A month has come and gone, and now it’s time to put Perry Moore’s Hero to bed and get started on the next book. Before we move on, however, there’s still the matter of revealing what we, the collective hive mind of Gay-Nerds.com, thought of the book. Actually, people’s opinions were varied and rather mixed despite the fact that you’d think the coming of age story of a gay superhero would be an automatic home run on the site.
Be warned: mild spoilers ahead.
Paranoia

My first reaction when I read about his powers was lol because I wrote this article a while back.
Overall impression of the book for me was that it was too self-indulgent/teen angsty and if felt like there were too many Jesus characters. Like, in an effort to try to make me like them, he sort of just made them into martyrs instead of giving them character development. I also hated how they made him so powerful. If I had to sum up how I thought of the entire book, he was a gay Mary Sue in a fanfiction based on the DC universe.
I enjoyed reading it because it was literary porn for me. Very easy reading, transparent plot and you just sort of were there to enjoy the ride.

Jupiter

The thing is, though, is that [Hero is] widely accessible to people and though it might be weak both mechanically and plot development wise, it was clear that [Perry Moore] wanted to portray a world more real than comics but keep that “comic-esque” feel to it. That being said, it couldn’t break away from the paradigm of that makes comics appear cheesy.
Overall, I genuinely like it despite its shortcomings because the age-group it attempts to grab at is not adults but rather teenagers. So of course we’re going to notice the seams and the issues with the plot, but a teenager or younger kid won’t notice it as much.
I would honestly suggest this book to a younger person who had problems adjusting to their sexuality because the underlying message is that it does get better.

Parchita

I’ve read a lot of gay fiction and, really, this is one of the best pieces that I’ve ever read. I like it because it’s one of the very few pieces of gay fiction which appeals to my nerd sensibilities and because it is very well written… at least in comparison to all of the other pieces of gay fiction that I’ve ever read.

All in all, Hero nets a 2 out of 5 from GN.
Feel free to read the full (spoiler-heavy) discussion here.

February’s Book:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.
Is the book itself unbearable? Talk about it in this thread.
The frontrunner for next month is American Gods by Neil Gaiman, but there’s still time to suggest books in this thread.
Remember: Suggestions don’t have to be gay or nerdy, but they should strive to be accessible in terms of both price and availability.

Tags: American Gods, book club, hero, Milan Kundera, Neil Gaiman, perry moore, The Unbearable Lightness of Being