The world of We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen is not accustomed to having super-heroes and super-villains running around. The city of San Delgado, however, now has the Mind Robber, a man who can walk into a bank, stun all the witnesses, and leave with a bag full of cash and no one there having any memory of the events. It also has the Throwing Star, a masked woman of extraordinary speed and strength who is fast becoming the greatest fear of the city’s street criminals.
When the masks are off, they are Jamie and Zoe, two people who found themselves in empty apartments with paperwork telling them the leases were paid for and absolutely no memories of their lives before that moment. Jamie took to robbing banks because it’s hard to keep a job when you have no legal ID. He carefully plans to make sure no one gets hurt and the banks’ insurance will cover the losses. Zoe makes ends meet working for a delivery app. Who can get someone’s food order to them faster than a woman who can run along the city’s rooftops at super-human speeds?
When they meet in a support group for people dealing with memory disorders, they quickly realize that they may each be the key to the other’s missing past. As they work together, they discover that those that took their pasts may also be a threat to the city’s future. Do a bank robber and a vigilante have what it takes to be the heroes San Delgado needs?
We Could Be Heroes is a fast-paced adventure ideal for readers who have been searching for a super-hero story in prose. The main characters may have extraordinary abilities, but they are also flawed, relatable people in the spirit of the best of comic books. Chen also seeds his setting with details that beg the reader to picture an extended universe, filling it with rumors of other people in other cities that are doing things no human has ever been able to do before. This is a great popcorn read for those looking for a fresh new world of super-heroics.
Availability: Book Rating: *** Stars (I liked it) Reviewer: Catherine, Cataloging Librarian
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GENRE: Superhero Stories THEME: Evil Corporations (Soylent Green, Skynet, SPECTRE -- well, we all gotta do something that pays the rent.); Missing Memories (Where am I? Who am I? A gap in the main character's memory withholds information vital to the plot. Amnesia in these stories could span a couple of days or years.)
CHARACTER: Flawed; Relatable
STORYLINE: Intricately Plotted PACE: Fast-Paced
TONE: Amusing; Moving
SUBJECT: Bank Robbers; Conspiracies; Friendship; Human Experimentation in Medicine; Identity; People with Amnesia; Power; Superheroes; Supervillains; Support Groups; Women Vigilantes
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