ill-timed romance doom them all?


Fast, fun, and sexy, Queeroes is where unlikely teen heroes must face their darkest fears to become their truest selves.


An afternoon at the mall changes the course of several teenagers' lives, as contaminated water sparks strange abilities. They'll have to learn to deal with them, and with each other, before their new powers tear them apart.

The tagline says fast, fun and sexy. It's certainly fast, parts of it are fun, and there's a lot of making out, so I guess it's sexy.

The speed is part of the problem. Everything happens so quickly, there's no chance to get to know anyone - not helped by the sudden changes of character perspective. I was quite a way in before I could remember which one was Troy and which one was Chad. The characters themselves go through huge changes very quickly as well; one character, based on thinking that the powers only come to gay people, completely changes their lifestyle despite, presumably, knowing who they're attracted to. Two characters who are bullies change, for no real reason, to be loose allies of the heroes. One character makes out with at least two others in quite a short space of time; to be fair, they may have an excuse, which I won't state here as it's a spoiler.

It's not awful. The matching of abilities to characters is clever, I could have read more of that, and the characters themselves, the little we get to know them, are good. I'll read the next book to find out what happens. This is basically Michael Grant Lite, and there's nothing wrong with that.


Queeroes publishes on the 6th April, 2021; it originally published in 2009. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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