Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains)

December 10, 2012
Seventeen-year-old Blaze views life through the lens of comic books (she’s a Marvel girl, and her father even named her after Ghost Rider’s alter ego). With Blaze’s mother working all hours and her father having abandoned the family for an acting career, Blaze is overburdened with responsibilities, and obsessively drawing and reading comics doesn’t exactly send the boys running her way. She’s thrilled when her crush, soccer dreamboat Mark, takes notice of her, but he lives up to his bad reputation, and after they hook up, Blaze has to summon her inner superhero to clean up the mess. First-time novelist Crompton handily establishes Blaze as a diehard comics fan who’s not entirely comfortable in her own skin; her funny-crass interactions with her friends and her younger brother make for entertaining reading. What makes the story truly valuable, however, has less to do with comics than with the way Crompton takes on the practice of slut-shaming—the novel forces readers to reconsider the way they treat their peers, especially girls, over their sexual behavior, real or imagined. Ages 13–up. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

January 1, 2013
Geeky girl with absent father and quirky hobby meets unsuitable boy, then realizes Mr. Right has been under her nose all along. Blaze's self-centered father, a caricature, left the family to become an actor, leaving her with only her name (from Ghost Rider's Johnny Blaze) and a love for classic Marvel Comics. Now, Blaze spends her time ferrying her 13-year-old brother Josh and his farting, breast-ogling, gay-joke-making friends to and from soccer practice. She has a crush on Mark, Josh's soccer coach, but their relationship fails to progress until Blaze's friend snaps a picture of Blaze trying on lingerie and sends it to Mark's phone. After a confusing and pressure-filled sexual encounter and Mark's subsequent brushoff, Mark posts the half-naked photo on clunkily named Facebook stand-in FriendsPlace, and it goes viral. The resultant bullying is harsh but believable, and it's satisfying to see Blaze channeling her hurt and anger into making comics and redecorating her Superturd of a minivan. Less impressive, however, are some of Blaze's asides to the reader ("Stuart is one of only three black students in our school....I feel somewhat hip and urban having him here at my house") and the frequent subtle digs at girls being high-maintenance, stalkers, actual sluts and brainwashing feminists. Timely subject matter and an adequate romance, but nothing super. (Fiction. 12-16)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Blaze is a comic book fan and draws them herself. She's a "soccer mom" for her younger brother, driving him and his friends to soccer practice, where she crushes on Mark, the boys' coach, and he is starting to show signs of interest. Blaze and her friends try on sexy lingerie at the mall, and a friend takes a picture of Blaze and texts it to Mark. He gets the wrong idea about her and takes her out. She loses her virginity to him on their first date, and then he never calls her again. Blaze gets her revenge by making Mark the Shark a lead player in a comic book. But when he posts the picture of Blaze, things go horribly wrong and she becomes a pariah at her school. Crompton offers an interesting perspective on how a rumor can affect its victim. Blaze is a likable character, and the snarky dialogue will hold readers' interest.-Melissa Stock, Arapahoe Library District, Englewood, CO

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Grades 8-11 Seventeen-year-old Blaze got her name and her love of classic Marvel comics from her father, who, like herself, is an aspiring artist. While Blaze's focus is comic art, her father abandoned their family to pursue his dream of becoming an actor in New York. In the meantime, geeky Blaze has been busy shuttling her younger brother to and from soccer practice and trying to catch the attention of her brother's handsome but smarmy soccer coach, Mark. After Blaze catches and then promptly loses Mark the Shark's attention, she concocts a revenge plot full of fire and creativity. The novel's pacing is uneven, and readers will anticipate many plot turns, including Blaze's poor choices. Still, Crompton explores popular territorybullying, finding oneself, and overcoming mistakesand her title will help fill the dire need for books about girls whose interests transcend gender stereotypes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)