Miles Morales: Spider-Man

3.5 A reviewer called this 25% Spiderman 75% Jason Reynolds, and that's highly accurate. Lot to love here, and an easy booktalk for teens (our holds list is already long after only 2 talks), but it's not my favorite JR. All the great hallmarks, though: Real characters, complex racial/socio-economic issues, great portrayals of friendship. I'd read more in the series to see where he takes it. As for the audio, though I liked Guy Lockard for his other books, he does a HORRIBLE job with a few voices here. First one by him I had some trouble listening to.

I am so glad this book exists. This is a good book, and this is an important book. It tackles race and privilege in a way that is accessible to younger readers while having layers for older ones.
It is a slow starter but it ramps up at the end. And it is definitely on the nose, and yet with an ending that solid, it's hard to mind.

Quite an interesting premise. I'm sure it's going to fly over people's heads. I like what was done here. I also love how the Puerto Rican culture was highlighted and not erased. Knowing that mom is a decedent of warriors, kings and queens and of a resilient people... imagine the greatness that could be tapped into and the level of super hero that can catapult Miles. If only.

This was great! I'm not too familiar with Miles Morales comics (I don't read a lot of Spider-books period), but this is a perfect starting point for readers who are interested in the character but not sure how to detangle all of Marvel's series. Very fun and #relatable, but since it's Jason Reynolds, there's also some super powerful stuff in there about institutional racism.

Summary: Miles Morales is a sixteen-year-old student at a prestigious high school who is trying his best to overcome a family history that is far from spotless. Not to mention, he happens to be a super hero. Miles decides that he wants to keep his head down and focus on his school work, but something is not quite right at his school, and he realizes that he’s going to have to figure out what’s going on.

Earlier this year, I read and loved Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours by Jim Butcher. I loved the character development, the villain, and the adventure I went on with Peter Parker as Spider-Man. When I saw that Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds was available to rent, I decided to give it a try, as I loved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and wanted to see more of him. Sadly, even though this book has little to do with the film, the novel does not make for a fun adventure with Spider-Man, instead going for a boring week with plain Miles Morales.

Firstly, let me get something out of the way: This book has little to do with the film released a year after this book. Many of the characters that were in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse have either been changed so that they are completely different from their film counterparts (Uncle Aron being far more villainous towards Miles in the book) or are expanded far beyond their original roles (Ganke, Miles' best friend, getting a character as opposed to a cameo in the film). In short, you should take this book as its own standalone story, for better or worse.

With that said, I did not really like this story, as there were very little adventures of Spider-Man here. Instead, Reynolds writes a story about Miles who is experiencing a racist teacher, and his struggle to overcome that hatred. Add to this the B plot of him trying to get a date for the school Halloween dance, as well as the C plot of a long lost incarcerated cousin, and it comes off as a well told, but ultimately underwhelming Spider-Man story. In fact, there are many times where you could write out the scenes of Miles becoming Spider-Man, and much of the story would not drastically change, which, considering what one is expecting, can seem a bit of a letdown.

The main villain of the story is the racist history teacher, Mr. Chamberlain. Miles must sit through Chamberlain's classes, as he talks about the glory of the South, and how it was unfair for them to have lost the Civil War. On the one hand, I like how this villain could have worked. Not every person can be defeated by putting on a costume and swinging your fists. Sometimes, having the strength of a hero relies on taking a more diplomatic approach. However, this villain should have been more of a B-plot villain, with the A-plot villain as one of the original Spider-Man's colorful enemies coming after Miles. Instead, Reynolds does a confusing bait and switch, and makes it seem like Mr. Chamberlain is being controlled by the REAL villain that Miles must defeat. For spoiler's sake, I will just say that the ‘real' villain does not appear until about the last 20% of the novel, and the final battle with him is underwhelming and not deserved in terms of its build up.

Then there are the other characters that just annoyed me in this book, with Ganke being at the top of the list. He is supposed to be the comic relief and mostly works to inject some action and suspense into the novel. The problem is that his jokes are not funny, and he often gets Miles into more trouble than he is worth, coming up with foolish and perilous plans to make extra cash. This makes him seem like a friend that is careless at best, and dangerous at worst.

Now, I will say this for the book: the descriptions of Miles' internal conflict are fantastic. Reynolds leans on his strengths and displays Miles' conflicted feelings over the many injustices that occur with a gravity that made me feel for him. I enjoyed seeing his struggle to become the hero he should be, while reconciling past events he is not proud of. Reynolds also has the characters conveniently studying poetry in class, so he has the excuse to write poems for the reader, which are well done, as I would expect for someone who wrote Long Way Down. In the end, however, it simply feels like this book would have worked better as its own standalone contemporary YA novel, rather than a superhero property that has very little superhero-ing in it. I give it a two out of five.

2.5