Blaze (Or Love in the Time of Supervillains) by Laurie Boyle Crompton (review)

Chauffeuring her younger brother and his soccer teammates is not how seventeen- year-old Blaze wants to spend the precious remaining months of her high school life; she’s rather spend it with comic books, especially the characters she herself draws. Things start looking up when the team’s gorgeous coach starts catching a ride with his players, and Blaze goes overboard trying to win him, ignoring signs of his shallow intentions and her brother’s warnings about his womanizing history. When their brief but intimate relationship unravels, Blaze casts Mark (aka Mark-the-Shark) as the supervillain in her comic, and Mark retaliates by posting indecent photos of her online. Suddenly the focus of vicious gossip and abuse online and at school, Blaze turns again to comics and to an alter ego, The Blazing Goddess, this time in hopes of saving herself. Chock-full of lessons that touch on all the hot-button issues surrounding teens and technology, including sexting, cyberbullying, and slut-shaming, the novel is often programmatic, tipping into afterschool-special territory. Compensations include the book’s playful, if uneven, use of comic-book language and tone and by its effective portrayal of Blaze as a girl who is more than merely the sum of her problems and bad decisions; additionally, her amusing, endearing carpool charges (the “Mighty Cretins”) are serious scene-stealers. Readers trying to balance life’s responsibilities with a desire for independence or those struggling to navigate teen life online will likely find a kindred spirit in Blaze, while comic-book fans might enjoy seeing the art form infuse a non-graphic narrative. Final illustrations not seen.