Hero by Perry Moore

Thom Creed has grown up all his life in crappy surroundings. His Mom left, and his Dad is a crippled ex-superhero whom everyone despises because his actions led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people. Now, his Dad works three jobs to keep his son fed and supported, and Thom is growing up to realize that he has powers of his own.

Another thing that blights his life is the realization that he's gay, and that this will never be acceptable to his father, who thinks that gay people are unnatural. Worse still for Thom's emerging power of healing, his father will not have the mention of heroes in his house, due to his father's own bad experiences.

As Thom struggles with his identity, and his attraction to Uberman, primary hero of the League, he accidentally breaks his Dad's computer while looking at Superhero porn. His despair at realizing that his Dad will know about his sexuality leads him to try and run away. The bus he's on, though, is hijacked by a group of Supervillains, and in the ensuing fight, Thom is able to save a young mother and child from shrapnel that seriously wounds them. The heroes know what Thom did and invite him to tryouts for the League.

Thom goes, and gets in, assigned to a training group of heroes including Ruth, an old, chain-smoking woman who can see the future, Typhoid Larry, a man whose power is to make people sick, and Scarlet, a woman with powers over fire and a temper to match. Their mentor is Golden Boy, who resents Thom a bit for being stuck with this job. His not noticing that the mother and child were injured is what got him stuck with being a mentor in the first place. And with the angry Scarlett always having a bone to pick with Thom, he doesn't feel much better about being in the group.

But Ruth mentors Thom, helping him to see other uses for her power, such as finding other people in pain or who are sick, and she helps him to see that he can feel emotional pain as well, even getting images of what is causing the emotional pain. She shares her own pains with Thom, and her past as a villain, including what caused her to become one. As his power to heal grows, Thom finds himself befriending Scarlett, and finding the source of her own pain, which he may not be able to help her with.

Thom's personal and sexual life also takes on many strange twists and turns. Thom finds himself attracted to a man named Goran, and trailed by a hero named Dark Hero, whom the members of the League think is little better than a supervillain. But when a chance sexual encounter leads to Thom outing himself as a homosexual on national television, the backlash is incredible... but brings his own Super-powered mother back to him, where she helps him uncover a threat to the world so unbelievable that the only ones willing to stand behind him are members of his training team... even after Thom has been kicked out of the League for his sexual orientation.

Can Thom and his new-found friends take out the real threat that has been killing Members of the League before it revisits the same catastrophe that caused his father, Major Might, to be crippled and destroy his reputation? Or will Thom, too, suffer the same fate as his father?

I started this book only intending to read a few pages before going back to the other book I am reading, but this book sucked me in like almost no other book I have ever read before, and wouldn't let me go until I had finished it. Thom's struggles with home and family, sexual orientation, and superhero abilities kept me reading long after I planned to stop, and kept me reading until I finished the book (about 2 hours, all told).

I cannot praise this book enough. The story is fresh and exciting to read, keeping Thom mired in his own problems and the problems of others without ever becoming talky, preachy or boring. The fact that Thom struggles with everything will enchant kids who love superheroes, are dealing with being homosexual, or who just struggle to be accepted for who they are. This book will appeal to all of the above, but teens who love Superheroes will enjoy this book the most. Even adults who are into fantasy, science-fiction and superheroes will enjoy it a lot.

Despite being a book about sexual identity, there are no sex scenes in the book. Even Thom's masturbation to images of his hero, Uberman is only implied and not described. There is some kissing, even hot and heavy kissing, but not much more than that, so parents need not worry that this book is homosexual soft-porn for teens. I found the story uplifting and wonderful, and I invite anyone who enjoys the themes mentioned above to read this book, knowing they will enjoy it as well.