Not Your Sidekick

Sidekick Squad Series, Book 1

By: C.B. Lee

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Welcome to Andover...

where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated.

Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship only it turns out to be for the town's most heinous supervillain.

On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there's the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious "M", who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.

©2016 C.B. Lee (P)2018 Tantor

best book I've ever read, amazing narration

trans girl here, and this story has given me 18 years of extra life by being so cute, charming, awkward, badass, meaningful, and just unafraid to say exactly what it wants to say. I highly recommend this to anyone in minority communities and tired of having to settle for seeing themselves only vaguely reflected in popular media, and especially to anyone in the lgbt community who's tired of having to face constant homophobia, transphobia, and other general bigotry in the stories our community tells. Of course telling stories of that pain is important, but this book manages to be authentic with its lgbt characters without containing potentially traumatic content that far too many of have faced irl, which is really nice when said content can send you into a depressive episode or is otherwise difficult to experience in media that contains it.

I'm so, so excited to continue this story in the next books!

Fantastic Listen

I was all in on this one. The pain of not living up to the family business of super powers. Definitely a hidden gem

Fun super hero romp

Sci fi with lgbt representation. Love it, it's very sweet and good. I love the characters and the tropes are very entertaining

Great story

It was an amazing story,I loved it. I listened to it multiple times. it has a lot of romance at the end.

Not what is expected but

...Enjoyable. Very cute. A little action, mostly focused on the MC and her life as a non-powered daughter in a family and world of powers. Also a lot on her crush and the somewhat predictable relationships which are written beautifully. I'll probably listen to the next book and /may/ listen to the series again. Hope the author continues to bring the story to a conclusion!

Very cute

The characters are likeable, the story is interesting, and the world is unique and fun. The performance is quite good. Unfortunately, plot twists are so heavily telegraphed that it's hard to imagine even young readers being surprised. Still, it's a cute, easy read and well worth the time.

crushes, capes, and second-gen struggles

Hats off to an author who can stretch an adorable-yet-painful painfully obvious secret crush just to the level of tolerable and stick the landing. the characters are wonderful, the worldbuilding is interesting, and the parallel challenges of being a child of superhero immigrants and dealing with two wildly-different, yet powerfully similar, sets of expectations and judgements is great. Pacing varies, but a very fun listen.

AMAZING

I found this book while trying to satisfy my girl love book desire. It's damn well worth the read!

끝내준다.

재미있다. 이 시리즈 더 들어 봐야 겠다. 그리고 언젠가 다시 한번 들어 봐여 겠다.

weak execution and bad pacing

For such a short book, too much of it is trying to be a high school drama about a bisexual girl and her crush on a girl. and I would have been completely okay if the entire book was about that, but there is no conflict whatsoever for this. I can accept that this takes place in a future where lgbt characters aren't hated, but there has to be something going on to prevent these girls apart.

all the conflict occurs in the second half of the book when the writer remembers that superheroes and villains exist and suddenly it's an an action story, and the romance subplot is dealt with. it's a huge tonal shift that feels really forced.

it fails at being a romance story because the romance is too easily won, it fails at being an adventure story because it doesn't properly set up the adventure aspects before the climax. don't be baited into thinking this is a lgbt story, it's a story that happens to have lgbt characters.

Heroes & villains-politics of an alternative world

So many superhero stories are coming out currently, for toddlers to primary schools, adults of course, and here's an example of an upper-teenage read. It's an 'alternative reality' scenario, where powers have developed in an X-Men-like way, with the history the heroes a minor plot threading through the story.

Before teenagers turn 17, any power you have will manifest. Jessica is desperate for any she may have to appear, being the daughter of two superheroes. But try as she might, none seem latent within her. In the shadow of a heroic sister as well as parents, Jessica scouts around for a job and finds a rather mysterious one that means she'll be working for a rather questionable boss. For her world also contains villains...

Add to the mix Jessica's crush on her co-worker and fellow high-school student, Abby, and we have a teen fledgling-relationship story mixed into a superhero/villain set-to.

I preferred the first half to the second, at least until near the end when the action picked up - I think the middle may have sagged a little as I was listening. The world of the heroes is a good one, lots of detail through Jessica's school reading assignments, a cute crush story with two girls (for a change) handled naturally (some lovely scenes as they work together on a school project with feelings under the surface), and a growing understanding in the reader of the situation with heroes and villains and how their world sees them.

Jessica is sympathetic, a teenager surrounded by powerful, confident family members and looking to stand out in her own right. The eventual plot is actually a good one, and my full attention returned when it picked up.

The narrator of the audiobook is appropriate enough, a bright and youthful female voice conveying Jessica's vulnerable but spirited persona. It wasn't a long read. I'm not sure I'll continue with the rest of the series, but I am glad I gave this a listen. Brought a new dimension to the superhero canon.

I would recommend this to ages 14 and above. The relationship content is fairly mature but there is nothing unsuitable graphic.

With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.

good, but very predictable

If you want a solid story to relax to and enjoy, this is the perfect book, but if you are looking to be amazed with unexpected twist and turns, this is not it fam.

loved it, original, funny and well written.

It draws cleverly from all the established stereotypes of super hero stories and has a lot of fun coming up with a new and original twist.

Good superhero story

I think this book would suit young adults, there was nothing graphical in it. If you like superheroes this is the book for you.

This story focused on the superhero story and Jessica’s crush on Abby, there was no coming to terms with sexuality which I think was nice for this story as it didn’t need it.

I enjoyed the narration, it was easy to follow.

You have to listen to book 2 to follow on the story as it didn’t finish in book 1.