I enjoyed Hero, though it didn’t win me over primarily with its writing, or even its characters. It’s doubly hard being a closeted superhero, too. It’s hard enough with both of them ignoring the increasingly obvious fact Thom’s gay. The last thing Thom wants to do is add to his father’s humiliation. When Thom is invited to League tryouts by his supercrush and superidol, League Hero Uberman, he can’t help defying what he knows would be his father’s wishes and sneaking off to give it his best. His father, an ex-superhero, was disgraced and abandoned by the League for a catastrophic event which occurred years earlier an event which left him disfigured and bitter, and robbed Thom of his mother. But unlike anyone else he knows, he must keep his fascination and admiration a secret from his father. Thom, like many kids, idolizes the League. The most celebrated of these form the League: an organization of celebrity superheroes who perform the day-to-day business of saving ordinary citizens from natural disasters and supervillains alike. Others have superstrength, or superspeed, or see into the future. There’s little to distinguish Thom Creed’s world from ours other than the small number of individuals with seemingly random abilities beyond the ordinary. If not for the superpower, Thom could be any number of teens living quiet, middle-class lives anywhere in America. Thom has trouble coming to terms with his superpower. Thom has trouble coming to terms with his sexuality.

Thom has trouble relating to his peers, to school, to the basketball team. In first-person narrative, we’re told the details of Thom Creed’s teenage existence. Perry Moore’s debut novel Hero is at its base a coming-of-age story.

Hero by perry moore