Staff Review by Ms. B
I love superheroes. I've been a devout fan of Batman and Superman since childhood, I get excited for each and every big blockbuster superhero flick to come to the summertime movie screens, and I have a ever-expanding pull list of comic books on reserve for me at the local comic book shop. Lois Lane was my childhood heroine -- and the Joker is my all-time favorite villain, not just from comic books but from fiction in general.
So I really enjoy comic books, but it's also true that I enjoy superhero tales in just about any format. And, as I love reading novels, I'm always on the look-out for books that use the novel format to tell stories about these super-characters which are more often reserved for the comic book format. Carrie Vaughn's new, comic-book-inspired novel "After the Golden Age" is a surprisingly wonderful book that fits the bill exactly. Although, don't get me wrong -- it's not just for fans of comic book superheroes like myself, but for anyone looking for a well-written, character-rich coming-of-age story.
The book stars Celia West, only child of Suzanne and Warren West -- or, as her parents are better known, Captain Olympus and Spark, the leaders of the Olympiad (the story's Fantastic-Four-esque band of superheroes). Celia, however, has inherited no superpowers of her own, meaning that the child of Commerce City's greatest superhero duo is herself ... an accountant.
She's also a frequent kidnapping victim (the city's supervillains like to use Celia as leverage against her parents), a disappointment to her father (who, in addition to being super-strong, has anger management issues), and she's hiding a horrible mistake in her past that she's still trying to put behind her (this of course does not work). But as Celia is hired by the D.A.'s office in order to prepare a case against the Destructor (the city's most notorious criminal mastermind), it's not really to the city or her parents that Celia needs to prove herself.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book's humor and world-building detail, as well as by the intricate mystery plot that unfolds during Celia's determined digging for details into the court case she's working. But I was stunned by the depth of character development that Celia undergoes, as she struggles to forgive herself for her past, and decide who she is and what it is that's truly important to her. Most twentysomethings -- or anybody who has ever been twentysomething -- could relate to a character like Celia West, who has a lot of self-doubt and anger but is still filled with determination to find herself and fight for what she believes in.
For comic book fans, there's no denying that this book -- with its in-jokes and references (I have no doubt that Vaughn's Hawk is a nod to Batman) -- is a special treat. But for anyone looking for a quirky mystery story with a strong, relatable, developing central character, you can't do much better than "After the Golden Age."
Request "After the Golden Age" by Carrie Vaughn
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