Emily
Very fun. I don't read a lot of modern superhero comics but this was recommended by a friend. My friends who like Superman say there are some really solid stories to read about him, that do him correctly, since he's kind of a hard character to make interesting. This book focuses a lot on the kids who's family is being harassed by the klan, and a nephew of the local klan leader's (though this uncle is clearly a father figure) who's conflicted about the situation.
Per the back of the book, this story originally was done as a radio show in 1946. So any comments crying this is “woke” are nonsensical, because apparently he's always been this way. The back of the book has a brief history on how and why Superman would be a POC ally (tl;dr: he's an alien and his creators are Jewish. Duh).
I really like that the villain, before you know for sure what his role in the story is, starts off with some really sound advice for his nephew - before completely going overboard and revealing to him that he's the grand scorpion for the klan. That and the fact that his nephew struggles internally so much with trying to rationalize what his family does and says, because it's bad stuff; but he's only ever seen them as good, loving people before this. People can have good shades to them while still doing or endorsing terrible things.
Superman also starts off not having all his powers, because he wasn't originally designed with all of his modern powers, which I liked. I hear DC does a lot of “let's do the origin story again!” so I don't know if this angle is common for his stories, but I'd sort of forgotten that he used to be described as “leaping a building in a single bound” and now he flies.
Two entries in here did not feel properly edited - one had font that was incredibly small and difficult to read, and the other had pacing/dialogue done so poorly I could barely understand what was going on (I ended up skipping that one after a bit, unfortunately.) That said, the other six stories were very fun and pretty. Favs are probably Rougarou or Into The Darkness.
It's okay. Just okay. The flashbacks to the carnival are the best sections, for a LOT of reasons, the biggest one being that MOST of the characters in those sections are likable. The main character in the present-day plot unfortunately is not, and neither is his sister that he's so worried about. The big twist of the book (That the curse isn't affecting women in his family, but anyone who takes on the "mermaid" carnival role, meaning it can affect male water performers as well, and Simon becomes the curse target once he joins his sister's troupe) is guessable when you're about 1/3 of the way through. So after that point, the mystery becomes “how do all the pieces fit together?”
The carnival flashbacks were a lot of fun, though, and enough to make me say this is just “okay.” But if you want a mystery to keep you guessing, this is not it.
Recommended to me when I asked for books about starting meditation that don't have a religious angle. Going to assume the person who recommended this hasn't actually read it. Maybe two minutes was spent on actual instructions on how to meditate. That's not the reason for the two-star rating, but I'm trying not to do negative reviews in general here, so I'll end it there. This book wasn't for me.If anyone's looking for a book on secular meditation, I found [b:Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book 34962306 Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics A 10% Happier How-To Book Dan Harris https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509153842l/34962306.SY75.jpg 56237226] to be more helpful, personally.