e-Audio, 03:53:21
Narrated by: Guy Lockard and Nile Bullock
Release Date: May 2, 2023
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: May 21-23, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Libro FM ALC
TW: Racism
For Readers Interested In: Superheroes, Marvel, Novels in Verse, YAMiles Morales is still just your average teenager. He has unexpectedly become totally obsessed with poetry and can never seem to do much more than babble around his crush. Nothing too weird. Oh! Except, just yesterday, he used his spidey superpowers to save the world (no biggie) from an evil mastermind called The Warden. And the grand prize Miles gets for that is…
Suspension.
But what begins as a long boring day of in-school suspension is interrupted by a little bzzz in his mind. His spidey-sense is telling him there’s something not quite right here, and soon he finds himself in a fierce battle with an insidious…termite?! His unexpected foe is hiding a secret, one that could lead to the destruction of the world’s history—especially Black and Brown history—and only Miles can stop him. Yeah, just a typical day in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This review is going to be short since this is a novel in verse. I just love the way I never feel that Jason Reynold’s novels that are in verse have anything lacking. I usually feel like there’s always something lacking. But this one seems like a full story and I enjoyed it immensely.
Ok so first things first, this isn’t an origin story. Miles Morales is already Spiderman and he already has powers. He doesn’t necessarily like to use them, but he did use them if need be. And in this one he does. He lands himself in ISS and ends with him fighting The Warden. (Who is a weirdo villain in his own right lol) I DID wish there was more than just him being in detention, but I did appreciate that the book was told over just a day’s time. Well for the most part.
I also didn’t exactly care for the fight scene. Idk it’s just weird that it was broken up into the different stanzas, and didn’t give us all the details. I know Reynolds did the best he could, but for the most part it seemed lacking for me. Like everything was reactionary, but not in the moment of them actually doing it. Does that make sense? I don’t know how to explain it.
This short book is also a heavy issue book which surprised me. The heavy issue in this is the banning of books that feature Black and Brown and LGBTQ+ characters. That surprised me even more. But since the Warden is what he is, it made more sense that he decided to go with that. It gave him a reason to want to *ahem* get rid of those books.
This was a cool book that paired illustrations with verse and I really enjoyed that. It was a great way to tie everything together. Especially since the art was beautiful. I found myself reading it and then going back to look at the art again. It was just super cool.
This is definitely going to be one of my faves of the year. I will always read everything from Jason Reynolds, but I will ESPECIALLY always read it because they always pack a punch and have so much meaning. I loved it and I hope you all will too.
Overall, I give this
