Almost anything with a superhero/supervillain theme and I'm there. This should surprise no one at this point.
But I also hate diary format books.
...so guess what this is. It's a diary format style book, sort of. The narrator is recording his story. Which. Embarrassingly, it took me a little while to figure it out. Then I was already in it to finish it. So now here we are.
An amazon summary, "Bailey never meant to be the bad guy in the bulletproof robotic suit, but with every mission he gets closer to finding his father . . . and he can't stop now.
Bailey is a pretty average teenager in a pretty average town. He runs track, gets decent grades, and has an unrequited crush. So what is a super-powered flying suit of computerized armor doing twenty feet under his boring suburban home? Bailey needs to know where it came from, if it belonged to his long-missing father, and most importantly, if it can be used to bring his dad back.
This lightning-fast adventure inspired by classic comic book tales pushes a good kid to his limits and questions the difference between a hero and a villain. One day he's getting beat up by the captain of the football team, the next day he's robbing banks on Fifth Avenue, stealing diamonds from Tiffany's, and zooming through aerial dogfights. But how much bad is Bailey willing to do to bring his dad home safely? " AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
Bailey's dad has been missing for a few years. It's just been him and his mom for a while, and his mom is kind of checked out from his life. Bailey is also lovestruck with the girlfriend to the star of the football team. His best friend is a little quirky, but they're very best friends and tell each other everything.
...except when Bailey discovers a hidden door in his Dad's office that leads to a lair under their house which contains the Mayhem suit. Mayhem is a notorious supervillain who used to be active years ago... right around the time his Dad went missing. He hasn't been active since then. Plus, there's also a violent gang that runs around the country and makes spectacles of violence to terrorize people for unclear reasons. ...is Bailey's Dad Mayhem? Is the violent gang the ones that captured him? And who is Mr. Jones and why does he know everything about the Mayhem suit?
That's enough summary.
I really enjoyed parts of this book. Bailey was a fairly decent narrator, but in the later half of the book, it's really made a point that he's doing a voice recording. Then towards the end of the narration, it gets a little more tricky, and I extremely disliked that for reasons I cannot share because no spoilers.
There were also a few moments where it seemed just like Bailey became Shaggy (Scooby Doo reference, what's upppp) and was stating in the obvious in a reactionary manner to other characters stating the facts/figuring out the clues.
PLUS. THERE WAS KIND OF A CRITICAL DEATH THAT BAILEY BASICALLY JUST BRUSHES ASIDE AND I AM IRATE ABOUT THIS. IRATE. Based on the depth of the relationship Bailey had with this individual, said death should have been like soul crushing to some extent and he's just like, I'm sad, better not tell anyone else about their death. *bumbles on with life*
I also found the world building to be super disappointing. I think it's supposed to take place somewhere in the united states. They probably told me where at some point, but like dudes, I don't remember because it wasn't well described. It did the simple like, "House, they're in a house now' but they didn't tell me if the house was blue, big, spacious, full of furniture, belonged to a hoarder, whatever. They gave me no unique characteristics. In the sense of the storytelling, it really wouldn't make sense for a kid who is doing a voice recording of the series of incidences to explain these things, but that is a huge flaw with diary formats. Especially when they're set in alternate Earth of any variety. DETAILS.
....so yeah. I was pretty vexed with this book. The Mayhem suit was the most interesting part, how women were portrayed was interesting (but filtered/watered down through Bailey's narrative), but the format seem horribly suited for the premise of the story. But I greatly detest diary format, so there's that. But, I enjoyed the first chunk of the book before I realized it was a diary and not just like time jumps.
...I don't know. There's going to be a sequel and I won't read it.
Happy reading!
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