A fun, action-packed mystery with a superhero twist.
For Carmen, family reunions were all about safe-cracking and adrenaline-fueled escapes from the city's fanciest high-rises. That's just par for the course when your biological mother's a melodramatic supervillain and you've been raised by two of her most loyal henchmen. But after Carmen tries to prove herself in an unauthorized mission, she's unexpectedly fired and shipped off to high school. After years spent incapacitating grown men with nothing but a scrunchie, eleventh grade is a definite downgrade. Until a student drops dead.
Determined that her criminal career can't be over at the ripe old age of sixteen, Carmen dives back into the city's underbelly for the investigation, rubbing elbows with villains and heroes alike. If she can solve the mystery, her mother will have to reinstate her, especially if she is truly being framed like Carmen suspects.
But the deeper she digs, the more she wonders: Am I protecting my mother from being framed? Or playing right into her hands?
Quarter Finalist
Assessment:
Plot: Stewart delivers a whip-smart, humor-filled, and surprisingly tender YA novel about complicated family and the realities of supervillainy.
Prose: Stewart writes in a crisp, witty, and immediately engaging prose style that effectively establishes voice, setting, and provides a fun, distinctive story.
Originality: While supervillainy is an oft-explored topic, Stewart brings a fresh sensibility to the story through its exploration of estranged familial relationships and what it means to belong.
Character/Execution: Stewart nicely contrasts Carmen's normal life spent immersed in "the Company," with the more mundane circumstances of high school. Carmen's voice is wry, crackling, and refreshingly candid. A cast of distinctive, vivid central and side characters round out the well-dramatized story.
Date Submitted: August 19, 2020
