The Love Interest

Gr 6 Up–Comerford’s debut stars 17-year-old Jenna Ray, whom the world assumes is dating the newest superhero, Blaze, after he saves her. With the support of her big sister, best friend, and other super (powered or otherwise) women, Jenna must ignore her growing feelings for Blaze and instead team up with the Villains to uncover the dark side of the world’s HPA (Heroics and Power Authority), and maybe just save the world, in order to find out more about her missing mom. But what happens when she starts to fake date Blaze to spy on him for the Villains? This novel manages to strike a beautiful balance between satire and storytelling; it’s a hilarious sendup of the superhero genre and of modern ­superhero ­fandom that serves up an exciting action story peppered with creative superpowers. The book pokes at ­McCarthyism while portraying the dangers of over-surveillance. At the same time that it satirizes toxic masculinity, it also shows inspiring young women realistically ­battling to make the world better. With an unresolved love ­triangle, lingering questions about the superpowers, and a huge world left to ­explore (we all want to know more about the ­superpowered squirrels), readers are left eager for the already-announced sequel.